Best House batteries recommendation

[Ssgritton]

What do people recommend for house batteries, mine are getting weak. I want to be able to dry camp for a few days and boon dock when I want. I do have solar power, most important to me is maintenance free also.

I'm looking to upgrade to a residential fridge.

[ron930cab]

Since coach was new in 2004, on my third set of Lifeline AGM's and had a set of Deka AGM's in between. The Lifelines held up better. Here in Arizona, batteries don't do well setting out in the heat with no shore power. Only get about 3 years life on any of my cars or coach batteries. My coach has been stored inside on shore power the last 3 years and batteries seem to be doing a bit better from a lifetime perspective.

[WinnieView]

Costco 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries, usually less than $100 each with core.

[smlranger]

AGM are truly maintenance free. Lifelines seem to be the gold standard. I got 5 yrs out of a set of Full River AGM 6 volt and recently recently replaced them with Lifeline 6 volt AGM.

[vsheetz]

Sams Club has a Duracell AGM that I've seen good comments about.

[pumper9x9]

I have Life Line, 3 yrs on those so far, and I'm happy with them. If you plan on keeping your coach for a while look into Lithium. In another 2 yrs I will probably be taking a hard look at them for a number of reasons. Weight, charge cycles, and depth of discharge. They're not that cheap but they should last you at least twice as long as AGM's and probably longer. You may have to change to an inverter that can handle Lithium batteries. Good Luck

[CountryFit]

Originally Posted by pumper9x9

...If you plan on keeping your coach for a while look into Lithium. In another 2 yrs I will probably be taking a hard look at them for a number of reasons. Weight, charge cycles, and depth of discharge. They're not that cheap but they should last you at least twice as long as AGM's and probably longer. You may have to change to an inverter that can handle Lithium batteries.

^^ Here. 3.5 years still no sign of weakening.

[deandec]

My four Costco Golf Cart batteries with 420 A/Hrs seems to cost about $110/year for House battery power.

[Rsponsford]

Depends on your definition of “best”. Best performance or best value. The law of diminishing returns applies here. I’m very happy with the six Costco 6V’s GC batteries I installed in place of the 8D’s. Six was maybe a little overkill but the space was there.

[vsheetz]

Originally Posted by 2008Seneca

Costco 6 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries, usually less than $100 each with core.

...most important to me is maintenance free also...

[vsheetz]

Originally Posted by deandec

My four Costco Golf Cart batteries with 420 A/Hrs seems to cost about $110/year for House battery power.

...most important to me is maintenance free also...

[twinboat]

Thinking about it, I just bought 2 new house batteries for my Axis. It came with tiny 40 AH batteries

Couldn't fit GC2s so I shoe horned in 2, 100 AH, GP31 Sams Club deep cycle batteries.

They cost me $220 for the pair. If they only last 2 years, that's less then the cost of one tank of gas per year.

That's not a bad deal for dry camping a whole bunch of travel nights, as we drift south for the winter.

[Smitty77]

I'll add my $.02, and keep the change!

If you want to spend the most money, for probably the highest possible efficiency and speed of recharging while Boon Docking - Lithium. I currently like what I read about LifeBlue (Look for 757driver's post in the Entegra owners area of the board. He did a nice write up.).

If you want to spend less money, and still have maintenance free, and still have somewhat faster charging capabilities then conventional wet - then AGM's. I went with X's 4 Lifeline L16's for 800AH's. They fit in the same foot print as the two 8D's I was replacing. But I had the headroom for their higher heights. I also feel Fullriver's are worth comparing costs wise to Lifeline's. That being said, I have had outstanding support from Lifeline, and I feel they treated me better then then I ever expected - the I had some self inflicted problems with my first bank of Lifeline's. A stand up company, with a good product.

That's my input! Best of luck to you,
Smitty

[becks]

My six year old Lifeline's are still doing fine. Will replace with same when needed.