Coachmen: Optima batteries for the house bank?

[cecilh0544]

Anyone using an Optima battery for the house battery. I have a Coachman Leprican and am interested if the battery reduce a bit of the maintenance and reduce the effect of the lead acid issue.

Any help would be appreciated.

[vsheetz]

What is your usage model? Lots of dry camping, seldom dry camp? For dry camping a true deep cycle battery bank is best. Deep cycle batteries will tolerate discharge to a lower level more often than a starting battery.

Optima red top is starting battery (designed for high draw, short duration, then recharge), Optima yellow top is designed for high draw of a longer duration (such as a winch usage).

If dry camping is not a biggie the Walmart marine battery is a consideration. Maintenance free, about $100, warranted anywhere. My som put a pair in his motorhome a couple three years ago. Has worked well.

[wa8yxm]

Optima is a bad choce for house battery..

Now, in fairness to Optima. they are fantastic for their intended purpose.. Rough service vehicles liek a Wave Runner or 4-Runner that slam over waves/ruts/rocks/dips. and other "Send for your Kidneys Later" type rides (Thank you Phillis Diller for that line) (In a movie with Bob hope as I recall).

But they have only about sixty percent of the capacity of a standard "Square" or "Retangular" battery of the same size.. The reason is obivious (40% air) So where a Group 27 might be 100 amp hours. the same size Optima is only 60. Thus it runs down fster.

And it is the most expensive of the AGM batteries in most cases.

So you get 2/3 the battery for 3/2 the price..

[RELHUB]

Originally Posted by vsheetz

What is your usage model? Lots of dry camping, seldom dry camp? For dry camping a true deep cycle battery bank is best. Deep cycle batteries will tolerate discharge to a lower level more often than a starting battery.

Optima red top is starting battery (designed for high draw, short duration, then recharge), Optima yellow top is designed for high draw of a longer duration (such as a winch usage).

If dry camping is not a biggie the Walmart marine battery is a consideration. Maintenance free, about $100, warranted anywhere. My som put a pair in his motorhome a couple three years ago. Has worked well.

Thanks I am ready to replace our coach batteries and for my use it will also work for me, I did not consider walmart for battieries, so thanks again for the tip.

I read so many post in the last month about AGM / GEL are so much better but the amount of work needed to support these batteries I will spend more time keeping records on charge rates, Discharge / usage if I need to file a claim for failure and on top of the $300 - $600 per battery not for me. I will use all of that extra time camping and spending time with my family having fun in our MH.