Great new battery?

[Keeping Up]

I've just been reading in the June WW about the new Energy Bull range of batteries from Banner Batteries. They claim "three times the cycle resistance" because of "robust grid structures, special mass compositions, and bag separators with a glass web covering".

 

What do the battery experts think? Are these wonderful new batteries worth £105 each (for 110AH), or is it all a load of Bull?

[RLWP]

I've just been reading in the June WW about the new Energy Bull range of batteries from Banner Batteries. They claim "three times the cycle resistance" because of "robust grid structures, special mass compositions, and bag separators with a glass web covering".

 

What do the battery experts think? Are these wonderful new batteries worth £105 each (for 110AH), or is it all a load of Bull?

 

Perhaps the special mass has a new arrangement of the hymns?

 

Richard

[Roger Gunkel]

Don't know anything about the Energy Bull batteries, but as I also needed to replace my 3x135 ah domestics, I just bought 2x190 ah new deepcycle sealed batteries from the Battery Megastore. They were advertised at £125 each which I thought was a good price, but then noticed they had an Ebay shop. I offered £230 for a pair, which was accepted, then had an Ebay voucher notice which gave me another £23 off. I'd say £207 for 380ah is pretty good!

 

Sorry to divert from the Energy Bull question

 

Roger

[dor]

The blurb sounds a bit too much like the Elecsol guff a few years ago, and I don't think they were any better than any other battery.

 

I'm tending towards the £60-70 110AHr leisure batteries as sold by battery specialist rather than chandlers or other boaty stores.

[Gary Peacock]

Sounds like another "Elecsolish" load of bull to me too!

[smileypete]

I've just been reading in the June WW about the new Energy Bull range of batteries from Banner Batteries. They claim "three times the cycle resistance" because of "robust grid structures, special mass compositions, and bag separators with a glass web covering".

 

What do the battery experts think? Are these wonderful new batteries worth £105 each (for 110AH), or is it all a load of Bull?

 

No.

 

For that sort of money I'd get something like:

 

http://www.tayna.co.uk/US-2200-Deep-Cycle-...tery-P4117.html

 

Maybe a bit cheaper by shopping around.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[David Schweizer]

No.

 

For that sort of money I'd get something like:

 

http://www.tayna.co.uk/US-2200-Deep-Cycle-...tery-P4117.html

 

Maybe a bit cheaper by shopping around.

 

cheers,

Pete.

I have two of those in my boat. They are brilliant batteries, in four years I have not even had to top up the electrolyte.

 

I only paid £85 each incluiding delivery, but prices have gone up since then.

Edited May 11, 2009 by David Schweizer

[Smelly]

hmmm... twice the price of the 110A batts I put in 12 months ago that are still going great guns. I'm unsure!

[David Schweizer]

hmmm... twice the price of the 110A batts I put in 12 months ago that are still going great guns. I'm unsure!

But how long will your batteries last? I replaced my last set of these when they were 13 years old, and they still had some life left in them. They went to another boater as stand by batteries.

[blackrose]

I've just been reading in the June WW about the new Energy Bull range of batteries from Banner Batteries. They claim "three times the cycle resistance" because of "robust grid structures, special mass compositions, and bag separators with a glass web covering".

 

What do the battery experts think? Are these wonderful new batteries worth £105 each (for 110AH), or is it all a load of Bull?

Back to the Energy Bull(sh*t) question: Are these wet lead/acid batteries?

I only ask because the description sounds like AGM (glass matt) batteries which from my understanding are sealed.

Edited May 12, 2009 by blackrose

[Gibbo]

The blurb doesn't actually say what type of batteries they are which seems very odd.

 

However Banner have a good reputation and it seems, to me at least, to be stretching the imagination a bit to believe they would do a "snake oil" sales pitch on rubbish batteries. I can't see it somehow.

 

The biggest problem with batteries is it takes either a very long time under normal use or some very complex controlled tests in order to find out if they're any good. And even controlled tests can be fooled because of small differences between what the tester thinks represents reality and what really happens in reality. A certain other type of battery fell foul of this: In controlled tests they perform excellently, in reality they are no better than any other mid priced battery.

 

In answer to the original question: I have no idea. They might be great, they might be rubbish. I find the "rubbish" answer a bit difficult to swallow given Banner's repuation.

 

Gibbo

[Tony Brooks]

The blurb doesn't actually say what type of batteries they are which seems very odd.

 

However Banner have a good reputation and it seems, to me at least, to be stretching the imagination a bit to believe they would do a "snake oil" sales pitch on rubbish batteries. I can't see it somehow.

 

The biggest problem with batteries is it takes either a very long time under normal use or some very complex controlled tests in order to find out if they're any good. And even controlled tests can be fooled because of small differences between what the tester thinks represents reality and what really happens in reality. A certain other type of battery fell foul of this: In controlled tests they perform excellently, in reality they are no better than any other mid priced battery.

 

In answer to the original question: I have no idea. They might be great, they might be rubbish. I find the "rubbish" answer a bit difficult to swallow given Banner's repuation.

 

Gibbo

 

 

I will add that the spec says the plates are pocketed in glass fibre pockets. This is generally accepted as a method that helps reduce the plates shedding their material and may help retain the material that is lose on the plate rather than letting it fall into the sediment trap at the bottom of the battery to build up and eventually short the plates out. This may indicate some quality in construction. However I am not altogether convinced that all of that is as important as it seems. I have always understood that plates tend to flex when delivering high currents (like a large inverter on a small bank) and it seems to me that the pockets will only delay the time that it takes any lose but retained material from abrading through the pocket and the the separator.

 

In any case, as Gibbo has said on many occasions, most of us ruin our batteries by allowing them to sulphate so how much longer these will last in reality must be open to question . I would not be buying them at that price unless I either had a good solar or wind charger or a multistage battery charger and land line.

 

I am fully prepared for Gibbo to say the first paragraph is crap, but it is what I was taught when I worked in a battery shop about 50 years ago.