Battery Compatability
I'm about to put a new house battery in my '94 Tioga. I picked up a Walmart deep cycle with 110ah for $75+ with a 2 year replacement warranty which seems to be a good deal. I've been reading ab...
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I bought the same Walmart DC battery to replace a dead marine battery. It appears to be a good battery for the money.
I also experimented with two used AGM's and separated them from a different marine battery with a Blue Sea switch. I like the switch because even though the AGM's eventually died, (using an older Magnetek converter that I have not updated) I can disconnect the house battery from inside using the switch. I have toyed with the idea of replacing the AGM's but we are not boondocking as much here in Colorado as in Arizona. Maybe next winter if we take an extended trip.
The nice thing about AGM batteries is that they don't have to be vented and they can be mounted in almost any position.
This dinette bench is directly above the battery compartment. a hole was drilled through the floor and the cables were run through a short piece of pvc pipe. You can see the Blue Sea switch mounted inside too.
I could use all the batteries together if the converter was not running but charge them one type at a time when it was.
I am not sure if the setup killed the AGM's prematurely since they were used when I bought them. But each of them started showing an error code when I tried to charge them with a smart vector charger and no amount of turning them upside down or other tricks worked to get them to charge again.
The switch was not too expensive and allowed me to use both types of batteries independently.
I also experimented with two used AGM's and separated them from a different marine battery with a Blue Sea switch. I like the switch because even though the AGM's eventually died, (using an older Magnetek converter that I have not updated) I can disconnect the house battery from inside using the switch. I have toyed with the idea of replacing the AGM's but we are not boondocking as much here in Colorado as in Arizona. Maybe next winter if we take an extended trip.
The nice thing about AGM batteries is that they don't have to be vented and they can be mounted in almost any position.
This dinette bench is directly above the battery compartment. a hole was drilled through the floor and the cables were run through a short piece of pvc pipe. You can see the Blue Sea switch mounted inside too.
I could use all the batteries together if the converter was not running but charge them one type at a time when it was.
I am not sure if the setup killed the AGM's prematurely since they were used when I bought them. But each of them started showing an error code when I tried to charge them with a smart vector charger and no amount of turning them upside down or other tricks worked to get them to charge again.
The switch was not too expensive and allowed me to use both types of batteries independently.
