Sealed batteries

Veebyes wrote:
They are not cheap but they have much longer service lives than the wet cell type that needs to watered from time to time.

I have yet to find a single authoritative source that proves that and my own experience disproves it.. AGM's 5 years Wet cells both flooded and sealed about 9 (hard to tell on some of them as they are older than RV). Of course I might have gotten a pair of not all that good AGM's. But Im not going to toss that kind of money in to trying again.

There is nothing wrong with gel cell batterys. Had them in my boat. 5 group 31s arranged in 3 banks which could be combined in any way for any purpose. They lasted 10 years. They spent months at a time with no attention, no trickle charger, nothing.

I expect at least 8 years out of my single 4D AGM. It also spends 6 months a year disconnected & unattended.

If you are going to make the major upgrade in battery you might as well do the same on the charging side. Again, not cheap, but I went with a marine type programable inverter/charger. The charge rate is set specifically for the type of battery & its capacity.

The standard cheap & nasty single stage converter/charger got tossed.

rtaylor0830 wrote:
Will a sealed battery work with a camper the ones that say you do not have to add water.

Yes in fact many use them..

The issue however is battery life Depending on your converter and camping practices a non-sealed top-offable may last longer.

I see some folks are touthing the alleged advantages of AGM.. Well the major advantages of agm are

To the buyer: You can mount them on their side end upside down, no "This Side Up" sticker

To the seller: A lot more profit.

When it comes to capacity, Except for Optima (Less capacity) they are very nearly identical

Weight, Likewise (Optims is lighter)

Life: My AGM's lasted 5 years, my sealed and flooded nine.

In the specific case of LIFELINE... they can be charged faster but you need a bigger converter to do that. And the time savings is not that great since it is only the bulk mode that is faster.

Home work time a very good lay out of what is what and why. http://www.solar-electric.com/deep-cycle-battery-faq.html

I have used maintenance free batteries in the past. We always use FHU campgrounds and they worked fine for my me.
Don

If you mean a "maintenance free" wet cell battery I don't think they make those in deep cycle, only starting. A starting battery is not a good choice for a camper; they are designed to start an engine, no power things for long periods of time.
If you mean an AGM deep cycle, they are very nice batteries and will work but they're expensive.
If you're talking about a gell cell (which I doubt) that's a poor choice because they take very special charging voltages that most camper converters can't be programed too.

The sealed AGM battery is the type of choice for the cruising marine world. The batterys can be put anywhere without worry of gassing into living compartments.

They are not cheap but they have much longer service lives than the wet cell type that needs to watered from time to time.

Yes any deep cycle 12v will work fine. Sealed is not exempt from venting requirements.

Wet cell and AGM are fine. Stay away from GEL as you would need a special charger.

Hi,

Yes, but it would be better to use one with AGM chemistry. It will cost more and give less over all capacity.

The non agm ones are intended as starter batteries and they are not suitable for deep cycle use.