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Sailshabby · 01-09-2018, 16:10

Looking into new AGM house batteries and came across Northstar, who makes a “skinny” SMS-AGM battery with the same aH as the old fashioned AGMs. Sales guy said they need a special charging regimen, but was unable to elaborate. Anyone have experience with them?

Thanks.

Nicholson58 · 01-09-2018, 16:31

Most marine charging devices have user selectable charge profiles to handle a variety of standard batteries.

john61ct · 01-09-2018, 18:08

Yes, competitor to Lifeline and Odyssey, make good product.

All charge sources should be adjustable, tweak settings until properly coddled as per mfg specs.

FLA is much cheaper, more robust, easier to coddle lasts longer,

only use AGM if you really need to, or happy to pay lots more $/AH/year for the lower maintenance.

Paul L · 01-09-2018, 20:37

I had two of those Northstar telco style AGMs. They both failed within a year and had nothing but run around BS support from the manufacturer.

sailinglegend · 02-09-2018, 02:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by john61ct

Yes, competitor to Lifeline and Odyssey, make good product.......

Check your facts please! These Northstar AGMs are 'automotive' products not marine deep cycle batteries.

They are 'dual purpose' batteries providing good CCA for starting and some cycling for lights and ignition (SLI- starting, lights and ignition).

All AGMs are good starting batteries but good deep cycling batteries are very different in construction with much thicker plates, so a compromise 'dual purpose' battery of any make or construction does neither very well, especially the deep cycling which is what you really want.

These Northstar batteries are advertised as for 'marine....' on motor craft only. No wonder PaulL's only lasted a year.

john61ct · 02-09-2018, 16:21

I was only commenting on the maker, not the specific batts.

Sorry I did not make that clear.

They do make quality AGMs designed for deep cycling, check out their Blue+ line.

The founder and TPPL tech came out of Enersys.

Paul L · 02-09-2018, 19:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by john61ct

I was only commenting on the maker, not the specific batts.

Sorry I did not make that clear.

They do make quality AGMs designed for deep cycling, check out their Blue+ line.

The founder and TPPL tech came out of Enersys.

Have you used them? How long?

Even if they were good, their service was so poor I would not buy from them.

Delfin · 02-09-2018, 20:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sailshabby

Looking into new AGM house batteries and came across Northstar, who makes a “skinny” SMS-AGM battery with the same aH as the old fashioned AGMs. Sales guy said they need a special charging regimen, but was unable to elaborate. Anyone have experience with them?

Thanks.

Had a 1280 amp, 24vdc bank for 10 years with no issues. Like all LA batteries, they require a very long taper to fully charge, which I always did so got great service from them. Replaced them with LiFePO4 not because they were failing, but because I wanted to reduce charge time and no LA chemistry allows for that other than carbon foam's tolerance for PSOC.

No, they don't need a "special" charging regime, although read their technical stuff and adjust bulk and float accordingly.

And no, they aren't automotive batteries. They were originally developed for backup power needs of cell towers, although their line has expanded to provide configurations for a great many markets.

john61ct · 02-09-2018, 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul L

their service was so poor I would not buy from them.

Yes I have seen your posts saying this

You are the only one to report anything negative out of hundreds of positive reports.

Along with Lifeline and Odyssey, those are the top three AGM makers in the NA market.

Quoting Maine Sail: Northstar and Odyssey are excellent quality AGM batteries and both fended off sulfation better than even Lifeline did, in the PSOC testing, even after the Lifeline was equalized.

More here: https://forums.sailboatowners.com/in...choice.124973/

Paul L · 02-09-2018, 21:05

So you are enthusiastically endorsing a product to the OP with no actual experience with it or the companies handling of warranty/support issues. M
Just some in depth Google research. Nice.

Delfin · 03-09-2018, 17:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul L

So you are enthusiastically endorsing a product to the OP with no actual experience with it or the companies handling of warranty/support issues. M
Just some in depth Google research. Nice.

On this and other subjects....

sailinglegend · 03-09-2018, 23:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by john61ct

.......They do make quality AGMs designed for deep cycling, check out their Blue+ line..... ..

Yet again your Google research has failed you. These Eurobat design batteries are standby stationary applications, they are not designed as House batteries on a boat that regularly falls of three metre waves.

Not all AGMs are the same!

Please stop posting opinions without proper research or personal experience of the product. You are ruining many good threads on here.

You need some moderation, but unfortunately the moderation process allows differences of opinions however incorrect those opinions may be.

Delfin · 04-09-2018, 06:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailinglegend

Yet again your Google research has failed you. These Eurobat design batteries are standby stationary applications, they are not designed as House batteries on a boat that regularly falls of three metre waves.

Not all AGMs are the same!

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that concern, although since mine were in a trawler and not subjected to much ocean bashing, I can't comment. One thing I did notice that might be relevant to the OP... In looking at what Northstar calls their Marine line, an 8D size that has a 20 hour 228 amp capacity costs $1,028 + shipping, at least from their West Coast supplier. To replace the 1280 amp 24 vdc bank I had would have cost north of $12k, but I installed about the most expensive LiFePO4 option available - Lithionics - that has equivalent usable capacity to my prior AGM bank for about the same money, and I am finding the Li performance to be so far superior to lead acid that I really wonder whether AGMs, even if a bit cheaper than these, make sense anymore. Regular flooded LA, no doubt, but expensive AGMs? Others report rolling their own Li bank for much less than I spent, so if you want a science project, it seems you can get better for less when comparing AGM to Lithium.

john61ct · 04-09-2018, 07:03

Maine Sail has repeatedly recommended Northstar, speaking of them in the same breath hundreds of times as Odyssey and Lifeline.

Might be fair to say only buy the former if the latter two are in your location more expensive or difficult to source.

That Blue+ line were the specific ones he chose to test for his Practical Sailor PSOC research,

**if indeed** they are unsuitable for marine use, my apologies, but I did not specifically recommend them, just said check them out.

But I'm certainly not taking your word on anything to so with Northstar, as I believe you're not objective on that topic.

Obviously best bet is to contact their tech support and ask, MS has stated they are responsive and well informed.