Buying batteries. What makes them good?

[Doodlebug]

Sorry for all the questions?

 

When we come to buy new batteries we need 4 x 110ah leisure batteries.

 

I was talking to someone in the chandlery about this and they were 95 pounds each, but he was telling me how they buy their batteries in monthly so I can be sure they have come straight from the factory and haven't been sitting round for years.

 

Thats 95 x 4 = 380 pounds spent.

 

I can buy the same batteries from ebay for about 60 pounds.

 

60 x 4 is 240. A saving of 140 pounds. I could buy another two batteries for that.

 

Was the guy in the shop just doing sales talk to persuade me into buying his batteries? Am I better off with ebay ones? Or better buying 6 batteries from ebay? Any thoughts on this?

 

Are chandlery ones that much better? Lets say the ebay ones are brand new, is there much difference. I'm stumped with this :/

 

Cheers!

[Grace and Favour]

Answering your question - although indirectly:

 

Don't buy 110Ah batteries from the chandlery, or from ebay

 

Buy 4 224Ah 6v Trojan Batteries. (Will cost you about £405 from Battery Megastore after their 5% discount coupon (Google)

 

Substantially better quality.

 

 

With regard to the Salesman's patter - - there is a grain of truth in it - but only a grain - new batteries will sit on a shelf for many months without harm at all - and many sellers (I understand) don't fill them with acid solution until they are ordered - which renders their shelf life (pre-fill) as many years

[junior]

I know very little about electrics so I'm loath to comment, but....

 

I suspect one of the most important things is not the batteries themselves but how you look after them once they installed.

 

I have a SmartGauge fitted and in the year I've had my boat the batteries never dropped below 70% last winter and once the solar really kicked in in Spring they have pretty much been at 100% all the time. Sometimes when I go to bed at night they may have dropped to about 92% but as soon as the sun comes up they are back to 100%. That is with no generator and no engine charging whatsoever.

 

I consider my 4 x 110ah batteries to be as good as new after a years usage. They are sealed Numax batteries bought from ebay for roughly £70 iirc. I checked out a few suppliers and bought them from the one who seemed to sell the most, thus giving them a decent turnover in stock. I class them as consumables that I will need to replace every few years.

 

I don't see how any chandlery can guarantee that a battery hasn't sat around for ages at a the factory or wholesalers unless the battery has a date of manufacture on it, which I don't thing they do.

 

I'd be interested to see what some of the more knowledgeable electrical gurus think. I fully expect to see the word Trojan appear more than once in this thread.

[Guest]

Answering your question - although indirectly:

 

Don't buy 110Ah batteries from the chandlery, or from ebay

 

Buy 4 224Ah 6v Trojan Batteries. (Will cost you about £405 from Battery Megastore after their 5% discount coupon (Google)

 

Substantially better quality.

 

With regard to the Salesman's patter - - there is a grain of truth in it - but only a grain - new batteries will sit on a shelf for many months without harm at all - and many sellers (I understand) don't fill them with acid solution until they are ordered - which renders their shelf life (pre-fill) as many years

 

I don't know whether this is a daft question but, if I replaced my 12v batteries with 6v ones, would I need some sort of conversion gadget between the batteries and the fridge/lights etc?

[Robbo]

I don't see how any chandlery can guarantee that a battery hasn't sat around for ages at a the factory or wholesalers unless the battery has a date of manufacture on it, which I don't thing they do.

They do.

I don't know whether this is a daft question but, if I replaced my 12v batteries with 6v ones, would I need some sort of conversion gadget between the batteries and the fridge/lights etc?

You wire two in series (positive to negative) to make 12v. Plenty of diagrams around.

[Tony Brooks]

They do.

 

You wire two in series (positive to negative) to make 12v. Plenty of diagrams around.

 

Then you mess about, possibly with welding equipment, modifying your battery storage to suit the new battery size.

 

 

To the OP.

 

Unless absolutely stuck I would never buy anything from a chandlers that I could get from non-marine sources. Most large towns have a battery supplier and there is one, recommended on here, that does mail order. That sort of supplier is likely to have far faster turnover than a chandlers.

 

Unless you have an adequate method of monitoring the state of your battery charge and can keep them very well charged I would suggests that buying a premium make like Trojan could far too easily end up as a waste of money. FWIW, I bought 3 x 110Ah wet open cell Exide batteries from my local battery specialist and so far they have done 3 years with only signs of a slight loss of capacity. If I get another year from them I will be well pleased.

[nicknorman]

I don't see how any chandlery can guarantee that a battery hasn't sat around for ages at a the factory or wholesalers unless the battery has a date of manufacture on it, which I don't thing they do.

