Are deep cycles always needed?

If you run your boat almost every weekend and keep it on a trickle charger when not being ran is a deep cycle battery needed? This question is just for the cranking battery....with a 25hp Yamaha.

Yes because on a boat you want as much reserve power as possible because of accessories running off of the cranking battery which run without the outboard running.

No accessories what so ever...just used to start the motor. Nothing else.

Not necessarily for just starting. You want a battery that has high capacity and releases that power quickly to fire the engine. I recommend to stay with a battery designed for marine environments. They have a heavier case and are designed for the extra vibration.

Stowaway Exides from academy is all you need.. I have 2 on my boat for cranking/accessories for 2 years now and no issues. My last set were the same thing, and lasted 6 years.

Never ending battle, deep cycle are for low amp pull at a continued constance draw, and a staring battery is for max draw for short burst

plus on the charging side, deep cycle batteries are designed to take a low amp charge compared to a starting battery that accepts a high amp charge

I will respectfully add that it depends on the brand of deep cycle battery. There are true deep cycle batteries that need a very high charge rate in order to stay healthy. Charging them at a low rate will cause sulfation of the plates. Always follow the manufacturers recommendation.

Marc

For the longest time, I ran a walmart car battery to start my 90hp motor, and never had a problem. But I didn't have a lot of electronics or pumps running off it. When I upgraded to a larger motor, I put deep cycle in to run pumps for the live well.