Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Battery life - Full time cruising - Cruisers & Sailing Forums


Old Today, 09:12 ? #1

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Battery life - Full time cruising


So how long have your batteries lasted?

Please only reply if you are full time cruising, Looking to gain information on real life everyday use, not dockside live aboards or weekend use.

Please reply with make/model and lifespan.


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Old Today, 09:16 ? #2

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


My first lot were Elecsol AGMS and lasted about 6 months full time use, not very good.


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Old Today, 09:32 ? #4

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


A very important component of battery life is the care the skipper takes. That makes answers to this question somewhat moot. Recharging, checking water levels, etc. is very important to battery life. Some skippers have solar, some generators, some only engines. It's really a hard question to answer the way you put it. With good maintenance, well over 3 years should be the norm, easily.

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Old Today, 09:34 ? #5

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


Gel batteries lasted 5 to 7 years.

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Old Today, 09:41 ? #6

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


I bought 6 marine deep cycles (85 ah) from costco for $480, 510 ah total and this is my house bank. Solar and windgen, never run the diesel for charging, well maybe 10 times in the last 3 1/2 years. I wasnt sure what to expect from them but they've been great. I checked the fluid in them for the first time a couple months ago and added a pint total. When they do die I wanna add more ah's, so I'll look to see what better value is available. I have reefer, auto pilot, LCD/DVD tv, stero, LED nav lights.

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Old Today, 09:41 ? #7

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A good lead acid battery will give you about 5 years of service under good conditions. I have seen some last 7 or 8 and some only 2 but 5 is the rule of thumb.

Where I work we have started using SAFT batteries instead of lead acid an they are projected to last over 10. One issue is the newer batteries pull a crap ton of amps when recharging compared to lead acid. If your charge rsystem is not up to the extra load many headache may result.

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Old Today, 09:44 ? #8

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


How many ah's were those AMGs and what did they cost?

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Old Today, 10:43 ? #11

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


Had a pair of Trojan L-16's on my last boat that were used hard for 3-1/2 years (often more than 50% discharged) cruising anchoring most of the time. After that they still had enough life for liveaboard and weekend cruising for another 3 years. They never died catastrophically, but the capacity was very low at the end.

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Old Today, 11:22 ? #12

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


Varta starter 10 years.

Hella deep cycle 3+ years, Tudor Leisure 3+ years.

I bet the Hellas had some potential but I killed them with solar charging.

b.

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Old Today, 11:41 ? #13

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


With lead acid,full time cruising how often are batteries equalized?I do mine every 3 or 4 months.Not sure if that is too much or not.With regular charging,I try to get into float more than once a week.

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Old Today, 11:41 ? #14

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising


Quote:

I bet the Hellas had some potential but I killed them with solar charging.

How so? No solar charge controller and thus frequent overcharging?

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Old Today, 12:04 ? #15

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Re: Battery life - Full time cruising



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