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Leisure batteries - advice on what to buy


cairanvanrooyen

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3 hours ago, Chagall said:

Oh dear ?  ...was it the same "not electrician" that bought the larger of the two inverters from you?   

It was a genuine question by the way, if it was the same guy it could be that he may have traded on your anxieties as a lone female. 

 

I too have suffered from such malpractice and it isn't easy to recover from. 

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12 hours ago, Chagall said:

It was a genuine question by the way, if it was the same guy it could be that he may have traded on your anxieties as a lone female. 

 

I too have suffered from such malpractice and it isn't easy to recover from. 

No, it was the 'electrician' who ripped me off In several other ways, including deciding to 're wire' the fridge, with undersized cable, undersized because he did not add on the out and the return. There would be nothing wrong with the existing wiring, it's still in use. 

I thought he was being helpful doing bits and pieces that anyone could do, but he was just avoiding doing the electrics. When he started on about buying a generator, I realised he was as bad as the one who wanted to move the centre line fitting to accommodate the two solar panels, instead of moving them a bit further back. 

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3 minutes ago, LadyG said:

No, it was the 'electrician' who ripped me off In several other ways, including deciding to 're wire' the fridge, with undersized cable, undersized because he did not add on the out and the return. There would be nothing wrong with the existing wiring, it's still in use. 

I thought he was being helpful doing bits and pieces that anyone could do, but he was just avoiding doing the electrics. When he started on about buying a generator, I realised he was as bad as the one who wanted to move the centre line fitting to accommodate the two solar panels, instead of moving them a bit further back. 

Not fitting the correct diameter wire to cope with voltage drop,is quite common for DIY work,but not from a qualified electrician.

I have had various jobs done on my house and car by various "tradesmen" but it soon became obvious to me that they were simply "odd job men"who had probably picked up a bit of knowledge from You Tube,and were charging tradesman's rates.

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5 hours ago, Mad Harold said:

Not fitting the correct diameter wire to cope with voltage drop,is quite common for DIY work,but not from a qualified electrician.

I have had various jobs done on my house and car by various "tradesmen" but it soon became obvious to me that they were simply "odd job men"who had probably picked up a bit of knowledge from You Tube,and were charging tradesman's rates.

Put it this way, he got paid a lot of money for very little work, and most of it, I could have done myself, I was just overwhelmed with too many things that needed to be done. A rip off merchant, and not an electrician. 

I have just looked at my bow batteries, the ones that are to be replaced, two batteries, different footprints, and wires right left and centre.

Ill have to pay the local marina to replace them. I just cannot reach them, even if I could understand the wiring. 

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8 hours ago, LadyG said:

No, it was the 'electrician' who ripped me off In several other ways, including deciding to 're wire' the fridge, with undersized cable, undersized because he did not add on the out and the return. There would be nothing wrong with the existing wiring, it's still in use. 

I thought he was being helpful doing bits and pieces that anyone could do, but he was just avoiding doing the electrics. When he started on about buying a generator, I realised he was as bad as the one who wanted to move the centre line fitting to accommodate the two solar panels, instead of moving them a bit further back. 

Okay, then it seems you don't need the care or concern. (but I think you possibly do?) 

 

It sounds like a good idea to use the local marina to fit your new batteries, if they are available to do the work. 

 

 

Edited by Chagall
honesty and a question mark
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4 hours ago, LadyG said:

Put it this way, he got paid a lot of money for very little work, and most of it, I could have done myself, I was just overwhelmed with too many things that needed to be done. A rip off merchant, and not an electrician. 

I have just looked at my bow batteries, the ones that are to be replaced, two batteries, different footprints, and wires right left and centre.

Ill have to pay the local marina to replace them. I just cannot reach them, even if I could understand the wiring. 

Oh, and now I have looked at the two batteries, and not even able to identify the positive and negative posts, I realise that they are not a matched pair, one looks standard footprint but the other is very narrow, they are in a narrow 'corridor', 

I can't even tell if they are agm or sealed.

Or the type of posts, I suspect they might not be standard :(

Does it matter if I have to mix brands. It's not easy to find deep cycle agms, obviously.

I would normally find a willing volunteer if it's a simple job,  but I have resorted to emailing BurtonWaters workshop. 

I know it's going to take a while to find the batteries, so I'd rather do that myself, than pay the Matina.

Edited by LadyG
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Yep, go for the cheap ones. Don't run them to low, check electrolyte regularly and land line charge if poss. I bought mine from Tanya Batteries eight, yes eight years ago. They still serve my needs and I cruise about three or four hours a day then a couple of days stop over without further charging until I get back to base. Or if on a long cruise I may overnight in  marina with hook up to top the batts up. If I got expensive batteries I'd be scared to death of wrecking them.

