What to look for in a new starting battery?

[sparky27]

Can anyone give any advice on what I should look at when buying a new starting battery for a boat. Brands or cold cranking amps,or amp hours. any advice would be great.

[marine_man]

The higher the MCA (marine cranking amps) or whatever your rating of choice, the better, as are the higher the amp hours the better.

Excide (apparently some walmart branded batteries are exide if you look at the label), Interstate... for a starting battery it's tough to go wrong.

If you motor is a Direct Injected or EFI motor you'll want 1,000 MCA to make sure you won't have long term cranking / running problems since they draw significantly more amps than a non efi/dfi engine.

marine_man

[BobT]

I think a lot depends on how you plan to use the battery. If you're going to use it strictly for starting the motor, you don't need reserve capacity. If it will be supplying lights, sonar, console, etc., then you'll want some reserve capacity. As marine_man mentioned, be sure that whatever you buy it has enough power that it doesn't have to work too hard to start the motor.

Bob

[Charley]

Get one that is on sale. Not that difference.