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Hi there! My sealed lead acid batteries are nearly six years old and unfortunately they won’t hold their charge so Ive done a lot of research and just bought two AGM deep cycle 150aH batteries to replace my current two 200aH lead acid. My battery charger is a fairstone ABC1230 Fully Automatic 5 Stage and I’m pretty confident they’re compatible. My last fear is that I haven’t changed my starter as it’s still in good health but it is lead acid. Will having two battery types negatively effect the health of my batteries?

Hi, Just wondering, where do people keep their battery banks on the boat? Mine are in the engine bay and I've noticed they lose their charge a lot quicker now it's cold. Does anyone keep them in the living area to keep them at a more stable temp. How does this work with the BSS regs? George

Dear Friends, I bought three 110AH leisure batteries for £90 each back in July 2015. I monitor the specific gravity of the cells and take a record every few months. So from 12th July to now, the readings have fallen through the floor. I have stuck to battery charging best practises all the way. I NEVER discharge below 11.6 (or let it get close normally). I am 80% on grid power, 20% cruising. I have a Victron 12v 3kw inverter / charger. I only bulk charge at 50amps. The charger actually has a special function so if the batts have been fully charged for 24hrs the float charge is adjusted to reduce corrosion of the positive plate and then increased once a week to equalise which is supposed to prevent stratification of the electrolyte (as well as sulphating). Pretty clever stuff. The waters are topped up always (goes without saying) Basically the dam batteries have been treated like royalty. In return I get a SGR (specific gravity reading) of 1.225 after being fully charged for over 48hrs. When they were new under the same conditions, the SGR was 1.289. These are all temperature corrected values. I also 'eqialise' the batteries once every two months or so. This is achieved using a feature on the charger which increases voltage by 1v for one hour and helps to knock the sulphate off the plates. I do this only once the battery has been fully charged for a while before starting. 1.225 is usually the reading you get for 75% charge (according to Battery University). I can draw about 70AH - 100AH (depending on various factors of course) (out of 330AH) before the voltage gets close to 11.6v. I know 330AH is not supposed to be achievable, as DoD should never exceed 50% with PBs. Still 70-100 seems a bit lame. So would be really interested to hear of other people’s experiences. Is this just a case of ‘buy cheap buy twice’ or do most PBs pretty much suck in this way? Am considering Lithium Phoshate as a replacement at a future date but that is a whole other can of worms which has been talked to death already I’m sure J I don’t want to spent hundreds more on say Rolls batteries only to find more or less the same experience. Many Thanks Stuart