Your battery and charging system decides whether the boat starts, whether the fridge stays cold overnight, and whether the electronics stay on. BoatWired designs, installs and repairs battery and charging systems for Chicago boats, sized for how you actually use the boat.
Sized for weekend boating
Most Chicago boats are used hard on weekends and sit at the dock during the week. That pattern shapes the system: enough house capacity for a night or two on the hook, a charger that brings the bank back up on shore power, and charging that keeps the starting battery separate and ready. We look at your loads and habits before recommending anything.
What we install and repair
- Battery banks: house and starting batteries, cabling, fusing and switches, with properly secured and ventilated installations.
- Shore power chargers: multi-stage chargers matched to your battery type.
- Alternator charging: regulators, battery isolators and DC-DC chargers so the engine charges every bank correctly.
- Inverters and inverter/chargers: AC power away from the dock.
- Solar: panels and controllers to keep batteries topped up at a mooring or between weekends.
- Monitoring: shunt-based battery monitors, so you can see the actual state of charge instead of guessing from voltage.
Winter is hard on batteries
Months of storage in a Chicago winter kill batteries that are left discharged. A flat lead-acid battery can freeze, while a charged one won't. Before layup we can make sure batteries are fully charged and isolated, and set up a maintainer or a plan for winter charging. In spring we test the bank before launch, so you find out about a weak battery at the dock and not on the lake.
Thinking about lithium?
Lithium (LiFePO4) batteries can be a big upgrade, but in Chicago they need cold-weather planning. See lithium battery conversion.
Request a quote and tell us about your boat, your batteries and how you use it.