AGM Deep Cycle Charger Recommendo

So I splurged and bought an Optima AGM Marine Deep Cycle battery for my trolling motor on the little sailboat. I figure if I get knocked down the AGM will survive being dunked in the lake. Now I need a charger and I know AGMs have more delicate charging requirements, so do any of you guys have recommendations on a good fire-and-forget charger/maintainer? I want something I can connect when I bring the boat home and forget about until I'm ready to head to the lake again without worrying about it overcharging or overheating the AGM. Something that will charge it and then maintain it correctly.

I've been looking at the Optima Digital 400 since it's their charger and will do what I want, but $110 for one kind of hurts my feelings. OTOH, the battery was $$ and if I never have to worry about it being discharged when I need it - it might be worth the dough.

This thread is relevant to my interests.

What about putting a solar panel on the deck to maintain the charge?

I use a CTEK 7002 (their part #56-353) to recharge AGMs all the time. It's brought back a few heavily discharged Optimas. It also has a maintenance setting if you want to leave it connected, but I haven't used it for that.

For the stuff that spends large amounts of time sitting in the driveway more than on the road (i.e. our winter beater Durango) I use a solar panel to keep it charged up. I use one of the VW ones from ebay that had the OBD2 connector. It's just a matter of cutting off the OBD2 connector and wiring the leads up to something like a cigarette lighter adapter or some quick disconnect leads for a non-OBD2 application.

Interesting. The CTEK has almost the exact same features and form factor as the optima unit. I'd bet they're the same contract-manufactured unit under the skin. It's also about the same price.

The CTEKs are great. Not cheap, but cheaper than getting stuck with a dead battery. Dunno what pictures you're looking at, but that Optima charger looks nothing like a CTEK 7002.

AGMs don't discharge when they're disconnect. Simply putting a kill switch on the battery for when the boat is in storage should keep it happy.

The smaller of the two chargers on the linked page is the 400 (on the left) - it's the same smaller, oblong shape as the CTEK and even some of the button labels are similar. Reading the manuals, the charge steps and profiles are VERY similar, almost identical - I image they just redesigned the outer case for the optima and added a few more gizmo lights.

The battery comes out of the boat between sails. I use it on a trolling motor to get in and out from the dock and for trailering. It gets some use every trip out, and it's my evac propulsion to get in when the wind dies. With no actual motor on the boat (it's a 14' dinghy), there's no source for charging while in use. So basically, I discharge it every time but I need a way to charge it back up between uses.

I have and love the CTEK 7002.

I've got the CTEK 7002, I'm not seeing any similarity with that Optima Digital 400 case at all. There are some fundamental differences such as the digital display as well. I like the displays on the Optima, though - it's much more verbose.

I have the CTEK because it plays well with the Odyssey batteries. If that's a new Optima, you'll be shopping for Odysseys soon If it's an older one, you're good.

heh, yeah, I gave up on the Optimas in cars a while back, but I'm hoping the blue top marines are better. Plus, I had a coupon. And, holy crap, the comparable Ody is over $300.

So maybe next year...

Keep us up to date on how it works. Hopefully the blues are good.