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What Battery?

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 12:57 pm
by Dr. Peter
My Geltech battery has died and I am looking for a replacement. It was at the heart of an upgraded electrical system when I bought the boat some years back. There is a solar panel.

These guys want nearly $400 for the same unit:

http://www.batteriesdirect.com.au/shop/ ... ttery.html

Supercheap have what appears to be a similar battery at half the price:

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online ... mendations

Both strike me as expensive since all I do is run some lights at night and a depth sounder during the day - and charge up devices like phones and iPods sometimes.

What are others doing for their house power?

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Sat Jul 04, 2015 2:45 pm
by Greg
Calcium/calcium battery's. I've had the same one for years, still has the same performance as when it was new and I've never treated it well, draining it out completely with a trolling motor plenty of times. Charge them up and leave it in the shed for twelve months and it's still ready to go. They are cheap too, mine off ebay cost a little over $200 for 110ah. All the battery comparisons online say they have the worst performance regarding discharge, maybe they are right but I'd rather have two of these than one of those.

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 8:56 am
by Ozzie
Interesting post. Anyone researching for their own purchase may find these links of interest.

http://www.baybat.co.nz/calcium.htm

http://www.racq.com.au/cars-and-driving ... tery-myths

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2078533

I have a small sealed lead aid battery on Spritzig II which is only to run lights , predominantly nav lights but it sits for months at a time and seems to hold its charge. I'm in the process of hooking up a sall solar panel to keep it topped up.

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 3:07 pm
by Dr. Peter
The expense of a replacement battery wore at me and I googled saving a discharged gel battery and found this on utube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slqd73ZOQvI

To summarise, if your gel battery is too dead then most chargers won't charge it at all, like my setup on Pip (12v / 6amp). But you can trick a charger if you use another battery in parallel and provide at least 10 amps of charge. Its all explained on the link.

Anyway, I have my battery and a spare, at a friend's place. He has a sophisticated charger (about $100 worth) and it tripped out when charging direct at 10 and 2 amps on the Gel battery setting.

We then used jumper leads and put the other battery (a lead acid out of a Commodore) in parallel and it is providing a charge at 10amps and no tripping.

Fingers crossed. I may have saved some dollars.

I love Utube.

Peter

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 3:11 pm
by Dr. Peter
Ozzie wrote:I have a small sealed lead aid battery on Spritzig II which is only to run lights , predominantly nav lights but it sits for months at a time and seems to hold its charge. I'm in the process of hooking up a sall solar panel to keep it topped up.
Hey Ozzie,
I was thinking that given how infrequently I use the boat and the battery even less. I might just borrow a battery out of my small car and use that.
Peter

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:24 pm
by Ozzie
Peter if you have LEDs as I now have you can probably drive to the ramp use your battery all night and put it back in your car and drive home. LEDs are the best thing since sliced trailer sailors.

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2015 9:51 am
by Dr. Peter
Dr. Peter wrote:Fingers crossed. I may have saved some dollars.

I love Utube.
What do you know, it worked - the previously dead battery is now at 100% charge. When we started the discharged battery showed 0.6v. It took a couple of days to bring it up.

The buffering 'good' battery was used until there was enough charge to put an older style 12v/6a charger on. The 'smart' charger did not want anything to do with the discharged battery without a buffer battery in place.

However, I don't know how 'well' the battery will perform after this Lazzarus style comeback. But taking a charge is a great start.

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 9:34 am
by Yara50
I have had success with old batteries using the old style charger initially, and then swapping over to a new fangled smart charger once the charge rate settled down. A battery switch to isolate the battery when it is in the boat is a good idea to help preserve it. Every now and again I also hook up the smart charger to top up the battery. On a moored boat it has to be a solar charger.

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 4:14 pm
by Dr. Peter
Just got back from a trip and the battery let us down. It was very dim on the houselights and the depth sounder and nav lights did not work at all. Still it buffered the shore-line supply.

So once again - I need a battery.

A very good friend of mine made the following suggestion: He said, "Buy a new battery for your Falcon ute, the tow vehicle, and put the old battery, which is still good, in the boat. It's what I do."

I have to say that given how I use my boat, I can't see an awful lot wrong with that.

Re: What Battery?

Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2016 10:26 am
by neilmac
As you said, with your requirements that sort of battery may be OK. One of the advantages of the AGM deep cycle batteries is that they are sealed and hence safer on a boat. Previously I had a 28ah sealed battery that was fine for most situations. Anyway I have attached a Power Consumption worksheet (excel) which may help you (and others) The values for consumption of items are mine.

OK, seems I can't attach excel files. If anybody wants it send me an email address.