Are Trojans that much better?

[kbudd]

I am replacing the house batteries in my boat. I have decided to go with flooded golf cart batteries. I can buy Trojan T-105s foR $150 each and generics (Duracell) with the same capacity and the same weight from Sam's club for $80 each. Are the Trojans worth almost twice the money? Will they last twice as long ? I will be charging them with an externally regulated Balmer alternator and a Xantrex trucharge shore power charger. Any advice greatly appreciated.

[onestepcsy37]

Did exactly that. Replaced four six year old Trojan T-105 with four Duracell golf cart batteries from Sams Club. They are now four years old so at half the price I think I'm ahead of the game.
Much more important to take care of the batteries, as a friend of mine who destroyed a couple of two year old Trojans discovered.

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by kbudd

I am replacing the house batteries in my boat. I have decided to go with flooded golf cart batteries. I can buy Trojan T-105s foR $150 each and generics (Duracell) with the same capacity and the same weight from Sam's club for $80 each. Are the Trojans worth almost twice the money? Will they last twice as long ? I will be charging them with an externally regulated Balmer alternator and a Xantrex trucharge shore power charger. Any advice greatly appreciated.

I have 2 RVs, one with 4 GC batteries, one with 6. I use them pretty heavily in the winter, but they just sit, getting trickle charged from May 1 - Oct 31. I think the long periods of sitting are the worst on them, but I get 5-6 yrs out of them before I feel it's time to get new ones.

I always buy the Costco batteries, used to be made by Johnson Controls, now made by Interstate. This has been my experience, and I've made very mistake in the book early on - letting the batteries go dry, leaving them discharged for long periods, etc.

I'm not going to say anything about Trojan, since I've never used them, I'm satisfied with 5-6 yrs of service at $80-90 ea.

[a64pilot]

If it were $10 bucks a battery more, I'd go with the Trojans, but almost twice the price?
I wouldn't

[jeepbluetj]

The last set of Costco GC batteries lasted 7 years in my RV. The boat's going on 2, and they're fine.

I'd save the money and get the cheapies. Yes, the trojans are better batteries. But not twice as good.

Treat them right, you'll get well over 5 years out of the Sams Club ones.

[ReMetau]

Wow $150 for the T-105s? I bought a new set of 6 about 4 months ago in Florida for $95 each.

[sailjumanji]

Do some Google searches, but I am 90% certain that what you will find is that Sam's Duracell batteries are actually made by Deka, who is a premiere battery manufacturer. Duracell slaps their own label on them. Not all Sam's carry the Duracell line, as we cannot get them here in Texas. I had three Deka 105 AGM's in my cat for twelve (12) years before two of the three died just last year. I replaced them all with the same Deka model which I had to cough up a little over $200 each here in Houston because no Duracell available in Texas. I have solar panels and a three-stage MPPT controller, and the shore power charger is three-stage as well. So maybe the originals were in optimum environment. But at 12 years of service, no way I was going to buy anything but Deka-manufactured battery. (And I did consider a road trip to Destin to get some Duracells!)

[OnTour]

Just bought Trojan T105's in Florida for $100 each. $150 is too much.


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[colemj]

The Trojans will not last twice as long as the Duracell's. However, like others have noted, the Trojans should not be twice the price.

Mark

[sailorboy1]

I'm got 4 of the "Duracells" and they are working just fine on their 5th year. There's only a couple of battery manufacturers and they are all competing for the golf course business so they are all pretty much the same.

So get the ones that are less expense for you and easier to get.

[onestepcsy37]

The Duracell batteries sold by Sams here in Central Florida are stamped "made by East Penn". They have a good reputation.

[MVNoPlans]

Trojans are at least 30% more expensive here in the PNW than the Costco batteries. If that is close to true for the OP, I would go with Sams/Costco 6 volts.
They have been good to me.

[sailjumanji]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

The Duracell batteries sold by Sams here in Central Florida are stamped "made by East Penn". They have a good reputation.

Yep, East Penn is the manufacturer of the Deka line as well. My comments regarding the Deka brand is based on my own experience with Deka AGM's. Being used on a sailboat. I realize now that you guys are talking flooded batteries. I haven't used one of those in a boat in 15 years.

[kbudd]

Originally Posted by MVNoPlans

Trojans are at least 30% more expensive here in the PNW than the Costco batteries. If that is close to true for the OP, I would go with Sams/Costco 6 volts.
They have been good to me.

I can't find Trojans for anywhere near $100 around here. $150 is the cheapest I could find. Although that is without a core exchange. The Sam's club are $85 with core exchange. They will take my old 12V Gp31 AGMs for exchange but the Trojan dealers will only take 6V golf cart cores. Sam's also has the 6v golf cart in AGM version for $179 with exchange. I think I am going to get a couple of the flooded Sam's club batteries and see how they work. Thanks for the opinions.

[belizesailor]

Short answer: good quality batteries aren't cheap.