Multicell Marine Leisure batteries

[dor]

Any views on these standard open cell 'leisure' batteries, good or bad? They are being offered to me at £68 each.

 

Please PM me if you don't want your comments public.

 

Thanks

[Flyboy]

Any views on these standard open cell 'leisure' batteries, good or bad? They are being offered to me at £68 each.

 

Please PM me if you don't want your comments public.

 

Thanks

I've got 4 x 110a/hr Multicell 'Leisure/Marine' batteries that are now 4 1/2 years old and still performing well.

 

Ian

[alan_fincher]

Forum search may help here, depending on how current you feel information stays.

 

I asked about them in this thread, and conclusion seem to be that they just badged stuff from other manufacturers, so quality would depend on what was being badged.

 

My experiences were poor, with one suffering an early failure of a rather odd nature, see this thread

 

The one I didn't replace as a result of this also seems poor now.

 

I think mine were not good, and I'd avoid this brand again, unless someone could convince me that what was underneath a particular re-badging was worth buying.

Edited May 9, 2012 by alan_fincher

[bottle]

I've got 4 x 110a/hr Multicell 'Leisure/Marine' batteries that are now 4 1/2 years old and still performing well.

 

Ian

 

But how are you using/abusing them.

 

Any battery will last many, many years if it is not 'used' and kept properly maintained.

[alan_fincher]

Any battery will last many, many years if it is not 'used' and kept properly maintained.

See my post above.

 

I scrapped a Multicell battery at less than 3 years.

 

It had been kept properlytopped up, and well charged, and as non live-aboards, had not been through a large number of charge / discharge cycles.

 

The most likely conclusion was a manufacturing fault, rather than abuse, but with only a typical 2 year warranty, I lost out.

 

So I don't agree the above statement is always true.

[smileypete]

Any views on these standard open cell 'leisure' batteries, good or bad? They are being offered to me at £68 each.

 

Please PM me if you don't want your comments public.

For comparison I wonder how much is a non-sealed '664' truck batt round your way? (esp. if buying a few)

 

 

My experiences were poor, with one suffering an early failure of a rather odd nature, see this thread

Reminds me why I don't miss Gibbo

 

I suspect even a cheap truck batt may have thicker (and better?) cell interconnects than an el-cheapo leisure batt.

 

Looking at the Multicell site, their 110Ah leisure batt is a few kg lighter than the equivalent truck batt.

 

cheers,

Pete.

Edited May 9, 2012 by smileypete

[simon&jan]

A batteries life can be seriously shortened by not being filled and charged properly when first born , batteries are living things , well before it is ever been stored at a suppliers , you never really know how old it really is , i would prefer to fill them meself so i know!

[Grace and Favour]

Are these a reasonable alternative

 

Lucas 664 £90 inc delivery

[alan_fincher]

The batteries I have had that were not Multicell are these......

 

Limekiln - Numax 110AH

 

However, whilst the £72 sounds fairly OK, from Limekiln they are "collection only".

 

I have bewen told they are the same battery as these.....

 

Midland Chandlers - Alnion 110Ah

 

differing only by the label.

 

Clearly more at Midland Chandlers, but if you could wait until a 15% or 20% day......

 

I think you can also order Numax batteries for home delivery, although IIRC there may be a carriage charge.

 

Edit:

 

Try typing Numax 110Ah Battery in Google, and click on the "Shopping" results.

Edited May 9, 2012 by alan_fincher

[dmr]

I think the general wisdom of this forum is "if they are cheap get them".

 

Its very hard to give or get reliable advice on a particular brand, and as said, this year they might be coming from a different factory to last year.

We got a set of Numax and they were useless, but I strongly suspect they had sat around in a warehouse somewhere for a long time. We got our money back and got the multicell "marine dual purpose". These lasted just over a year which is not too bad for a liveaboard. They were actually still all ok but we replaced them as the capacity was getting low and we need good batteries.

So on a sample of one: Numax bad, Multicell Good

We now have Trojans which so far appear very good but do need looking after.

Although we will almost certainly get Trojans again I really can see that for most boats cheapo leisure are probably best.

Some of the Lucas leisures do look good but I suspect they are "rebadged something else" at a premium price.

........Dave

[bottle]

We got a set of Numax and they were useless,

 

and we had a set that lasted 2½ years on an 'all electric' live-aboard, CCing, with full size fridge and a full size freezer (both under counter, no not that counter the work surface )

 

Taken down to 50% SOC nearly every day and usually recharged to about 95%SOC.

