Mixing battery types
Question for the battery "Gurus", what is the downside of mixing a gel cell with a standard wet cell type? Will I risk overcharging one or the other? Feedback and comments would be appreciated.
Forum Discussion
14 Replies
- There are flooded, AGM, and gell batteries. Many people confuse the AGM with a gell. A true gell battery is rarely found in an RV and they are very expensive.
Either way, each chemistry requires different charging voltages and times so mixing them means none of your batteries are ever charged exactly the way they should be. - Hi,
Gel cells are among the least forgiving. If the charge rate is too high there will be permanent damage to the cells. It could be done with appropriate switches and adjustments of the charging rate to fit the gel cell.
If the Gel cell battery is free, go for it. If you have to pay, then don't mix. - Never fix battery types, as they charge differently. Also never add a new battery in parallel with an old battery, as you will soon have two old batteries. When I put six volt batteries in the boat I try to get ones out of the same batch. Have 6 now over 8 years old. Next time I am going to install 8. Chris
- Google "mixing battery types" and you will get lots of answers. All saying don't do it. Under some circumstances, you could cause a battery to explode.
