New starting battery

[fishinalot]

I'm buying a new battery for my 40 merc, I do run the d-finder and the livewell but not the trolling motor. Will a Marine starting battery keep up to the livewell and d-finder while I'm not running the motor for several hours? or am I better off buying the Deep Cycle/ starting battery?

The guy at NAPA said the starting marine battery is built to charge faster, but also is made to drain faster.

I'm replacing my battery because I fried my voltage regulator and I am replacing the battery that I had in it ( a Deep cycle/starting battery )

Thanks

[8-Ball]

Get the Deep cycle/Starting one. That way, if your trolling motor battery goes out, you could hook it to your Deep/Starting battery and not drain it way down. Since you are also hooking up your graph and livewell to your starter battery, it would not drain as fast if you had the dual purpose Deep Cycle/Starting type battery... would hold charge longer also.

[Whoaru99]

The amount of time the battery will provide current depends on the load and on the amp-hours of the battery.

Regardless of the type of battery (starting, deep cycle, or starting/deep cycle) they will run the system for the same length of time if the load is the same and if the batteries have the same amp-hour rating.

The difference is that the starting battery innards will wear out faster if used in frequent discharge situations. Whereas frequent discharge situations are the forte of the "deep cycle" battery. The starting/deep cycle is between the two in this regard.

It would seem then that deep cycle would be optimum, but generally pure deep cycle batteries are not recommended to use as a starting battery. Not exactly sure of the technical reasons behind that.

[fishinalot]

Thanks for the responses. I did call a local marine mechanic and he told me that the starting battery is the better choice because the charging sysytem off the outboards are more sensitive and need a battery that will except the charge easier.

He said that the starting battery would loose the amps a little sooner, but would also charge the battery to a full charge quicker as well. He also told me that the D-finder and livewell would keep up fine.

So today I did pickup a marine starting battery and it does seem to turn the motor over much quicker (cranking power) then the Deep Cycle/ Starting battery did.

He also mentioned that it may have been the reason I fried the Voltage Regulator on the motor because that style(Deep Cycle/starting battery) does not except the charge as easy as the regular starting battery.

Well, we will see out it works out!

[fivebucks]

You should be just fine with a starting battery. I get 5-6 years on my starting batteries and I run my live well, electronics, and bilge pump on it and have never drained my battery.

[Whoaru99]

Ditto.

Only this year did I have a starting problem - not really unexpected, I guess, with a 7-year-old starting battery. Mine also runs everything except the trolling motor.