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16 minutes ago, plainsman said:

Yep, go for the cheap ones. Don't run them to low, check electrolyte regularly and land line charge if poss. I bought mine from Tanya Batteries eight, yes eight years ago. They still serve my needs and I cruise about three or four hours a day then a couple of days stop over without further charging until I get back to base. Or if on a long cruise I may overnight in  marina with hook up to top the batts up. If I got expensive batteries I'd be scared to death of wrecking them.

I cannot have LA, I have a very complex system. This pair are not accessible, I think there is no shorepower charger to these two batteries, I have three battery banks and the other two banks are newish, the solar controller is set to agm., There are six batteries in all, with about 500ah nominal in domestic use.

 I have been off grid for twelve months, I think these batteries might be about fifteen years old, plus or minus five! They are charged by solar and alternator, but no longer hold charge.

Edited by LadyG
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While searching for an equivalent maintenance-free battery to replace the Bosch L4 034 that now seem to be difficult to find, I found these on eBay - less money and almost identical:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393248842452

These are very similar:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114293873461

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50 minutes ago, NB Alnwick said:

While searching for an equivalent maintenance-free battery to replace the Bosch L4 034 that now seem to be difficult to find, I found these on eBay - less money and almost identical:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393248842452

These are very similar:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114293873461


The Varta Hobby had quite a good reputation when I was researching them some years ago. Particularly in the Motorhome and caravan community IIRC.

 

Unfortunately, I managed to kill them just as easily as any other LA battery I bought :( 

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I think it is likely that there is a great deal of label engineering going on with batteries. Quite likely there is an anonymous factory in Korea or another place in Asia that churns out batteries in large quantities - then buyers representing companies from around the world select what they want and put their own labels on them for sale in their home country.

We have six batteries on Alnwick that measure 330mm long, 172mm wide, and 240mm high - roughly the size of a common HGV battery. The best we ever had were supplied second hand at £25 each from a forum member these had 3/8 BSW or UNC screw stud terminals. Since then we have tried to find new replacements of similar size and with similar terminal styles. There are many to choose from but the brand name doesn't seem to make much difference to the performance or guarantee longevity.

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When I purchased my first car in 1963, for a modest fee, it was possible to take my dead battery to a small workshop in Market Harborough where they would drain it, strip the top off, fit new plates and terminals, refit the top, seal it with bitumen tar, refill it, and charge it ready for collection the next day. I wonder what happened to those workshops?

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Just now, NB Alnwick said:

When I purchased my first car in 1963, for a modest fee, it was possible to take my dead battery to a small workshop in Market Harborough where they would drain it, strip the top off, fit new plates and terminals, refit the top, seal it with bitumen tar, refill it, and charge it ready for collection the next day. I wonder what happened to those workshops?

 

They got priced out I used to do that sort of work as an apprentice. The lead burning to make the groups and seal the lead in the cell lids to the groups was pretty skilled and the whole thing was time-consuming.

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57 minutes ago, NB Alnwick said:

When I purchased my first car in 1963, for a modest fee, it was possible to take my dead battery to a small workshop in Market Harborough where they would drain it, strip the top off, fit new plates and terminals, refit the top, seal it with bitumen tar, refill it, and charge it ready for collection the next day. I wonder what happened to those workshops?

 

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Thanks for that David - I guess it answers my question. I rather hope that British workers had minimal personal protective equipment at least and an environmentally safe way of disposing of waste acid but even so it looks like a dangerous job!!!

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4 hours ago, Richard10002 said:


The Varta Hobby had quite a good reputation when I was researching them some years ago. Particularly in the Motorhome and caravan community IIRC.

 

Unfortunately, I managed to kill them just as easily as any other LA battery I bought :( 

Many years ago I had a set of Varta Hobby batteries, and they gave great service for over 5 years so then I bought a new set; they lasted for just over 2 weeks. It turned out they had changed the formula to include calcium and we were the first UK customers of the new type. When the replacement set also died within 2 weeks it was clear that they had got things totally wrong, and they withdrew the entire range from the market for about 4 months while they re-engineered them. We of course got our money back. Yes they reintroduced them, with calcium, but they have never been as good since.

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1 hour ago, NB Alnwick said:

Thanks for that David - I guess it answers my question. I rather hope that British workers had minimal personal protective equipment at least and an environmentally safe way of disposing of waste acid but even so it looks like a dangerous job!!!

 

All I got was a rubber apron and rubber gloves. Can't remember any goggles, even for the lead work and certainly no fume extraction.

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