Just about time for new house batteries. Suggestions

[ikold]

Going to replace my house batteries this summer. What are folks running and where is the best deal. Has anyone done LiFePo or is it still to cost prohibitive.
Whose AGMS are best. Believe my coach '14 Cornerstone has AGM's so the charge controller is setup for AGM's. I suppose flooded cells would work too.

[757driver]

Originally Posted by ikold

Going to replace my house batteries this summer. What are folks running and where is the best deal. Has anyone done LiFePo or is it still to cost prohibitive.
Whose AGMS are best. Believe my coach '14 Cornerstone has AGM's so the charge controller is setup for AGM's. I suppose flooded cells would work too.

Have heard lots of people rave about Concord Lifeline AGM batteries although I have no experience with them. They are probably the highest priced of the AGM batteries. Lithium batteries are very good but I think the price is still very high. The rest of the AGM market (Discover, FullRiver, Duracell, Interstate, US battery) are all fairly similar. Make sure the brand of AGM you chose is capable of a charge rate up to 25% of the C20 rating. If much lower than this you are approaching the flooded battery charge rate of 10-15% of the C20 rating. Flooded replacements are fine and will also last for years if properly looked after. Drawbacks to flooded are as mentioned above. With flooded in your Cornerstone you would be only able to charge at 50% of the chargers output instead of 80-90% for AGM. Another drawback is regular cleaning and watering.

The best deal will probably be what you can get locally to avoid shipping charges.

[brobox]

Check in your area to see if there's a battery discount supply house. Here in Ft Myers we have Battery Discount that sells to the golf courses etc. Their prices are much lower than retail. I asked a golf course guy who they purchased their batteries from. I have been buying from them since then at large savings. The last set of Trojans T105 I bought were $84. each when retail was $105

Just me, but after having AGM"s I would never go back to wet cells and having to remember to service them every month.

[RogerBall]

Been looking at a set of these: http://www.mdbattery.com/wedia-12v-2...p-systems.html .

They are in Las Vegas so if going to Octoberfest, would be a good time to pick up a set.

Obviously some mounting mods would be necessary but worth taking a look.

[Matt D]

Ron, it would take two of those to marry up AH capacity to a single L16. At 2X the cost, you're close to even with a new L16 price.

Once you factor the cost of cabling, those become more expensive.

Personally, I'd just stab a bunch of L16s in if they will fit.

-Matt

[757driver]

I can't see an L-16 being the same price as a GC2, more likely double the price. With L-16's would need to remove the top tray and beef up or replace the bottom tray to hold twice the weight of the GC2's.

[lowejug]

I went with 8 new Duracell wet cells in my anthem..230 ah per battery.. so far so good.. had them a few months now. No mess others say they have experienced with wet cells yet. There's some things u can Do to avoid that .. I think if you do a extreme amount of boondocking the agm batteries are a better fit personally.. but I am at rv parks 99% of the time so wet cells work for me.. you can replace your house batteries almost 3 times with wet cells to one set of agm. A little maintenance doesn't bother me as others do not want the maintenance...jmo

[seeg]

When I replaced the wet cells in my boat with AGM's I bought Full River from a local battery store. As I recall I chose them over Lifelines probably because of price.

[RogerBall]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Ron, it would take two of those to marry up AH capacity to a single L16. At 2X the cost, you're close to even with a new L16 price.

Once you factor the cost of cabling, those become more expensive.

Personally, I'd just stab a bunch of L16s in if they will fit.

-Matt

All the L16 batteries I've seen are rated at 6 volts so you would still need two L16's to provide 400 AH at 12 volts. You would also need two of the Wedia brand in order to provide the same 400 AH at 12 volts.

If you can find L16 AGM's for $300 and your battery compartment can handle the larger vertical size, then that would be the way to go. If not, seems the Wedia would require much less modification of the battery compartment for those that currently have the Harris/Discover AGM's on dual trays.

However, in the long run, sticking with Harris/Discover AGM's (or equivalent) would most likely be the easiest route to go.

[vsheetz]

Six Costco wet batteries here. Low cap cost. I don't mind the maintenance. They are getting the job done.

Would I like to have AGM and higher capacity? Sure. But I'm cheap. (-:

[theoldwizard]

IMHO, unless you are a full timer with a lot of solar and boondock a lot, LiFePo are just not worth it.

Many people do not like to do the maintenance on flooded cell batteries so they pay the premium for AGM. Trojan now sells AGM batteries.

Still the best bang for the buck are flooded cell lead acid batteries. Within that category, 6V golf cart batteries, whether from Costco or from Sams Club, are your best buy. Water them at least once a month (more if you use them a lot or live in a hot climate) and give them and the battery box and hold downs a good cleaning at least once a year and they will last a long time.

[ikold]

What is the "stock" size battery. They are 6V (I believe AGM's) that are in there now.

[brobox]

Originally Posted by ikold

What is the "stock" size battery. They are 6V (I believe AGM's) that are in there now.

Are these your current batteries? If so here are all the specs. https://www.harrisbattery.com/produc...-cell/evgc6a-b

[theoldwizard]

This chart is NOT up to date. I believe that Trojan is now shipping all of the batteries on this chart, even the one with blank specs.

Like most things in life, "You get what you pay for !"