Why not two 12 volt batteries
Need to replace my 4 6 volt batteries,was thinking why 4 6 volt and not 2 12 volt. Reasons?
Forum Discussion
The problem is that as the batteries age, one battery may be weaker than the other. This means that battery will discharge the other battery to the lower level, which prematurely decreases your over all capacity as the batteries age.
The other reason is something I found out the hard way. I used to have 2-12s in parallel, but one of those batteries shorted out. This put a huge load on the other battery which exploded! I was about 15 feet away when it happened. Scared the living daylights out of me. I decided it was not such a good idea after that. You can still do it, but you really need a battery isolator, so that it prevents partial discharge, or that occasional random explosion.
The other reason is something I found out the hard way. I used to have 2-12s in parallel, but one of those batteries shorted out. This put a huge load on the other battery which exploded! I was about 15 feet away when it happened. Scared the living daylights out of me. I decided it was not such a good idea after that. You can still do it, but you really need a battery isolator, so that it prevents partial discharge, or that occasional random explosion.
