Leisure batteries - higher capacity possible cons?

[pedroinlondon]

Hi

 

My two (once very awesome) Tojan leisure batteries are pretty much dead after 8 years of service and in need of replacement before winter and falls upon the land.

Initially I was planning on just replacing the two existing TMHs with three of the same, but realised there's a slightly more expensive model (31XHS) with slightly larger capacity and current discharge.

Any cons on choosing those instead?

Can anyone tell me if the difference in performance between the TMH and the 31XHS is worth the price difference?

Also would the one with more capacity be more difficult to charge or bring any other type of inconvenience? No idea what the different capacity C's mean for starters

Thanks

 

TMH https://www.tayna.co.uk/leisure-batteries/trojan/27-tmh-wnt/

31MXHS https://www.tayna.co.uk/leisure-batteries/trojan/31-xhs/

 

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

C is the number of hours the battery is loaded for to decide its capacity. The lower the C figure the lower the APPARENT capacity. Most batteries these days are discharged over 20 hours so the C20 rate is the one to use for comparison purposes.

 

If you use the extra capacity then charging will take longer but if you don't then you will discharge  them  slightly less so in theory they should last slightly longer.

 

Note the case sizes differ a little.

 

Practically there is no downside as long as you recharge them properly.

[ditchcrawler]

Do they both have the same length of life in cycles?

 

[Tony Brooks]

7 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Do they both have the same length of life in cycles?

 

Come on Brian, you don't expect that to be made easily available do you.

 

Like it makes no mention of the plate type (antinomy or calcium) or the maximum charging or gassing voltage.

 

Can't give the plebs too much information, make them dig for it.

[pedroinlondon]

41 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

C is the number of hours the battery is loaded for to decide its capacity. The lower the C figure the lower the APPARENT capacity. Most batteries these days are discharged over 20 hours so the C20 rate is the one to use for comparison purposes.

 

If you use the extra capacity then charging will take longer but if you don't then you will discharge  them  slightly less so in theory they should last slightly longer.

 

Note the case sizes differ a little.

 

Practically there is no downside as long as you recharge them properly.

Thanks a lot Tony

 

The battery size increase won't be a problem at all.

The issue with a higher charging demand will be something to worry about during the short days of winter, really, also because this year I will be using my new Planar 4 heater. The three 100W solar panels should be able to keep most battery banks topped during most of the year (knock on wood), considering how little electricity I really use.

[WotEver]

2 hours ago, pedroinlondon said:

The issue with a higher charging demand will be something to worry about during the short days of winter...

The extra demand will only be there if you use it.  If you take more out of the batteries just because you can then obviously you have to put more in.  If you don't take any more out of them then you'll be treating them more gently than the smaller capacity batteries.

 

Note that in addition to the extra 5mm in length, the battery posts are also in a different position.

[pedroinlondon]

On 09/09/2020 at 17:18, WotEver said:

The extra demand will only be there if you use it.  If you take more out of the batteries just because you can then obviously you have to put more in.  If you don't take any more out of them then you'll be treating them more gently than the smaller capacity batteries.

 

Note that in addition to the extra 5mm in length, the battery posts are also in a different position.

I think they were on the same position Patron.