SKSCCI wrote:
Good Evening Matt!
Thanks for the details.
Here's what I got from your discussion:
1. Buy a single 200AH battery and it will be good until it dies.
2. Buy two 100AH batteries and you will get about 150AH and they will be good until ONE of them dies. When the one dies, depending on how it dies, there is a chance that it has damaged its brother in parallel. So, instead of being able to depend on a backup battery, you may be in just as much trouble if not more so with 2 in parallel.
Some people have spoken about getting 2 6 volt batteries and using them in series for a 12 volt system. Is this situation pretty much the same as far as potential problems as 2 12v in parallel?
Thanks.
Steve.
I would say you have a good interpretation there.
A good principle is to minimize the number of cells(and the number of wire connections).
Cells are the basic building unit and are nominally 2V. Battery is a plural noun, or an assembly of cells. A 6V battery has 3 cells and in series/pairs you have a 12V battery with 6 cells. A 12V battery will also have 6 cells. Two parallel 12V batteries will have 12 cells. Extra cells/connections is where you get less mean time before failure. However, it does not mean there will be a failure.
A more exact match for 2 x 6V would be an equivalent AH 12V battery in size 4D or 8D.
IMHO would rank them best to worst:
1. 4D or 8D 12V,
2. series 6V,
3. parallel 12V.
HTH;
John