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Choosing the right battery for your boat can be very confusing, especially if most of your experience is involving cars. There are also a lot of helpful people that will give you wrong information about batteries, it's not their fault, this is a long-standing problem even among some battery sales people. Let's examine the difference between the regular marine battery, the deep cycle battery for marine use, and the AGM marine type battery now.

Automotive Batteries Will Start Your Engines Fine

The problem with using a car battery in your boat is that they're constructed differently inside. Boats tend to slam into the waves hundreds of times per hour and a car battery isn't made to take the hits.

If you were to open up the two types of batteries you would immediately see that the lead plates are laid out differently in each of them. The marine battery is built to take a constant pounding at wildly different angles as the boat goes vertical one minute and horizontal the next.

You'll also see that there are spacers and supports separating the plates in the marine style battery that helps keep them apart. Once they touch, that part of the cell is shorted out and dead. A car battery won't have the spacers or the extra support because it doesn't need them.

A Deep Cycle Marine Battery Is Different As Well

A deep cycle battery is made to run appliances like refrigerators, radios, and microwaves or run electric trolling motors. These uses draw low amounts of power over long periods of time. If you run a deep cycle battery all the way down, it will still take a charge and not be ruined like a regular battery would.

The difference between the "marine" deep cycle and a regular deep cycle is again, the supports for the plates inside so it can take the beating of being on the water and pounding the waves. Other deep cycle batteries are used in solar applications, golf carts and computer backup UPS devices.

An AGM Battery Is Built To Take Up Side Down Use

AGM stands for "absorption glass mat" and that's because there are mats, similar to fiberglass, built into the battery between the lead plates. These batteries are slightly more powerful that regular batteries and can also handle being completely turned upside down during usage without spilling or harming the battery.

These batteries are especially good when used in applications where the vehicle will be in many different positions, like boats, ATV's, 4 wheel drives, and airplanes. The military is especially fond of then because many military uses involve off-road driving and they need a dependable battery at all times. Regular batteries are prone to leaking and the battery acid is especially bad for electronic components that could be ruined by just one spill.

Now that you can see the differences between the different batteries you can understand why people get so confused. When you go into the battery store it's important to explain the exact uses that the battery will be used for in order to get the right one for your application.

#TheMarineBatteryAndItsDifferentConfigurationsExplained

It was a long time dream of mankind, to move through the air like a bird without a care in the world. Orville and Wilbur Wright are accredited with the first sustained flight in a controlled vehicle that was heavier than air and the rest, as they say, is aviation history. Since those exciting times, incredible engines of flight have been developed, both for war and for peace, with the ability to travel at amazing speeds. Relatively recently in our history, we have such wealth and leisure time that some of us use flight as a hobby and an enjoyable way to spend recreation time.

Although aeroplanes are still quiet expensive, even for a small one, there is one outdoor activity that is interesting both marine and on-shore enthusiasts. Hovercrafts are not that new. After first being invented in the UK in the 40s, it seems that designs existed decades before. It's just that the technology and engines didn't exist in those times. Air cushioned vehicles (ACV), as they are sometimes called can't really be called an airplane, because it doesn't raise high enough from the ground, but it doesn't actually touch the ground either.

Full sized and small hovercrafts float on a cushion of air pressure which is generated by a propeller mounted vertically underneath an engine. Downward thrust is assured by a skirt which contains the air pressure until it slowly leaks away underneath the hovercraft. The same principle powers all crafts, even the personal hovercrafts used for leisure purposes. In smaller versions, one engine provides vertical and forward thrust by re-directing air flow downwards and backwards.

All sizes of these vehicles are steered by pivoting hinged flaps behind the rear air flow, and so pushing the rear of the craft either left or right. Hovercraft used for sport racing must be very light and are mostly made from glass fiber, with various other types of flexible material used for the skirt fixed around the hull. One problem with the skirt is that it can become damaged by trailing over sharp rocks or other obstructions. Although a hovercraft will float several inches above flat ground, it will not raise up over a relatively small obstacle in it's path.

In recent years manufacturers have employed new materials, causing hovercraft prices to come down a lot, just because so many younger people are looking to buy a personal hovercraft for leisure and fun. Some vehicles now have very robust hulls, which don't split easily, using high density plastics instead of glass fiber. Skirt material is also much tougher - it can't be ripped easily when pulled, and the whole skirt arrangement is made up of smaller sections held lightly together, so that if a section is damaged it can simply be replace very cheaply.