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all right we've got another question from a fellow Boulder um this one is actually from Melissa Melissa says Jeff I boat here in the winter in the Pacific Northwest um and I'm not cruising so my boat is at the dock and onshore power so that makes sense most of us have our boats not winterized in the Pacific Northwest but just sort of just idling by waiting for us to be ready to go um and check the lead acid on the bow thruster battery so Melissa goes on and says notice some white corrosion on the post and the water level was low still covering the plates though which is good um yeah so what are the issues or concerns that that might happen well um one thing to think about is that um when we're actually on Shore power for a very long time that also means that our battery chargers are on Shore power for a very long time and charging a battery is a fine line between under charging and overcharging and finding that perfect balance is honestly always elusive because a battery changes what it needs based on its temperature and many of the battery chargers might have temperature compensation but they don't have it to each battery so in any effect you're you're really always charging a battery as best as you can but it's never perfect and that's a really good thing to remember because it comes into play in the winter time when boats are connected to shore power forever it is possible for a battery charger to be over the line or under the line and if you see your battery and it also depends on the age because everything's complicated of course but assuming it was a brand new battery and your water level was low after a year of having it or a half season of having it connected to shore power and a charger that might mean that maybe the voltage settings on the battery charger are maybe a little too high so that would be one issue flip side though is if the battery is aging it is possible as our batteries age that they have an inability to take the same charge before without heating so batteries will tend to heat as they take a charge even a small one and that heating over time I guess it some gets worse and so as our batteries age and get older we need to be on top of fluids I.E topping them off so the plates are never ever exposed that's a big No-No um and so good on you to catch it before the plates were exposed and the other thing too was a concern about oxidation oxidation is a real threat um no one should assume that our electrical connections on our boats are were perfect and hence will always be perfect specifically on the negative posts of batteries you're going to see a lot of corrosion on the negative post so I invite all of you to maintain those posts to clean them make sure they have a good connections now the flip side is it can get pretty bad so it really depends we don't have a picture here but on some instances you know like the corrosion is just awful so if the post is swappable then swap the post sometimes that's not even possible the post is part of the battery and the corrosion is pretty extensive um and if someone was going to keep that battery then I'd really keep a look on the fluids and then the flip side is you know what a great way to test the Thruster battery is to try your thruster now you don't ever want to have a low voltage situation on your bowel Thruster battery when the bow thruster is working um that's terrible a low voltage could mean that your Thruster motor will have low voltage and enhance High current going through it and that might actually cause failure so you want to definitely when you test your bowel Thruster or Stern Thruster you want to make sure that you have a volt meter connected to the battery bank and so as you're applying a load you want to know it's like having a heart rate monitor you know you're pushing yourself you're running up a hill whatever it is that you're doing you're looking at your heart rate and you're gauging can I sustain this well um if the same is going to happen with voltage on a Thruster battery if the voltage goes below 10 God forbid um you know under load that's still low at the Thruster you're going to want to have a higher voltage than that because the thrusters have a really hard time working on too low a voltage and it all depends on the manufacturer they're all going to have the ranges that stay within the range um and that would be a way to test the battery and make sure that that Thruster battery has enough voltage under load so that you're not going to ruin the Thruster and many of us don't have that feature it's just often overlooked or we just assume that the Thruster battery or Stern Thruster battery are going to have adequate voltage under load so those are all things that to think about um and don't forget all of you out there if you have flooded lead acid batteries and if they're hard to reach or they're in very difficult places you still have to check them out that's just part of it I've been on boats where we remove batteries to see other batteries and that's it there's no way around it you've just got to go through and maintain your flooded levels on your battery post so they never get exposed all right um great question for Melissa and thanks for all of you for watching if you've got further questions please send them in and safe voting out there to everyone cheers so if you're curious again go on our website and find out more answers and solutions with this sort of setup and thanks for asking and thanks for all of you for listening and tuning in