My Screwy 31
First off let me say I am not stressing over this. It's just a battery, it is only money, it is meeting my overnight needs, but it is displaying strange behavior, and I am curious as to why. So th...
Forum Discussion
Tough question to answer Niner.
My 2 previous sets of house batteries, 2 27's, First Crown Deep cycles, then Relabelled Crown Marine batteries were ~ 230$, and both were compromised by me not watering them in time. They needed water at least 4 times a year, and by the end of their lives it was every 6 to 8 weeks they'd take nearly 2/3 a gallon between the two.
Both sets of Crown's lasted me to about the 2 year mark and ~ 340 cycles per year. The first set with Crown stickers was superior, and impressive until they got low at the 2 year mark. They performed horribly after refilling them, and only 3/4" of plates were exposed. The second set that was relabelled with an "extreme cycle service" claim turned out to be lighter weight Crown Marine batteries and I was never really impressed with them, even before they got a bit low on water early in their lives.
It is a PITA to get to my battery box where I can put the 2 -27's in parallel. Now I have that single AGM in there. Hard to put a price on not having to crawl into that cabinet, unscrew and lift the hatch, pop the caps shine a light in there to check levels and dip the Hydrometer and try to read it. Between all the steps required to get in there and top off all cells and put everything back, well if time is money, then not having to do that is money in my pocket.
I do feel a certain confidence in the ability of this AGM. I have way more confidence in it, than the 31, even though both individually easily meet my needs, and I have been cycling the 31 more since I bought both together late Nov of 2013. The 31 was not cheap either at 165$ with tax, and at the time I really thought I was buying among the best flooded batteries available.
Hard to decide if holding more voltage during discharge and cranking the engine way faster is really worth the premium paid for this AGM. But there is no doubt that it cranks the engine much much faster, and that it holds .2 to .3v higher at all levels of depletion I have take each battery to, so far.
Do I believe it is a superior battery? Yes. Will it save me any money in the long run, I doubt it. Am I concerned about the extra 125 dollars spread over 2 years, my dang bank takes twice that from my account in that timespan just for the privilege of having an account with them. Scumbags.
Frankly, I kind of miss being able to take a SG reading with the AGM, afterall it is the best battery tool there is. Kind of feel a bit blind without it. but at the same time, crawling in that cabinet just to check is a major chore which was indirectly responsible for the shortened lifespans of 460$ worth of batteries.
I wonder how The AGM would respond to cycling nightly for a month or 2 or 11 and being recharged at a relatively slow rate by the solar only. How often would an AGM 'conditioning', be required in such use? I was not able to see the performance drop during this last week. It Seemed to hold just as high a voltage as the night before using the same loads for the same amount of time.
I cannot say the same thing about the 31 after I give it an EQ cycle. The first two nights after an EQ it is good, but then
" 12.2v already!! Freaking POS!" When I see this, I often wish I bought two AGM's instead of one of each.
But then I would not have much comparing to do, and I find it interesting to experiment and compare, and expect and measure and verify, and ultimately, learn.
Who knows how long this 31 will last either. It could very well live a long life since I have come closer to knowing how often I need to Equalize it and for how long.
Next Sunday I'll see how a week of Solar 14.4v Acceptance and 15.3v "finishing" charge affects the SG readings, and the AGM, this week, will be for engine cranking duties only and not share in any solar current.
Time to reset my battery monitor.
My 2 previous sets of house batteries, 2 27's, First Crown Deep cycles, then Relabelled Crown Marine batteries were ~ 230$, and both were compromised by me not watering them in time. They needed water at least 4 times a year, and by the end of their lives it was every 6 to 8 weeks they'd take nearly 2/3 a gallon between the two.
Both sets of Crown's lasted me to about the 2 year mark and ~ 340 cycles per year. The first set with Crown stickers was superior, and impressive until they got low at the 2 year mark. They performed horribly after refilling them, and only 3/4" of plates were exposed. The second set that was relabelled with an "extreme cycle service" claim turned out to be lighter weight Crown Marine batteries and I was never really impressed with them, even before they got a bit low on water early in their lives.
It is a PITA to get to my battery box where I can put the 2 -27's in parallel. Now I have that single AGM in there. Hard to put a price on not having to crawl into that cabinet, unscrew and lift the hatch, pop the caps shine a light in there to check levels and dip the Hydrometer and try to read it. Between all the steps required to get in there and top off all cells and put everything back, well if time is money, then not having to do that is money in my pocket.
I do feel a certain confidence in the ability of this AGM. I have way more confidence in it, than the 31, even though both individually easily meet my needs, and I have been cycling the 31 more since I bought both together late Nov of 2013. The 31 was not cheap either at 165$ with tax, and at the time I really thought I was buying among the best flooded batteries available.
Hard to decide if holding more voltage during discharge and cranking the engine way faster is really worth the premium paid for this AGM. But there is no doubt that it cranks the engine much much faster, and that it holds .2 to .3v higher at all levels of depletion I have take each battery to, so far.
Do I believe it is a superior battery? Yes. Will it save me any money in the long run, I doubt it. Am I concerned about the extra 125 dollars spread over 2 years, my dang bank takes twice that from my account in that timespan just for the privilege of having an account with them. Scumbags.
Frankly, I kind of miss being able to take a SG reading with the AGM, afterall it is the best battery tool there is. Kind of feel a bit blind without it. but at the same time, crawling in that cabinet just to check is a major chore which was indirectly responsible for the shortened lifespans of 460$ worth of batteries.
I wonder how The AGM would respond to cycling nightly for a month or 2 or 11 and being recharged at a relatively slow rate by the solar only. How often would an AGM 'conditioning', be required in such use? I was not able to see the performance drop during this last week. It Seemed to hold just as high a voltage as the night before using the same loads for the same amount of time.
I cannot say the same thing about the 31 after I give it an EQ cycle. The first two nights after an EQ it is good, but then
" 12.2v already!! Freaking POS!" When I see this, I often wish I bought two AGM's instead of one of each.
But then I would not have much comparing to do, and I find it interesting to experiment and compare, and expect and measure and verify, and ultimately, learn.
Who knows how long this 31 will last either. It could very well live a long life since I have come closer to knowing how often I need to Equalize it and for how long.
Next Sunday I'll see how a week of Solar 14.4v Acceptance and 15.3v "finishing" charge affects the SG readings, and the AGM, this week, will be for engine cranking duties only and not share in any solar current.
Time to reset my battery monitor.
