Our boat has two Group 24 deep cycle batteries with 140 min reserve. I also have a Guest 1, 2, Both, off battery selector switch. As we have an outboard motor with alternator (6 amp) and therefore do not need a starting battery. The batteries are to power lights, instruments, etc .. only and are charged using a Guest Charge Pro 3 stage electric charger and when the Outboard engine is running. Charge goes into whichever battery is selected on the battery selector switch. Last Fall while motoring two hours back to my mooring I had the battery selector switch on BOTH to put some charge in each battery. It was cold and wet and I did not turn off the instruments (Speed, Depth, Chartplotter, VHF) on leaving the boat. The next weekend on arriving I had two completely discharged batteries. Temperatures were +5C and above in the intervening week. I motored to the club where we were racing and then plugged in the battery charger for just over an hour and we had sufficient charge to race on Battery 1 for 2.5 hours and some time at dock listening to stereo before that charge started to run out. Then I plugged in charger and started recharging batteries. That was last week of season and the batteries appeared to be fine I have been since told that once a battery is fully discharged it will never be the same and may be ruined. I have left the batteries aboard all winter and approximately every six weeks plugged in the Guest 3 stage charger to keep them topped up. They never seemed to become discharged. This past weekend I measured the voltage and each seems to be at 14 volts. They had not been charged for a period of two weeks and the stereo had been on for a bit Am I correct in assuming that these two batteries were not seriously harmed by the complete discharge last Fall? Note that they are 2 and 3 seasons old. Mike Nut Case
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