CF Members Survey - Batteries Used Currently - 2019

[AB808]

6v T105’s in pairs for 12vDC, FLA, deep cycle. So far seem to take a lot of abuse >4 years so going.

[JKMilligan]

I’m in the vast minority....12v gels. 629Ahr house (2012). Single group 31 for start/windlass (2009). Replacing all over the next month and will stay with same.

[Jes]

With a fridge, anchor winch and bowprop in our sailingboat (Med) we replaced two Fiamm (Hitachi) Powercube EHD 140Ah (FLA type starting battery). It's not a bad battery, but they are heavily used. After three seasons capacity was reduced to <70%. Because we needed a deepcycle battery and a peakload performer, we have selected a semitraction FLA battery (Centurion). These batteries are mainly in use by transporterships on the rivers (Rhine).
Since most battery manufacturers are providing more effort in sales promotion than in technical specification, the performance of most batteries are not known in advance: so pick the one with best commercials???
(And for all those fantastic stories about batteries with an endless lifetime: start using them or measure their real performance)

[marty9876]

I’m in the odd duck group also- new 3x gel g31 house bank (Napa branded East Penn/Deka) and an AGM g27 West Marine I think that came with the boat for a starter.

[exMaggieDrum]

I have LiFePO4 for house and Optima AGM for start.

[ABJ87]

2 Deka 80ah AGM batteries in parallel for 160ah at 12v. Installed in 2010 still good when removed (Moved to camper-van).

Cheap auto zone “marine” start battery just replaced this year.

Replaced them with two 90 ah Duracell from sams club this year.

Researching lifepo4 batterys to replace when we start full time cruising in 2021.

[Adventure35]

2 Deep Cycle Flooded House Batteries
1 Optima Blue Top Deep Cycle (AGM) Starting Battery

[MVDarlin]

12 Optima AGM for house, 2 for start, and 12 100 watt solar panels..

[Kit_L]

4 x 6V gel house

2 x 12V heavy duty marine sealed lead acid start and winch duty

2 x 200W solar panels; Manson controller

Eventually I would like to go to a single battery type and at present, could not say what that will be. The two x 12V SLAs are new; the gels are two years old and were in place when we bought Seabiscuit.

[botanybay]

24v bank of 6v 2200xc by us battery, 4s2p configuration. Currently 5 years old, survived two deep discharge (but short duration events - shore power interrupted by workers on other peoples boats using my power... now locked. Victron chargers using "storage" mode

Prior bank made 6 years. Older ferroresonant charger from 1990 which came with the boat.

Prior boat had 12v bank 2s3p of golf cart batteries which made 6y and 7y, in both cases batteries still serviceable but prepping for an offshore trip, replacing was cheap insurance - freedom 20 inverter/charger

I generally discharge to 10.5v once a year to verify capacity on house bank.

Start bank is AGM for main (lifeline 24v 2xgroup 31) generator is AGM (lifeline 12v group 31), these are all 9 years old and getting long in tooth. No charging other than alternator on respective engine. Probably should have a small charger to keep topped up but dont.

I monitor minimum terminal voltage of starting batteries once a year and watch for trends using zero hold function of the same volt meter.

[KTP]

We have 1500 amp hours of Lifeline AGM, twelve 125AH batteries organized into 48V @ 325 amp hours.

Really easier to say 18kWh at the 20 hour rate.

Cost was about $400 each, so $4800, with free shipping.

Cycling 100 times a year or so I expect 5 years out of them but will replace with Trojan Trillium LFP at some sooner time I hope. Would like 30kWh.

[Davo1404]

2 by 100 amp Trojan 12v fla. 1.5 years old

[Ambler]

2 x 6volt Fullriver 415ah AGM for house bank and an AGM spiral cell 12volt battery for engine start. Almost 5 years old and going strong

[sailorxyz]

6x Trojan T105's (FLA), 900AH. 2 x 12V FLA's for 24V engine starting.

[pbmaise]

The original owners of my vessel went insanely overboard with a huge house battery bank and two big engine starting batteries next to the engine.

As a consequence the house batteries never fully charged on the solar and the engine batteries died too often from the heat.

I reduced the house to just two 200 Ah truck batteries and eliminated the engine starting batteries. This meant my solar could fully charge the house batteries, no engine battery to die.

My back up plan for starting if the house was somehow compromised was my portable generator.

Overall this greatly reduced the total battery weight and reduced operating costs.

With the newer big solar panels, and low Wattage lighting there should be no need for a big bank. A fridge and freezer needs to only run during the day.

Total cost for new batteries was less than $500 USD and life was about 3.5 - 4.5 years. Someone just above me listed a cost of $5,000 USD.

One nice thing about buying newer dry truck batteries is being able to manually add the acid after positioning the battery. This greatly reduces the weight that has to be lifted up onto the vessel since almost 1/2 the battery weight is liquid that comes separately.