Why did you buy golf cart batteries when they were so inferior.

[Capt Clark]

Why all the Fuss?

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Capt Clark

Why all the Fuss?

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by koyote

I'm curious about your usage. I'm redoing an outboard powered (also curious about your 5hp) Catalina 27 for lower bay cruising and right now there's nothing but a $30 2amp shore power charger and 2 mostly dead dual use batteries. (the electric start on the outboard isn't even hooked up!)
some of the lights work, some don't. depth finder and a vhf. I'd like to get a small fridge on there (even if powered only half the time) and a bit more light, a tough book (or tablet) and the basic phone/tablet charging regime.

I know the bristol is a "bigger" little boat than the Catalina, but I'm curious what you have running for amp hours usage. I was planning to put on 200 watts (one flat and one movable), a decent charge controller, and a couple really decent LA batteries in that empty engine bay I have. (maybe hook up the starter, too)

we're out in the yeocomico right now, hoping to spend some anchor time in the bay and river systems and get away from the docks a bit until we get the tartan working.

I haven't looked at the amp hours.

My two 220 AH Golf Cart Batteries are providing power to my inverter, lights, autopilot, depth, VHF, computers, phone charging, hand held VHF charging, bilge pump, and fans. (one DC and one AC)

I usually run at least on fan all night.

My solar panels as mentioned above are one 65 watt and one 50 watt.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

Nobody has mentioned what happens to your T shirt and jeans when you perform the simple job of lead acid battery maintenance of adding water.
It was always a surprise to see damage to my clothing when I was being very careful not to splash anything or touch the cases without washing my hands immediately afterward.

The savings in clothing alone is just one more reason to switch to LFP.
My maintenance consists of yearly checking of battery connections.
"Yep, still tight!"

Ha, ridiculous.

The maintenance on my Golf Cart Batteries is a yearly check to add water.

That's it!

No need to check the connections if the voltage looks good under load.

As far as the crazy idea that "Lead is Dead," that's just that the OP has found something that has impressed him but forgot about all the uses of lead acid batteries.

Maybe in 10-20 years Lithium might catch up to the many uses of lead acid batteries.

[GrowleyMonster]

I am a past e-boat repowerer and owner. I elected to go with GC-2 golf cart batteries from Sam's Club, 8 of them in series, for $85 each as my propulsion bank. They lasted me nearly 8 years. I would say that was money well spent for a 10+kwhr bank. There are "better" batteries, yeah. Not at that price, no. Over the time I had them, I think they were extremely cost effective. Cost per year per kwhr was definitely cheaper than any other battery type and I didn't need a BMS. I did have to keep the electrolyte levels up, and do an equalizing charge every once in a while, which I did manually with a Variac and a rectifier from an old welding machine and the apropriate meters. "smart" chargers are designed partly by lawyers and very few will deliver a true equalizing charge because there is always some dumdum out there who will walk away and have a sammitch and a beer or three while his batteries are turning into sulfuric acid and hydrogen gas volcanoes. Idiots should not do batteries that require actual maintenance.

As a retired seaman I could tell you a story or two about electric forklifts and their batteries. They are brutes that can tolerate years of abuse and disuse due to engineers being clueless about maintaining FLA batteries, and then brought back to life with a few equalizing sessions. I am sure that similar batteries once used in the telecom industry are nearly as good. Where performance really falls off for these super heavy duty FLA batteries is when you try to draw current that is a significant fraction of the capacity in amp/hours. That is where more modern types really shine. But forklift and telecom 2V cells are not as widely available as golf cart batteries, nor as cheap per kwhr. They do beat the pants off of ordinary "marine" batteries, though.

There is no point in arguing about it. The best bang for the buck in readily available batteries for those who know how and are willing to maintain them, is golf cart batteries. For those who prefer a hands-off approach, nearly anything is better than a FLA bank.

[lateral]

"For those who prefer a hands-off approach, nearly anything is better than a FLA bank."
Only if you are electrically dumb or have shallow pockets.


My FLA's (watered kind) bank I replaced at 7 yro because they were:
1. Too slow to charge.
2. Too hard to keep at 100%
3. Smelly and needed cleaning, watering and equalizing periodically.
4. Didn't satisfy my closet geek.
5. Didn't have same safe usable capacity.
They were marine grade 4x 6V endurants, so don't know how they compare with golfcart. Except 4 times price.
They did provide good service and were somewhat idiot proof but to replace with SLA would have been same cost as LFP.- so, no brainer.
I'm not going back to lead. Except for start, which could be LTO. But that is an insurance no-no here.
What ever satisfies the inner you.
I don't trust info that has "absolute" connotations for complex variability of performance. Time will bring out the anomalies.

