House Battery Options?

[DunesView]

I have been chasing problems ever since our Diplomat came back from Cummins to repair a couple of problems. My problem? I did not turn off the inverter and I'm sure that the house batteries ran down before I thought to call them and have them plug it in. SO - I pulled all 4 of the 6 volt Interstate's out and have been charging them one-by-one. I got to the last one and it's toast. So my question is..............what is your favorite battery for the house? I do not want to change the configuration. I've taken pictures of all of the cabling and want to replace with roughly the same type/power. What I'm replacing are 4 6 Volt Interstate Deep Cycle. The rating on the top is 122 @ 75 amp and 232 AH.


Thanks for your suggestions!


Beth

[xydial]

I love it! Did exactly the same thing last November at the body shop.

Replaced batteries with an equivalent Duracell battery from Sams Club.

https://www.samsclub.com/sams/durace...lp_product_1_3

There is a lower priced unit but does not have the same capacity as my old batteries.


Good luck

[Monaco Wolfy]

I used Trojan T-105's on our old motorhome. To my surprise, they lasted nearly 12 years. I plan on buying those again, as soon as the Interstates in the Windsor go bad.

[Searching_Ut]

I’m running 4 of the same batteries xydial is running. Got them on sale for a great price, so far they have taken quite a bit of abuse without showing any issues. Duracells are made by deka being the same as the gc15s. Costco now carries Interstate batteries and tend to have competitive prices. Personally, I prefer the cheap simple flooded batteries for this sort of application, some however prefer to switch to AGM batteries for the lower maintenance requirements.

[Rsponsford]

I’ve been happy with the 6-6volt GC batteries I installed from Costco. Can’t beat the price and they are true deep cycle batteries manufactured by Interstate.

[stinespool]

We went with Trojan T-105. Had Them 8 yrs. Didn't get nearly that long out of Interstate's on the last rig.

[vsheetz]

I instalked sux of the interstate batteries from Costco early last year. Working quite well. We dry camp a fair amiuntvas well.

Would buy again.

[SmokyPond]

Ditto on the Duracell batteries.

The previous owner of my coach installed Superlex batteries in 2011 and he put Thermoil demisting oil in the batteries. Those batteries lasted until last year. They consumed very little water and the battery compartment and connections showed no sign of corrosion.

I got my Duracell SLIGC115 batteries from Batteries Plus as it was the best price around at the time. The batteries just came off the truck on a pallet when I arrived to pick them up. As it was near the end of March, they even had a 4/18 date code.

So far I've been more than happy with them. Note that I also installed the Thermoil product.

Around here, the Trojan T-105's cost exactly twice as much as the Duracells. If the Duracells do as well as the Superlex batteries, I'll be ahead of the game!

[Dtwallace]

I've heard nothing but good things about the Trojan T-105's batteries, but my replacements came from Batteries Plus.

The batteries I purchased (Duracell batteries, same as Smokeypond) were slightly higher amperage than the ones that came with the coach, and I had enough room to add two more.

Bottom line, I'm very satisfied with my purchase and so far would recommend the same to anyone.

[DunesView]

Thanks everyone, for the posts! I have talked to Batteries Plus up in Valparaiso. They said they'd have more by the end of the week, so maybe we'll try them this time.

[JFNM]

Originally Posted by DunesView

Thanks everyone, for the posts! I have talked to Batteries Plus up in Valparaiso. They said they'd have more by the end of the week, so maybe we'll try them this time.

Also... The Batteries Plus website offers a 10% discount if you purchase online and then pickup in the store.

[ZackMan]

Originally Posted by SmokyPond

Ditto on the Duracell batteries.

The previous owner of my coach installed Superlex batteries in 2011 and he put Thermoil demisting oil in the batteries. Those batteries lasted until last year. They consumed very little water and the battery compartment and connections showed no sign of corrosion.

I got my Duracell SLIGC115 batteries from Batteries Plus as it was the best price around at the time. The batteries just came off the truck on a pallet when I arrived to pick them up. As it was near the end of March, they even had a 4/18 date code.

So far I've been more than happy with them. Note that I also installed the Thermoil product.

Around here, the Trojan T-105's cost exactly twice as much as the Duracells. If the Duracells do as well as the Superlex batteries, I'll be ahead of the game!

We have the same Duracell deep-cycle 6-volt batteries. I purchased eight of them last September 2017 from Batteries Plus (4 for residential refrigerator and 4 for house). There have been no issues with them. This past winter, I removed all eleven batteries from the motorhome and put them on chargers. The other three, for engine and generator starting, are also deep-cycle Duracells (12 volt).

I have learned that constant monitoring of the batteries is key to longevity. In my opinion, it is work but saves on cost.

I'll need to look into the ThermOil De-Mister oil.

[DunesView]

Update! So I have had faith and been charging the old Interstate 6V's that were pretty dead. One at a time on a 6V charger, it took over 4 days. I wasn't going anywhere anyway Before uncabling the batteries, I called Xantrex. Someone named Wendy walked me through the menu looking for any problems. She determined that our inverter had at least one problem and also advised me not to to anything with the GFCI circuit that wouldn't work until we got the inverter fixed. She made a repair ticket and forwarded me to their repair facility in Elkhart! After being 'counseled' by Richard that it's not that big of a job, I removed the inverter and drove it over to them for repair. It was there that we met Richard in person and Shawn, our repair tech. What an amazing person he is! So he took our unit and ran a couple of tests on it while we waited standing behind him at his bench. He immediately found that the charging board was fried! So we left and he gave us an estimate of the next Tuesday that he'd have it fixed. So we ran back Tuesday and picked it up. I was still charging the batteries, so I had at least another day before I'd be ready for it, but was so thankful that he was able to repair it so fast. Cut to the end................I got it installed yesterday and the batteries were ready. I plugged in the coach and turned on the battery switches. It immediately jumped into 'charging' mode, then later 'absorption', and eventually last night, 'float'. YEY! Oh also, the GFCI is now working fine. Thanks to Wendy and also another post on this forum that alerted me that the two problems were one in the same.


So now everything inside is fine. Out to the alternator that is not charging. I have an appointment up in Hudsonville, MI at Speed Wrench. As this is where we are from and since we've used them before, I fully trust these guys with whatever they have to do to get our motorhome fixed! I am hopeful we'll be back on the road soon!


Thank you everyone for all of your help and suggestions!

[Rsponsford]

Thanks for posting the progress and success. Please also post your findings on the alternator when you get that addressed.