 

They generally do gave a date label, one of those types with multiple date numbers on them where you mark or cut out the relevant date. Presumably this is the fill date, not the manufacture date, so I suppose it relies on the person doing the filling to mark it correctly.

I don't know whether this is a daft question but, if I replaced my 12v batteries with 6v ones, would I need some sort of conversion gadget between the batteries and the fridge/lights etc?

As said, you need 2 sets of 2 wired in series to make 12v. This means making up new interconnect wires with crimped eyes on the end, for which you need the correct tool.

Then you mess about, possibly with welding equipment, modifying your battery storage to suit the new battery size.

 

It's certainly something to check before getting a different type of battery, but Trojans are substantially shorter in length than leisure 110s, just slightly wider by a couple of mm, and taller. The footprint is therefore smaller than leisure 110s and we had no need to alter the battery box except to pack out the extra space due to the shorter length. Edited August 24, 2014 by nicknorman

[wirren]

Have a look at Go Outdoors they do Numax 100amp hour AND will give you 10% off the best price you can find anywhere else.

 

They may also do free delivery on big orders but if not there are loads of branches around the country.

 

Mark.

[Paul's Nulife4-2]

General Question

 

If you had a 'Sizable' Battery bank of say 10 x 100A/hr Cheapest wet cell Batteries, Wired up in Parallel to still give say 12v at a Total cost of say £650.

Would the 'Strain' on that installation be similar !, More ! or Less ! than say the equivalent A/hr of say Top of the range or Trojan Batteries ?.

 

Let's assume H

 

(Although there may be less of them, they might Cost more, but have the same service life expectancy ?. Just a thought).

Edited August 24, 2014 by Paul's Nulife4-2

[nicknorman]

General Question

 

If you had a 'Sizable' Battery bank of say 10 x 100A/hr Cheapest wet cell Batteries, Wired up in Parallel to still give say 12v at a Total cost of say £650.

Would the 'Strain' on that installation be similar !, More ! or Less ! than say the equivalent A/hr of say Top of the range or Trojan Batteries ?.

 

(Although there may be less of them, they might Cost more, but have the same service life expectancy ?. Just a thought).

It's a good thought, but one for which I doubt there is an answer! I think it would depend on the usage and charging profile.

 

Anyway the point of this post is to mention that Trojans are not really "top of the range", they are more expensive than cheapo leisure batteries but much less than some of the fancy AGMs and Gel batteries. As such they seem to provide a significantly better battery for not that much more money.

[raymondh]

What is "factory fresh"? All batteries sold in the UK are manufactured overseas and pass from the factory through exporters/importers/distributors/retailers

Who can say how long each handling takes - eg mfd in Korea then shipped by container to??????? etc etc

Big distributors ie Batteries UK, ManBatt all import and label their batteries as required for the various markets - some execption being US Batts /Rolls/Trojan and Bull

As prev stated its more how you use them than how old they may be when you buy them

Ray

[system 4-50]

If switching from Numax to Trojans, do the alternators have to be adjusted/altered?

[nicknorman]

If switching from Numax to Trojans, do the alternators have to be adjusted/altered?

Not for normal charging, no. Trojan specifies an equalisation charge every now and again (15-15.5v) but that applies to all flooded batteries.

[leeco]

I have had these abused them quite bad over the 2 years one even falling out of my van while I was driving and it bounced down the road.

 

 

 

This year I installed solar and they are a really good bank never falling below 12.5v.

 

I wish I knew where to get 2 more to add to my bank but can't find a supplier.

[raymondh]

Hi,

Try

DETA BATTERIES

DETA BATTERIES
Nix's Hill,
Nix's Hill Ind. Estate,
Alfreton,
Derbys
DE55 7EG

Contact: Brian Jones

Tel: 01773 540366
Fax: 01773 830046

 

or look at

 

http://www.deta-batterie.de/

 

Ray

[leeco]

Hi,

Try

DETA BATTERIES

DETA BATTERIES

Nix's Hill,

Nix's Hill Ind. Estate,

Alfreton,

Derbys

DE55 7EG

Contact: Brian Jones

Tel: 01773 540366

Fax: 01773 830046

 

or look at

 

http://www.deta-batterie.de/

 

Ray

Cheers

[David Schweizer]

We have had two of these in our boat for nine years, they still hold a full charge :-

 

http://www.tayna.co.uk/US-125-Deep-Cycle-Monobloc-Battery-P4121.html

Edited August 25, 2014 by David Schweizer