A good old question about house batteries!

[8.3Oilbuner]

Good morning to all. As a preventive maintenance measure I thought I would replace the Interstate deep cycle batteries in my 01 Windsor as they are now 6 years old. No problems with these batteries that the the previous owner installed before I purchased the coach from him. Going to start some traveling real soon and figured better to replace at home, opportunity to paint the battery tray, than have one of those need to do this on the road adventure. Was going to go with the Trojan T105 6V deep cycle batteries from a local company that has stores up and down the west coast as well as other states. Received not so good news when talking to the person on the phone informing me that Trojan had been out of production for over a month and nothing available till the end of April or even May. He informed me between all their warehouses they have 5,000 Trojan's on backorder. Bummer! Has anyone else have information on this?

This store also carries US Batteries made here in the U.S. Does anyone out there have any experience with owning US batteries? The US battery's and the Interstate 6V deep cycle batteries are just about the same coast as the Trojan's being just about $10 more per battery. Have read here that owners have had good luck getting close to 10 years out of their Trojan deep cycle batteries. Just looking for some real world experience that other owners have with their deep cycle 6V flooded batteries. Thanks in advance and have a great week!

[BobJones]

I went with T105's as opposed to Interstates. The Interstates lasted about 5 or 6 years. I'm certain the T105's will do much better. They seem to be a much higher quality battery.

[153stars]

If your not having issues why not just wait a bit for Trojans. A not so local company had really good prices on US battery AMG GC2s I read many good reviews on US GC batteries. They must have been close out price, the FB Marketplace ad was gone before I made the decision on the making 3 hour round trip . At the time best local Trojan price I could find was double or higher Sams price, so I went with Sams . I had got 11 years on the Sams platinum GC2s but those and their AMGs are not available in my area any longer.
I have read many times Trojans go 10yrs and lesser ones 6 to 7.

[Jim Godfrey]

Why Do Batteries Die. and do we need to replace them before they die? You are bringing back some of my old BEE Battery theory from school.

Wet Cells that are maintained and float charged for very long times can last many years past 5 or 6, especially house batteries that are rarely discharged or cycled.

Before you decide to abandon these working batteries, get a cell tester and check the specific gravity of each cell. Also, a quick load test will confirm capability. I sometimes test boondocking in my driveway by running the furnace and leaving the radio and some lights on overnight to see where my state of charge is in the morning. I also verify that my cross-connect relay de-energizes to protect my starting batteries. One time the relay was stuck closed and I replaced it.

If you are just going to drive and plugin, I am not sure how critical it is to change them just because they are 5-6 years old.

Auto Starting batteries are a different story. The plate material gets continmually consumed as you start and charge, start and charge over and over. The reason why we have 1, 2, 3, and 5, year warranty on batteries has more to do with the thickness of the plate material than anything else.

[Mark_K5LXP]

Originally Posted by Jim Godfrey

Wet Cells that are maintained and float charged for very long times can last many years past 5 or 6,

True for pure lead industrial batteries but consumer deep cycle aren't in that category.

One doesn't have to guess about battery merit. If there's a question or doubt about how well they're doing a capacity test tells you if they can be counted on or not.

At 6 years, their best years are behind them no matter how they were cared for. Doesn't mean they're done though, if they can deliver the desired number of Ah then they're "good", until such time they can't. Their calendar lifespan isn't too far out on the horizon but after testing one can judge how close they are to that edge and decide accordingly.

Trojans I consider to be a premium battery. I have used and abused these over the years well beyond their rated spec's. One will never be disappointed in their performance. I ran some USB's for a while and they weren't up to the durability of Trojans but are still a "decent" battery. Interstate comes in about the middle of the pack. It comes down to expectation of performance. For most RV house battery duties, most anything will work pretty well. So even though I'm a fan of Trojan, I'm running interstates in my RV and they are working out perfectly. Maybe I'll only get six years with these instead of say 8 years with Trojans. But at 2/3 the cost, the interstates are still a good value. A "better" battery in my case wouldn't work any better.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

[Persistent]

There is some good advice above.

Time based deterioration is much less important with most lead acid batteries. Contrary to popular beliefs age is not a good measure for future performance. I just read a recent post about someone who load-tested his 34 year old RV battery and found it to be working fine. Of course load testing deep draw batteries has limited value.

I sold a TT 3 years ago. The pair of 100 amp hour GEL batteries were working the same as the day I installed them. I expect the same performance with my current 3 year old AGM batteries.

Useful life of properly maintained lead acid batteries depends mostly on how many discharge cycles and how deep each discharge is. More cycles and more deeply discharged consumes more life.

Beyond cycle life, the major causes of shortened life are storing below full charge, overcharging, and low water level.

Battery University https://batteryuniversity.com/

How does the Lead Acid Battery Work? https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...ased_batteries

Charging lead acid batteries https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...d_acid_battery

AGM https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/..._glass_mat_agm

How to Charge and When to Charge? https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...o_charge_table

How to Store Batteries https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...tore_batteries

Summary of Do’s and Don’ts https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/..._battery_table

[MSHappyCampers]

I just replaced the house batteries with the Duracell GC2 from Sams Club. They have much higher ratings than any others I found. I paid $89.95 each for them with 1-year replacement warranty!

[puttin]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

I just replaced the house batteries with the Duracell GC2 from Sams Club. They have much higher ratings than any others I found. I paid $89.95 each for them with 1-year replacement warranty!

I've done the same-

[8.3Oilbuner]

Good afternoon to all who have posted answers to my question as I do appreciate hearing from you. I see Joe went with the Duracell batteries. I am not so lucky as Washington State lost all our Sam's Clubs years ago and they did have good prices on top named batteries. Boo Hoo! I went through the local Battery Systems warehouse and got some U.S. Battery 2200-XC2-CG2 6V deep cycle batteries at a good price. Still made here in the U.S.A. The Duracell here locally is more expensive as along with the Interstate dealers. The employees at Battery Systems are great to work with and very helpful. While there picking up my batteries I could hear the conversations with customers on the phone asking about, when can I get some Trojan batteries. Still way out in
April or May.

Again, thanks for responding with your own experience as it sure helps make a decision sometimes.

8.3 Oilbuner

[wamcneil]

Originally Posted by 8.3Oilbuner

I went through the local Battery Systems warehouse and got some U.S. Battery 2200-XC2-CG2 6V deep cycle batteries at a good price. Still made here in the U.S.A.

8.3 Oilbuner

Glad you found some.
As far as I can tell, GC2 batteries from Trojan, Crown and US Battery are all pretty much equivalent. So good luck with the new batteries!
Cheers,
Walter