 

So on a comparison of two, some you win, some you lose.,

Edited May 9, 2012 by bottle

[dor]

My Numax sealed batteries have done over 5 years, except for about 6 months when I bought a set of basic open-cell batteries that were pretty well useless after six months. The Numaxs sat in my carport during this time, and after a prolonged charge were reinstated. However they are now showing their age, as I don't have a landline to keep them well charged (although my solar panel has stopped them deteriorating significantly over the last year).

 

Hence my wariness about buying cheap open-cell batteries

[bottle]

Hence my wariness about buying cheap open-cell batteries

 

Then don't, buy some decent deep cycle open cell ones and treat them right.

 

Having said that I have gone down the sealed deep cycle AGM route.

 

 

an aside my AGM's each weigh about 5Kg more per battery for the same amp.hour rating as the Numax .

 

edit: punctuation to try and make sense.

Edited May 9, 2012 by bottle

[smileypete]

My Numax sealed batteries have done over 5 years, except for about 6 months when I bought a set of basic open-cell batteries that were pretty well useless after six months. The Numaxs sat in my carport during this time, and after a prolonged charge were reinstated. However they are now showing their age, as I don't have a landline to keep them well charged (although my solar panel has stopped them deteriorating significantly over the last year).

 

Hence my wariness about buying cheap open-cell batteries

What make/type were they and in what way were they useless?

 

IIRC you had problems with the Numaxes that were down to persistent undercharging in the end, no batts are going to survive that.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[dor]

What make/type were they and in what way were they useless?

 

IIRC you had problems with the Numaxes that were down to persistent undercharging in the end, no batts are going to survive that.

 

1: Can't really say as they came from a local battery supplier and didn't have a specific make.

2: Yes they didn't last as long as they should have due to not having consistent full recharging. They still lasted a long time though! (And still have more capacity than the open-cell ones after 6 months use.)

 

I hope that now I have a decent solar panel the undercharging problem will go away - certainly when I go to the boat now after a few days the batteries are usually fully charged and on float.

[smileypete]

1: Can't really say as they came from a local battery supplier and didn't have a specific make.

Did you try taking them back under guarantee at all? Maybe I should retract my recommendation for buying locally!

 

Were they leisure or truck batts? It could be they failed due to undercharging too...

 

cheers,

Pete.

[dor]

Did you try taking them back under guarantee at all? Maybe I should retract my recommendation for buying locally!

 

Were they leisure or truck batts? It could be they failed due to undercharging too...

 

I had one replaced after about a month, and they changed two more after another month. They were still all shot at 6 months. One thing that might have a bearing is that I never got a hydrometer reading above 'fair', even after being on a mains charger for days. This did make me wonder if the acid was over-diluted from new.

 

They were badged as 'leisure batteries'.

[smileypete]

I had one replaced after about a month, and they changed two more after another month. They were still all shot at 6 months. One thing that might have a bearing is that I never got a hydrometer reading above 'fair', even after being on a mains charger for days. This did make me wonder if the acid was over-diluted from new.

 

They were badged as 'leisure batteries'.

Maybe go for the Multicells if they're local, at least you can check them out with a voltmeter/hydrometer, and check/ask about acid levels and topping up.

 

cheers,

Pete.

[dor]

OK, so I've gone with the £68 multicells. they seem a pretty standard LA battery. They were delivered to the boatyard a month ago so reasonably fresh stock. They came out of the shed where they were stored and I checked them - all on 12.80V . The last open cell batteries i bought wouldn't go above about 12.57. Unfortunately I thought my hydrometer was on the boat but I can't find it, but will check them next time i come to the boat (next week). They are holding to about 12.67 with 4 amps being drawn. They weight 23Kg which i think is pretty average.

 

Took my old ones to the local scrappie, plus another set and got paid cash just over £10 each. I also took in a bag of old plumbing fittings which had been sitting in my garage for the last 20-odd years and got £80 for those. Which was nice.

 

So we will see how they go. My type of boat use does not do the batteries any favours but hopefully the solar panel will get them fully charged while i am away from the boat - stopping for a day or two then only cruising for perhaps 2 hours before leaving the boat for 3 or 4 days is not ideal.

 

MANY THANKS to everyone for their comments.