Time was battery chargers on boats were large heavy ugly affairs that hummed a lot and produced huge amounts of heat. Not only that but they were very expensive too and only the largest boats tended to have them. Luckily things have moved on from those not too far off days and now we have beautifully compact units that do not use tons of electricity that is wasted as heat. Better yet the newer units, the smaller ones anyway, are pretty much fully water resistant if not waterproof thanks largely to their fully 'potted' electronics which are encapsulated in some form of resin. One such unit is the Turbo M106E from Powermania. Cost is a dollar less than the full eighty and at a shade under 5 pounds the weight is non issue. The makers claim that it is capable of charging a single battery bank of up to 72 amp hours but this I feel may be a little optimistic as bringing a large battery up to full charge takes amps and time and this may be where the 106 E falls down, however to be fair I have not seen or tried one as yet so cannot report on the makers claims with any authority. This is not a 'battery maintainer ' type of charger but a proper three stage unit offering bulk, absorbtion and float profiles so it should be safe to use on even expensive marine deep cycle batteries. User selectable for AGM, Gel and flooded cell types this charger would seem to be ideal for smaller boats like center consoles and dailsailers that have one or two group 24 batteries.
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