best practices for long battery life

mrad wrote:

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
You were doing multiple things wrong. Incomplete charging will kill a battery faster than overdischarge and complete recharging.

Mex,

To teh best of my knowledge, I almost always put a full charge back into it according to my vector smart charger. if it wasnt full, the charger was at least in trickle (2.2 amp charge) mode.

The batteries were always labeled deep cycle. The interstate ones also had a pic of a boat and RV on them next to the deep cycle label.

NOPE.

Not gonna happen with that little Vector" pea shooter.

Those STUPID "smart" chargers SHUT OFF when they see the battery voltage rise to a preset level, they do not "trickle" charge and even if they did, 2.2A is peanuts for anyhting larger than a motorcycle battery, would take MONTHS to top of a completely discharged battery to full at the rate.

Do yourself one huge favor, STOP doing what you are doing, YOU are destroying your batteries.

Try using your RV CONVERTER and allow it to charge your battery AND MAINTAIN it. The builtin converter will have three stage charging, one stage for storage/maintenance, one stage for bulk charge and one stage for DESULFINATION.

Newby mistake overthinking things..

I installed a PD9160 with external Charge Wizard, connected to one pair of GC2 batteries.. Just recently replaced the first set which lasted 10 yrs.. I use those batteries hard when camping, powers my home fridge conversion..

Additionally, since you are constantly over discharging your battery via a ceiling fan, it is TIME to consider bumping up in battery capacity.. Those combo Marine/RV batteries unlike the advertisements say you can, should not be discharged below 80% for LONGEST LIFE. That means you only get 20% capacity use of that battery..

Better deepcycle batteries can easily handle 50% discharges and get a long life.