Replacing 12-volt batteries with 6-volt

SO that you know. with large inverters Xantrex suggests at leat one pair GC-2 per kilowatt of inverter.. Now when my GC-2s were new one pair would cook my lunch in the 1100 watt microwave with the 2KW inverter but they suggest one pair per KW.

And when you do the "how much power" math. for inverters assume 10 volts from the battery.. not dead on but by the time you factor in conversion loss (About 10 percent) and line loss.. Darn close.

hedgehopper wrote:
Have you replaced two 12-volt batteries in parallel with two 6-volt batteries in series to improve ampere hours? Were the results satisfactory? Please elaborate. Was the rewiring difficult?

Just do it. You'll be happy you did.

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:
Yup kinda and I hated it. Had one 12 volt from the factory. Added two 6 volt GC2 batteries to power my inverter. .

Maybe you should have removed the 12v.

2 -6v batteries are not enough for any big draw inverters. 4 minimum, 6 is better, but incredibly heavy.

marcsbigfoot20b27 wrote:

Swapped the whole thing to 3 AGM 12 volt deep cycle batteries in parallel and couldn’t be happier. My solar charges them faster also.

That is a not often mentioned advantage of sticking with 12 volt batteries. One, two, three, four, or five all increase available power without having to buy in pairs.

ktmrfs wrote:
6V advantage
1) can take 500+ charge discharge cycles to under 50% (more like 25%) SOC

Disadvantage:
do NOT work well with high current loads, like even 1000W inverter. First ALL the current is coming from each battery vs 1/2 the current from each battery in a similar parallel 12V, Next, they have much higher internal resistance than a 12V which means more voltage drop

6V vs 12V IMHO really depends on YOUR application. If you only occasionally dry camp, or often use high inverter loads, then 12V may be a better alternative.
.

Note that I have for a out 6 years routinely run my Coleman Mach 1 P.S. 11kbtu air conditioner for brief periods (up to an hour or more concurrent with 440w solar) from two 6v GC’s without a hitch (via ProSine 2.0 - 04 aught cables), with locked rotor starting amps at about 140amps - now running Costco GC’s...Cables do MATTER...

I went with 4x GC2. Wire is easy.
Click on my solar set up for a battery picture.

6V advantage
1) can take 500+ charge discharge cycles to under 50% (more like 25%) SOC

Disadvantage:
do NOT work well with high current loads, like even 1000W inverter. First ALL the current is coming from each battery vs 1/2 the current from each battery in a similar parallel 12V, Next, they have much higher internal resistance than a 12V which means more voltage drop

6V vs 12V IMHO really depends on YOUR application. If you only occasionally dry camp, or often use high inverter loads, then 12V may be a better alternative.

If you often dry camp, can keep your load down to 50A or less peak, 6V may be a better choice.

Check here forhow to wire them.
12 volt side of life

Also - make sure you have room for the sixers - they are taller than the 12's and in my rig they won't fit.

Generally speaking this starts the debate regarding the possibility of one of the 6v batteries kicking the bucket and being hosed till you can replace both of them, which is a possibility. I have 4 each 6v batteries and like the set up a lot. I've read that the 12v's work better with large inverter draw and that would be something to consider. I really do like the idea of someday going to 4 each 6v AGM's. But that is several years and modifications down the road. Too many other things to work on now that cost money.