Battery Questions

[kleonard003]

FWIW our MH had 2 Napa 60ah marine dual purpose batteries from new.
They'd left us stranded more than a few times. As you can imagine with that ah rating they were just a step away from useless AND those batteries tested good right up to the day I swapped them out for a pair of WM 24DC batteries. I know let the WM bashing begin.
2 yrs in & those batteries are going strong.
It's not about the number of batteries it's about ah's.
We have 400 watts of solar btw.

[twinboat]

Originally Posted by drlarrye

Are AGM batteries any more resistant to damage if drawn down too far?

Not really. Damage is done if drawn down completely ( below 10.6 volts ) or if drawn down and left in that condition long term.

Flooded batteries tolerate partial recharge cycles better then AGM. With AGM, you will want to fully charge them between cycles.

[LargeMarge]

Originally Posted by drlarrye

Are AGM batteries...resistant to damage if drawn down too far?

.
a)
Our bank of Lifeline Concorde AGM 105ah have two decades full-time live-aboard [applause].
.
We usually use our -- admittedly minimal -- 12vdc around mid-day.
This way, most of our juice falls from the sky, with the bank merely a pass-through.
.
One of our brainiac caravan chums calculated we rarely draw more than a couple-three percent.
Our freakishly yuge photovoltaic array immediately re-fills our bank in under an hour.
.
Two decades full-time live-aboard.
Does contentious observance of use equal infrequent replacement?
.
.
b)
I think this point is essential to living with batteries of any type:
* reduce and eliminate draws.
Example:
We usually hit the sack shortly after sundown.
Spectating at televisionprogramming for hours in a brilliantly-lit home would require considerably more bank than we can carry.
.
Our GVWR -- 29,000#.
Our weight across the scale -- 14,000#.
Our battery capacity could be around seven ton...
... but that would be weird.