Can I use a car battery charger on a marine battery?

[GILow]

Originally Posted by hamburking

. Its not rocket science. Done right, your battery(s) will last for years.

Done wrong it IS rocket science, albeit of the very short lived exploding kind.

I like the description of boats environments being “kinda explody”

[a64pilot]

He is charging the battery in a beach hut, whatever that is, but it doesn’t sound like a boat.
Never, ever use a car charger in a boat, your asking for stray current if you do.
However in a beach hut a cheapo Charger is fine, just buy a cheap timer to turn it off at 8 hours or so, so it won’t overcharge.
I still have my Sears “Deep cycle” battery charger from the 80’s, it had a timer on it and an amp meter. Idea was you turned it on, after a minute or two read the meter that was graduated in hours by battery group size, set the timer to the hours indicated on the meter.
Worked great, still does for jobs like this.

[knot smart]

My charger has different settings. A setting for "wet","AGM" and I forgot the other.. Also settings for amps.. 10amp 2amp.. I'd say you first need to ascertain what kind of battery you have. Is it a wet lead acid or an AGM. Your standard charger is for a wet lead acid battery. I don't know the ramifications of putting a wet lead acid charger on an AGM.. I'm sure someone on here will.

[Martkimwat]

OR, you could do as I have done, and use lithium golf cart batteries which usually come with their own battery charger. Cost around £250 on Ebay. I bought two and each one gives me around 45 minutes of run time with my 55Lb pull electric trolling motor. I keep one charger at home and the other on the boat.

[Squanderbucks]

Another consideration is that home car chargers typically do not have anti reverse current diodes in their circuit. Hence if power goes off or it is turned off and left hooked up the charger will brain the battery.