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Leisure batteries and car batteries


tomandsophie

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I need a small capacity battery for the lights in our van (domestic lights that is) and for the water pump too. The lights are 1W LEDs so they will take barely any power and the water pump is one of those tiny little submersible thingies. The breakers yard down the road are selling car batteries for a tenner each - do you reckon they would sustain this tiny power drain?

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For a tenner, what have you got to lose? They're effectively free.

 

In general, a car battery is designed to deliver huge currents (300 amps) for starting and then be recharged immediately. The starting charge taken out of it is very low, less than 1AH. The plates in this type of battery are made thinner than domestic batteries to enable the battery to deliver the current. If the battery is deeply discharged (ie: used as a domestic battery) its life will be short.

 

Domestic batteries, on the other hand, are made with thicker plates which will better withstand multiple deep discharges and multiple recharges on a regular basis but which can't easily deliver huge starting currents.

 

That's the theory. In practice the typical leisure batteries we buy for our boats are glorified car batteries with slightly thicker plates and so have a typical life of say 4 years. True "traction" batteries (really thick plates) may well last 15 years but cost an arm and a leg.

 

For the type of minimum discharge you are talking about in this application, I'm sure the £10 batteries will suffice.

 

Chris

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we used a car battery to power the 12v in our caravan without problems. I doubt that a so called leisure battery would have shown any better performance, except that the handles would make it easier to lift. I know others who use truck starter batteries for NB domestic use to very good effect. I certainly won't be wasting my hard earned on so called leisure batteries again.

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Even Charles Sterling, in the Sterling Power catalogue, advocates buying the cheapest batteries as he claims to have tested dozens and to have found no advantages in the higher priced ones. He also advocates not buying expensive AGM or Gel batteries as the extra (high) price is not justified by any performance difference.

 

In theory, a leisure battery should be much heavier than the equivalent starter battery because the former should have thicker lead plates and therefore weigh a lot more. I suspect many of them are just starter batteries with ropes attached to make them look "boaty".

 

Maybe Gibbo, who has vast experience in this area, could throw in his two penneth?

 

Chris

Edited by chris w
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Maybe Gibbo, who has vast experience in this area, could throw in his two penneth?

 

Chris

 

I will do then.

 

"Leisure" on the side of a battery really does mean "We put some handles on an engine start battery". Internally they are identical and it is all a big scam. The price is usually about 10 quid more than an engine start battery. *True* deep cycle batteries start at about 3 times the price.

 

Gibbo

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I will do then.

 

"Leisure" on the side of a battery really does mean "We put some handles on an engine start battery". Internally they are identical and it is all a big scam. The price is usually about 10 quid more than an engine start battery. *True* deep cycle batteries start at about 3 times the price.

 

Gibbo

Iv'e no real evidence, but have suspected this for some time. Our leisure batteries are even labelled as leisure/start batteries. Biggest rip off in the whole fit out. Never again. i could have got a "five" price on truck start batteries and they would have been considerably cheaper, and it would be hard to imagine how they could be worse than the "leisure" ones that I have.

Edited by Guest
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Can anyone recommend a cheap place to buy higher capacity lead acid batteries ?

I 've seen 110ah units for about £50 in several places but if you want say 210ah units the best I've seen was £200+. Im looking to get the most Ah into the smllest possible area. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Rgds

Les

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If you're using starter batteries as domestic batteries (ie: running the boat's appliances, lights etc) you definitely should use a multi-stage charger. A "normal" charger is only good for putting back the small amount of charge used during an engine start. It will not properly charge a deeply discharged battery nor will it desulphate the plates. Result - early death for the batteries.

 

Chris

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If you're using starter batteries as domestic batteries (ie: running the boat's appliances, lights etc) you definitely should use a multi-stage charger. A "normal" charger is only good for putting back the small amount of charge used during an engine start. It will not properly charge a deeply discharged battery nor will it desulphate the plates. Result - early death for the batteries.

 

Chris

 

Thanks for reply, shorty

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We also found out, much to our supprise, that for the last 12 years we have been using lesure batterys for our bow thruster! And application where a pair of truck starter batterys would be far more at home (high current, short time, quickly recharged).

- My grandda swares blind he bought starter batterys, and has told me many times that what they where up there. But the fact remains, the're covered in pictureds of caravans and yachts!!

 

Seamed to do all right on it though!

 

They might have done better with a bit of maintainance too!

- My grandads coment when he checked the levals was "Mmmm, well... is it a bit damp in there. but i can see a lot of plate."

 

 

 

Daniel

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We also found out, much to our supprise, that for the last 12 years we have been using lesure batterys for our bow thruster! And application where a pair of truck starter batterys would be far more at home (high current, short time, quickly recharged).

- My grandda swares blind he bought starter batterys, and has told me many times that what they where up there. But the fact remains, the're covered in pictureds of caravans and yachts!!

 

Seamed to do all right on it though!

 

They might have done better with a bit of maintainance too!

- My grandads coment when he checked the levals was "Mmmm, well... is it a bit damp in there. but i can see a lot of plate."

Daniel

There you go. All that tripe about leisure batteries not being suitable for high current and short bursts, and you have run a bow thruster from them for 12 years.

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I've had to replace my 7 year old starter battery this morning.

Fitted a 94 ah starter battery bought from Midland Swindlers for £61.90, I was intending to go to Thorne Marine but remembered that they would not accept plastic payment last time I went.

 

Steve

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Can anyone recommend a cheap place to buy higher capacity lead acid batteries ?

I 've seen 110ah units for about £50 in several places but if you want say 210ah units the best I've seen was £200+. Im looking to get the most Ah into the smllest possible area. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Rgds

Les

Hi,

 

Some time ago when I needed a starting battery I went to a local battery specialist who recommended a '648' type commercial/HGV battery.

 

This has the same footprint and terminals as the common '679' type 110Ah leisure battery, also has handles, but is 2" taller and 125Ah instead. It costs more but does weighs ~35kg instead of 25-30kg for a '679'. Mine has had a lot of abuse but will still put out 500-600A quite easily.

 

There is also a less common '656' which is the same size, 140Ah capacity and ~42kg in weight, probably a bit heavy for most people.

 

The vast majority of a battery's weight is due to the amount of lead used to make it. A heavier battery relative to it's capacity and CCA points to... thicker plates, which should last longer. So to make a good comparison between different batteries, it's also handy to know the weight and ideally the CCA (cranking current)

 

So if you know of a supplier who does commercial/HGV batteries, have a chat and see what they recommend. They won't be cheaper per Ah than a leisure battery though, it's a different market entirely. :cheers:

 

cheers,

Pete.

Edited by smileypete
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The best option is not to bother with very big batteries for the starter, my engine is bigger that most and the manufacturers recommend the use of two 80 A/h batteries in parallel. Being a thrifty sort of person I have simply used a single 110A/h job. Perhaps no more than 2 or three times during the coldest days of winter I need a bit of extra power.

 

Specifically for this purpose I have made a 'jumper', two crocodile clips and a twelve inch length of 6mm cable (I have a system of bus bars on my electrical system) I simply connect the domestics bus bar to the starter one and the engine bursts into life every time.

Edited by John Orentas
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