House Batteries
It appears that the time has come to replace my house batteries...they will charge up to 12.9v over a 24hr period, but will drop to 11.2 in 3 hrs unplugged...I have no idea how old the batteries are, ...
Forum Discussion
I suggest GC2 pairs Which brand is up to you Many thing TROJAN batteries are best But are they that much better to justify the price when Sam's sells very good batteries for less than 90 a pop? (Plus tax) I think not.
IF getting to them for service is an issue you might wish to consider AGM's (Also more expensive and again in my opinion not worth the added cost UNLESS access for maintenance is an issue) The advantages of agm is less frequent connection cleaning and you never add distilled water.
Flooded wet cells you do have to add Distilled water to from time to time add to about 1/4" below the bottom of the filler tube.
Why GC2 (6volt) Pairs?
Put two six volt 220 amp hour GC-2 in series you get one 12 volt 220 amp hour battery (roughly a 4D or 8D) but easier to wrangle (install/remove)
True DEEP Cycle batteries you can use half the power they store.
MARINE/deep cycle, at best 25%
Finally.. IF money is NOT an issue, consider conversion to one of the new LI batteries.. far more expensive but... Longer lasting and you can use over 90% of the stored power from what I'm told... I have two small ones (not big enough for RVing) will put one to the test in just under a month. (Amateur Radio Field Day it will power my TS-2000)
IF getting to them for service is an issue you might wish to consider AGM's (Also more expensive and again in my opinion not worth the added cost UNLESS access for maintenance is an issue) The advantages of agm is less frequent connection cleaning and you never add distilled water.
Flooded wet cells you do have to add Distilled water to from time to time add to about 1/4" below the bottom of the filler tube.
Why GC2 (6volt) Pairs?
Put two six volt 220 amp hour GC-2 in series you get one 12 volt 220 amp hour battery (roughly a 4D or 8D) but easier to wrangle (install/remove)
True DEEP Cycle batteries you can use half the power they store.
MARINE/deep cycle, at best 25%
Finally.. IF money is NOT an issue, consider conversion to one of the new LI batteries.. far more expensive but... Longer lasting and you can use over 90% of the stored power from what I'm told... I have two small ones (not big enough for RVing) will put one to the test in just under a month. (Amateur Radio Field Day it will power my TS-2000)
