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all right we've got another question  from a fellow Boulder  um this one is actually   from Melissa  Melissa says   Jeff I boat here in the  winter in the Pacific Northwest  um and I'm not cruising so my boat is at  the dock and onshore power so that makes  sense most of us have our boats not  winterized in the Pacific Northwest but  just sort of just idling by waiting for  us to be ready to go  um and check the lead acid on the bow  thruster battery so Melissa goes on and  says   notice some white corrosion on  the post and the water level was low  still covering the plates though which  is good  um yeah so what are the issues or  concerns that that might happen well  um one thing   to think about is that  um when we're actually on Shore power  for a very long time that also means  that our battery chargers are on Shore  power for a very long time  and charging a battery is a fine  line between under charging and  overcharging and finding that perfect  balance is honestly always elusive  because a battery changes what it needs  based on its temperature  and many of the battery chargers might  have temperature compensation but they  don't have it to each battery so in any  effect you're you're really always  charging a battery as best as you can  but it's never perfect and that's a  really good thing to remember because it  comes into play in the winter time when  boats are connected to shore power  forever  it is possible for a battery charger to  be  over the line or under the line and if  you see your battery and it also depends  on the age because everything's  complicated of course but assuming it  was a brand new battery and your water  level was low after a year of having it  or a half season of having it connected  to shore power and a charger that might  mean that maybe the voltage settings on  the battery   charger are maybe a  little too high so that would be one  issue  flip side though is if the battery is  aging it is possible as our batteries  age that they have an inability to take  the same charge before without heating  so batteries will tend to heat as they  take a charge even a small one and that  heating over time   I guess it some  gets worse and so as our batteries age  and get older we need to be on top of  fluids I.E topping them off so the  plates are never ever exposed   that's  a big No-No  um and so good on you to catch it before  the plates were exposed and the other  thing too was a concern about oxidation  oxidation is a real threat  um no one should assume that our  electrical connections on our boats are  were perfect and hence will always be  perfect  specifically on the negative posts of  batteries you're going to see a lot of  corrosion on the negative post so I  invite all of you to maintain those  posts to clean them make sure they have  a good connections now the flip side is  it can get pretty bad so it really  depends we don't have a picture here but  on some instances you know like the  corrosion is just awful  so if the post is swappable then swap  the post sometimes that's not even  possible the post is part of the battery  and the corrosion is pretty extensive  um and if someone was going to keep that  battery then I'd really keep a look on  the fluids and then the flip side is you  know what a great way to test the  Thruster battery is to try your thruster  now  you don't ever want to have a low  voltage situation on your bowel Thruster  battery when the bow thruster is working  um that's terrible a low voltage could  mean that your Thruster motor will have  low voltage and enhance High current  going through it and that might actually  cause failure so you want to definitely  when you test your bowel Thruster or  Stern Thruster you want to make sure  that you have a volt meter connected to  the battery bank and so as you're  applying a load you want to know it's  like having a heart rate monitor you  know you're pushing yourself you're  running up a hill whatever it is that  you're doing you're looking at your  heart rate and you're gauging can I  sustain this well  um if the same is going to happen with  voltage on a Thruster battery if the  voltage goes below 10 God forbid  um you know under load that's still low  at the Thruster you're going to want to  have a higher voltage than that because  the thrusters have a really hard time  working on too low a voltage and it all  depends on the manufacturer they're all  going to have the ranges that stay  within the range  um and that would be a way to test the  battery and make sure that that Thruster  battery has enough voltage under load    so that you're not going to ruin the  Thruster and many of us don't have that  feature it's just often overlooked or we  just assume that the Thruster battery or  Stern Thruster battery are going to have  adequate voltage under load  so those are all things that to think  about  um and don't forget all of you out there  if you have flooded lead acid batteries  and if they're hard to reach or they're  in very difficult places you still have  to check them out that's just part of it  I've been on boats where we remove  batteries to see other batteries and  that's  it there's no way around it you've just  got to go through and maintain your  flooded levels on your battery post so  they never get exposed all right um  great question for Melissa and thanks  for all of you for watching if you've  got further questions please send them  in and safe voting out there to everyone  cheers so if you're curious again go on  our website and find out more answers  and solutions with this sort of setup  and thanks for asking and thanks for all  of you for listening and tuning in