Midland Chandlers sale (batteries)

[Grassman]

Midland Chandlers parent company has been taken over and they are discounting some items. This includes leisure batteries and they heavily discounting all their Albion Batteries to get rid so they can sell just Lion Batteries.

 

Have any of you any experience of Albions and are they any good? I'm looking for maintenance free ones and currently have 4 Leoch 110a lead carbon AGMs. Their spiel says they are 'sealed lead acid' so are they as good as AGMs?

 

https://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/electrical/batteries/12v-batteries?refinementList[attributes.228][0]=Albion

[Tony Brooks]

5 minutes ago, Grassman said:

Their spiel says they are 'sealed lead acid' so are they as good as AGMs?

 

Almost certainly not resistance to plate shedding wise. AGMs have the gaps between the plates packed with glass fiber wadding soaked in acid so it helps hold the paste on the plates. It will also help to prevent shorts caused by separator puncture. The more expensive flooded cells might have their plates in glass fiber pockets that go some way to doing the same. 

 

Any sealed battery will make it more difficult for the ordinary boater to diagnose potential faults and make it impossible to top up it for any reason you suffer excess charging voltage.

 

If you have got your maximum depth of discharge and charging regime optimized then practically I doubt you would notice much difference, maybe just an extra year or so.

[Grassman]

Thanks Tony. . 

[Tim Lewis]

23 hours ago, Grassman said:

Midland Chandlers parent company has been taken over and they are discounting some items. This includes leisure batteries and they heavily discounting all their Albion Batteries to get rid so they can sell just Lion Batteries.

 

Have any of you any experience of Albions and are they any good? I'm looking for maintenance free ones and currently have 4 Leoch 110a lead carbon AGMs. Their spiel says they are 'sealed lead acid' so are they as good as AGMs?

 

https://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/electrical/batteries/12v-batteries?refinementList[attributes.228][0]=Albion

 

Who are MC's new parent company?  Last time I looked they were owned by the LKQ Corporartion from the US

[nicknorman]

I think Albion are fairly basic “cooking” batteries. Fairly typical of low budget batteries. I think you could probably find something better value from the likes of Tanya, eg their Numax leisure battery at £87.45 for 105Ah

[Rob-M]

50 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

I think Albion are fairly basic “cooking” batteries. Fairly typical of low budget batteries. I think you could probably find something better value from the likes of Tanya, eg their Numax leisure battery at £87.45 for 105Ah

We have those Numax, fitted them 7 years ago.  We purchased them from Tayna though 😀

[nicknorman]

1 hour ago, Rob-M said:

We have those Numax, fitted them 7 years ago.  We purchased them from Tayna though 😀

Yes. Every time I type it I have to change it due to the auto-correct. This time I forgot!

[reg]

Another one for Numax batteries.

 

Be interested to see how midland chandlers go forward.

[George and Dragon]

7 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

 

Who are MC's new parent company?  Last time I looked they were owned by the LKQ Corporartion from the US

Midland Chandlers Limited is a non-trading company according to Companies House https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01860607

 

They were Arleigh Limited from 1984 to 2006; CH still have Arleigh Group Limited as owning >75% of the shares.

[Tony Brooks]

4 minutes ago, George and Dragon said:

Midland Chandlers Limited is a non-trading company according to Companies House https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01860607

 

They were Arleigh Limited from 1984 to 2006; CH still have Arleigh Group Limited as owning >75% of the shares.

 

and according to the Europarts website LKQ have Arleigh in their fold.

[David Mack]

4 hours ago, George and Dragon said:

Midland Chandlers Limited is a non-trading company according to Companies House https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/01860607

 

They were Arleigh Limited from 1984 to 2006; CH still have Arleigh Group Limited as owning >75% of the shares.

And Arleigh Group Limited are >75% owned by LKQ Corporation of Chicago.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05217807/persons-with-significant-control

[George and Dragon]

I found LKQ Corp on the SEC website. Haven't yet discovered if it's possible to use that to delve further into ownership...

 

I have noticed, while researching the carehome where my mother was briefly resident, that it's very common for the ultimate ownership of any company to be hidden behind multiple other companies. I'm quite sure it's all perfectly legal.

[Col_T]

On 20/03/2022 at 09:06, Grassman said:

Have any of you any experience of Albions and are they any good? I'm looking for maintenance free ones and currently have 4 Leoch 110a lead carbon AGMs. Their spiel says they are 'sealed lead acid' so are they as good as AGMs?

 

I thought that lead carbon batteries were supposed to have good life expectancy and be much more tolerant of partial state of charge that ordinary lead acids. Have you found that to be not true, or is there another reason that you changing your batteries?

[Grassman]

19 hours ago, Col_T said:

 

I thought that lead carbon batteries were supposed to have good life expectancy and be much more tolerant of partial state of charge that ordinary lead acids. Have you found that to be not true, or is there another reason that you changing your batteries?

 

So far my AGM's have lasted a year longer than previous lead acids have, and they're still not bad but I have noticed their ability to hold the charge is waning. So I was asking the Midland Chandlers question with the idea of buying some at their reduced price now and storing them until I need to change them. I try not to abuse them and have only once had then discharge below 12.2 (and only slightly) but I'm rather power hungry with 230v fridge and small freezer meaning I have to be extra careful about not knackering my batteries for the 6 months a year that I'm not hooked in to landline. The 600w of solar helps a lot then though.

[Tony Brooks]

42 minutes ago, Grassman said:

with the idea of buying some at their reduced price now and storing them until I need to change them.

 

Possibly not the brightest idea because LA batteries self discharge so needs regularly recharging to minimize but not totally prevent sulphation. Also the acid continues to "attack" the plates etc so they will degrade over time as well.

[cuthound]

On 23/03/2022 at 14:11, Col_T said:

 

I thought that lead carbon batteries were supposed to have good life expectancy and be much more tolerant of partial state of charge that ordinary lead acids. Have you found that to be not true, or is there another reason that you changing your batteries?

 

Lead carbon batteties are a relatively new development, and few people have had them long so the jury is still out regarding their claimed developments actually being realised in the real world yet.

 

High quality AGM's are probably the best performing lead acids with a proven history, but the best quality ones (Lifeline, US Batteries etc) are now almost as expensive as lithiums.

 

My boat is now 14 years old and still on its original Lifeline AGM's. They have lost about 50% of their original capacity with heavy leisure rather than liveaboard use. 

[Tony Brooks]

7 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Lead carbon batteries are a relatively new development,

 

Elecosol were allegedly lead carbon and they were around maybe 30 years ago. A first their performance seemd to substantiate their claims about faster charging and resisting sulphation but long term they did not stand up and in the end they got  a very bad name. I would be very reluctant to take the claims made for lead carbon today at face value. I agree we need a lot more real life experience and I suspect that b the time that has been accrued lithiumms will be getting on for mainstream.

[Grassman]

On 24/03/2022 at 10:57, Tony Brooks said:

 

Possibly not the brightest idea because LA batteries self discharge so needs regularly recharging to minimize but not totally prevent sulphation. Also the acid continues to "attack" the plates etc so they will degrade over time as well.

 

Thanks. I've now decided against buying and storing them until needed for the reasons you and others have said.