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ron_dittmer's avatar
ron_dittmer
Explorer III
Oct 13, 2014

Batteries: Two-6V In Series, or Two-12V In Parallel ???

Before spring I will be replacing our two 12V Walmart coach batteries. Our 7 year old rig has it's original Tripplite 2000 watt inverter/charger similar to THIS ONE. I was thinking of replacing the ...
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DiploStrat's avatar
DiploStrat
Explorer
Sep 16, 2015
ron.dittmer wrote:
I have two 6V AGM batteries in series now. No longer two 12V lead acid in parallel.


?? You still have one 12v lead acid battery; doesn't matter if it is made up of two 12v cases or two 6v cases. (Actually you have a collection of 2v cells, you can mix and match as you wish to produce 6v, 12v, or even 24v, depending on how you wire them.)

In any case, for longest life, you want to discharge as little as possible and recharge as fast as possible. The 50% rule is a good compromise, but don't wait until the batteries are down to 50% SOC if you can recharge them faster.

In my case, my typical overnight draw is about 125Ah, about a 20-25% discharge of my 600Ah battery bank, and I start recharging as soon as there is light in the morning. Limiting my typical discharge to 25%, vice 50%, will give a much longer battery life. (And the wretched AGM's ain't cheap!)

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