Four or Six House batteries and inverter recommendation

[harryn]

If you look at the "design" usage for various batteries, for many people with higher power demands it is worth considering to buy a marine type AGM battery vs the typical deep discharge batteries.

If you are a more serious power user, but not ready to jump on the Li wagon, consider to look at LifeLine and similar - low internal resistance type AGMs.

The bulk charge rate capabilities actually exceed many Li batteries on the market.

[Unicorn Driver]

Thanks,

I did look at Lifelines but very expensive.

I am looking at 4 Duracell gc2 xeom Sams club, have not decided on flooded or agm yet.

[harryn]

Originally Posted by 1stMH

Thanks,

I did look at Lifelines but very expensive.

I am looking at 4 Duracell gc2 xeom Sams club, have not decided on flooded or agm yet.

It won't make that much difference - in 2 years you will be replacing any battery you buy there. That is not necessarily a bad thing because it makes mistakes less painful

[Unicorn Driver]

Hi Harry

I would hope for them to last longer than 2 years. Have you had Duracell batteries fail?

[garbonz]

Originally Posted by 1stMH

Hi Harry

I would hope for them to last longer than 2 years. Have you had Duracell batteries fail?

Who knows, but if you have a trimetric and keep them over 50% and keep them fully charged most of the time they may last much longer than that. Many failures are operator caused.

A couple hundred watts of solar wouldn't hurt.

[Unicorn Driver]

Hi,

I do have 200w of solar but its portable.

[harryn]

Originally Posted by 1stMH

Hi Harry

I would hope for them to last longer than 2 years. Have you had Duracell batteries fail?

Most of my customers are sort of performance types that really give the battery packs and solar set ups a workout.

Examples are using them in conjunction with inverters to run 2nd and 3rd air conditioners on under sized generators, or combined solar + generator use for similar.

Conventional deep discharge RV batteries just won't hold up to that type of use, no matter the brand.

As far as the duracells at Costco, all I can tell you is that one of the local interstate dealers was lamenting that the ones costco carries are definitely their "entry level" ones, not the more premium models.

As mentioned above - many RV batteries have short lifetimes due to errors, but it is handy to have a battery with more tolerance to abuse. With your loads, I would not sweat it.

[Unicorn Driver]

Hi Harry,

I would be far from a performace user. We only dry camp occasionally but when I do so I prefer keeping generator useage to a minimum :-)

Fridge runs in propane and will be adding LEDs. We are getting our new to us coach tomorrow so have yet to do a energy audit.

[Vette Racer]

Your battery bank is like a fuel tank, how long and far do you want to go? My whole house 2k inverter uses 3 amps just idling, add in the TV and dish receiver and one led light and our amps go up to 13-14 amps, when you use that for 6 hrs during the evening you are close to 80 amp hours down by bedtime, add in the use of the onboard propane heater overnight and by morning we are usually down about 125-135 amp hours. We have a 780 amp hour battery bank so we have about 390 amp hour to use and stay above 50% discharge, however with that said real life is that with 135 AH used, we are actually at 12.4 volts which is about 75% state of charge. Bottom line is if you are going to be off grid for awhile, put in all the batteries you can afford or carry. As for the GC2 batteries at Sam's club, I found that 2 years is about it, I now have 6 Trojans T145's which is night and day difference from 6 premium GC2's I had that were rated at 232 AH each. If you are not off grid much I would just go with 2 or 3 12V marine/deep cycle batteries and be done with it.

[Unicorn Driver]

Hi Vette Racer,

Current coach which I am trading in tomorrow has two 6 volt gc2 232mah deep cycle batteries so would like to go deep cycle again.

The new coach has two 12 volts which will need replacing at some stage, the dealership does not have proper gc2 batteries so they are going to give me if they are shot. I will use the credit against servicing.

I am open to purchasing better quality batteries as plan to keep this rig at least 5 years.

[Unicorn Driver]

Oh, my budget is about 600$ but could stretch it further :-)

I.e. 600$ is what I will tell DW I will spend.

[Vette Racer]

Originally Posted by 1stMH

Oh, my budget is about 600$ but could stretch it further :-)

I.e. 600$ is what I will tell DW I will spend.

It all depends on what you want to do, if extended boondocking put all the 6 volt deep cycle batteries in you can, if not only 2 or 3 12V batteries will be fine, bottom line is what you need to support your needs.

[Scottybdivin]

If 6 will fit, then........
Also get a good battery monitor. Magnum, Trimetric, etc. It's like a fuel gauge for your batteries.

[Unicorn Driver]

Thanks,

I get the coach tomorrow and will measure the battery compartment.

I will be moving the Trimetric feom my old coach.