Do not boost battery while installed sticker

[MikeM8560]

has anyone tried one of these all my boats has one seems a good idea to isolate the battery on the ski too

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=32965

 

[Chester]

My 2 cents...
When you see a CAUTION sticker, it means that you may damage mechanical components. The Do Not boost sticker on your Sea-Doo is a warning sticker. This means that if you boost the battery while installed, you risk explosion due to the possibility of gasoline fumes igniting or hydrogen gas igniting. When a lead acid battery is charging, it gives off hydrogen gas that is highly explosive (think Hindenburg). All it takes is one little spark, when connecting or disconnecting the booster, to ignite hydrogen gas or gasoline vapours (kaboom!).There is nothing wrong with using a car or power pack to boost a Sea-Doo battery as long as you follow precautions. Never boost from a running vehicle. Never boost with and automotive style charger. Always connect red cable first to the dead battery and then to the car battery, then connect the negative cable to the car battery and the other end the Sea-Doo engine block. I work out of my van as a mobile PWC technician and, while I do carry a new battery with me all the times, it's always easier to just pull out the power pack. A power pack is nothing more than a 12V battery inside a fancy case with various accessories and therefore will not cause any damage to the mpem. I have been boosting PWC batteries for as long as I've been a PWC technician (over 22 years). This is the exact power pack that I currently use.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-eliminator-powerbox-2000-0112028p.html#srp
It has a power switch to turn off/on the power to the booster cables. I hook up the cables, turn on the switch, start the Sea-Doo, turn off the switch, and disconnect the cables. Very safe.

On a side note, in the late seventies when I was in high school taking Automotives, I went for a week of work experience at a heavy duty shop that worked on Caterpillars. There was a mechanic trying to start a forklift and the battery was dead. The shop foreman brought over a battery charger/booster and hooked it up to the forklift battery. Let it charge on boost mode (high amperage) for a few minutes and then tried to start it. The forklift would start and then die as soon as the cables were disconnected. The shop foreman reconnected and tried again. This went on a few times until the battery exploded due to the sparks caused each time he disconnected the cables. Acid was all over him. Luckily he wears glasses and his eyes were protected.

Chester

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Hey sportster that explanation was amazing. You must be an electrical engineer...

Yes, I have a bachelors degree in electronics.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

I have plenty of experience where this doesn't work, primarily because a 5 amp fuse doesn't actually blow at 5 amps, until many seconds later. The instantaneous amperage can be hundreds of amps, dropping to around 40 amps after about 10 milliseconds during the process of blowing. I have seen this kill many fairly robust diodes. That is why I said that the primary cause of this type of failure is reversal of power.

So we agree, too much system voltage will cause damage to the diode. I think many have discovered their diode avalanched at a much lower voltage than the device specification, though. Perhaps Seadoo agrees, they even placed a sticker on the ski warning not to boost the battery (define boost?).

I disagree a 5A fuse will take many seconds to blow.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

When a lead acid battery is charging, it gives off hydrogen gas that is highly explosive (think Hindenburg). All it takes is one little spark, when connecting or disconnecting the booster, to ignite hydrogen gas or gasoline vapours (kaboom!).

Chester

This is a great point, the battery will produce hydrogen and that can become a safety hazard. Unlike gasoline vapors, hydrogen is lighter than air, although ventilation in a bilge still isn't great.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

has anyone tried one of these all my boats has one seems a good idea to isolate the battery on the ski too

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=32965

Yes, we used to use those for outboard engines a lot. The max current is limited to 100A though so I'm sure it's insufficient for all cranking systems and you may discover it doesn't meet your needs.

There is another type that's a little more robust I think, it mounts to the top of the battery on one of the posts.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

us there a issue usibg a 1.25 amp battery tender ?
https://www.batterystuff.com/all-products-by-brand/deltran/BT-021-0128.html

\ive always had one on my motorcycles that sit a lot between use if there is a pronlem I suppose you could install a battery switch like In a boat to disconnect the battery allrogerher then turn on the tender but id want a small switch

This image shows voltage during a brief discharge cycle (about 12V with the load for a minute or two) followed by switching to a recharge using an Battery Tender 800 automatic charger.

This charger stopped charging in this case, at 14.5V and switched to float.

 

[wfo speedracer]

Years ago I used a boost box on a 1996 Seadoo speedster that luckily or unluckily (depending on how you look at it ) I owned, the boat cranked up fine however the negative lead to the boost box hopped off of the battery when I revved up the engines, when it did the voltage spike took out the diode in my brand new MPEM, I was able to send the MPEM to Rapair and have the diode replaced for about $300.00 , since then I haven't used boost boxes on Seadoo watercraft, once bitten twice shy !

 

[benjilafouine]

In my field of work (computers), some people say that it is better to keep your computer running all the time and some will say that turning it off every night will save the components... Never saw the difference although I saw once in a while a power supply going bad when you hit the power switch.

A few years ago, I had a computer that was turned on for months (a server). I did a shutdown just to move it a few feet away from its original location and when I hit the power button to turn it back on, it was dead. Had to change the PSU. Go figure why that one broke suddenly just at the time I shut it down and tried to power it back on.

I am just mentioning that because we can't really reproduce issues with our skis (not that we would want to do that). We just know bad things happen and maybe that one time "jumping" of the battery just precipitated a failure that was just about to happen.

Just to be on the safe side, I do not boost the battery anymore with a power pack (but did it once, didn't help and did not fry the MPEM) and avoid any charge that has more than 2 AMP.

Benji.