[smj]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

I am a past e-boat repowerer and owner. I elected to go with GC-2 golf cart batteries from Sam's Club, 8 of them in series, for $85 each as my propulsion bank. They lasted me nearly 8 years. I would say that was money well spent for a 10+kwhr bank. There are "better" batteries, yeah. Not at that price, no. Over the time I had them, I think they were extremely cost effective. Cost per year per kwhr was definitely cheaper than any other battery type and I didn't need a BMS. I did have to keep the electrolyte levels up, and do an equalizing charge every once in a while, which I did manually with a Variac and a rectifier from an old welding machine and the apropriate meters. "smart" chargers are designed partly by lawyers and very few will deliver a true equalizing charge because there is always some dumdum out there who will walk away and have a sammitch and a beer or three while his batteries are turning into sulfuric acid and hydrogen gas volcanoes. Idiots should not do batteries that require actual maintenance.

As a retired seaman I could tell you a story or two about electric forklifts and their batteries. They are brutes that can tolerate years of abuse and disuse due to engineers being clueless about maintaining FLA batteries, and then brought back to life with a few equalizing sessions. I am sure that similar batteries once used in the telecom industry are nearly as good. Where performance really falls off for these super heavy duty FLA batteries is when you try to draw current that is a significant fraction of the capacity in amp/hours. That is where more modern types really shine. But forklift and telecom 2V cells are not as widely available as golf cart batteries, nor as cheap per kwhr. They do beat the pants off of ordinary "marine" batteries, though.

There is no point in arguing about it. The best bang for the buck in readily available batteries for those who know how and are willing to maintain them, is golf cart batteries. For those who prefer a hands-off approach, nearly anything is better than a FLA bank.

A little reality check, golf cart batteries aren’t $85 a piece anymore.

[argonauta1]

Yup, golf car batteries are cheap and reliable. Oh they do need water about every six months; more if you overcharge them but they are otherwise bullet proof. Forget the 16 years or even 8 years. For a 24/7 cruiser expect 2 to 3 years that is about it but cheap to replace. Sorry but when we were out there, no one seemed to have heard of forklift batteries. Certainly not us but golfcarts were so easy to get.

[Shanachie]

Originally Posted by smj

A little reality check, golf cart batteries aren’t $85 a piece anymore.

No, eight years later, they are $119.88 at Sam's Club.

[smj]

Originally Posted by Shanachie

No, eight years later, they are $119.88 at Sam's Club.

Pretty close to the cost of lithium

[Shanachie]

Originally Posted by smj

Pretty close to the cost of lithium

Cheap lithium. I don't know anything about lithium, but those who claim to know on CF say there's a world of difference between the good stuff costing $800-1,000 a battery and the cheap, unbranded stuff from China that you can pick up for a song.

[smj]

Originally Posted by Shanachie

Cheap lithium. I don't know anything about lithium, but those who claim to know on CF say there's a world of difference between the good stuff costing $800-1,000 a battery and the cheap, unbranded stuff from China that you can pick up for a song.

$120 for a golf cart battery would be considered “cheap golf cart”. Apples to apples?

[smj]

Originally Posted by smj

$120 for a golf cart battery would be considered “cheap golf cart”. Apples to apples?

And for the most part, even the high dollar lithium is Chinese based.

[Davo666]

My Admiral tells people to use Lithium.
She's a psychiatrist.

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Ha, ridiculous.

The maintenance on my Golf Cart Batteries is a yearly check to add water.

That's it!

No need to check the connections if the voltage looks good under load.

As far as the crazy idea that "Lead is Dead," that's just that the OP has found something that has impressed him but forgot about all the uses of lead acid batteries.

[B]Maybe in 10-20 years Lithium might catch up to the many uses of lead acid batteries.[\b]

What rock have you been living under for the past two years? 10-20 years for LFP to catch up to Lead Acid? Price of lead based batteries has increased 30% over last couple years while price of LFP have decreased by approx half while features and form factor have greatly expanded to make them appropriate to a rapidly increasing array of use cases. The only domain for lead acid batteries was high-draw starting applications. There are now several LFP batteries designed to do just that so the handwriting is on the wall there too.

If you can get away with watering your batteries annually, you are either not using them or they are declining and you just don't know it. Certainly anyone using lead acid batteries in a warm or hot climate needs to check water level monthly.

You can keep your lead acid batteries for a while. Right next to your collection of incandescent light bulbs and DVD player.