Sweet deal on batteries
I was in Costco today, and saw they had their marine/deep cycle batteries on for about half price as it is the end of the RV season here in Canada. I have two costco group 24s that I run in parall...
Forum Discussion
Almot wrote:ib516 wrote:
I have two costco group 24s ...Seems to me they don't last like they used to when boondocking.
How can you tell? Lost capacity?
ib516 wrote:
I have had to add distilled water to the batteries -- about a new cup in each one to get them full again after a season of use. The RV has a simple parallax (sp?) Converter/Charger. I think I have taken good care of the batteries.
Adding water doesn't mean anything good or bad. Parallax converters come in variety of models, but if this is not a 3-stage temp-compensated charger with remote temp sensor, I doubt it has taken a good care of batteries. Besides, apart from charging there is a discharging, i.e. something that not a charger but the user has to control. Deeper discharge and higher load current = shorter life.
On why I think they are failing....
I noticed that, even after running the generator for 2-3 hours during the day when boondocking, the batteries were really weak in the morning when they had to cycle the furnace on chilly nights. Of course, I was sleeping, so I don't know how much the furnace ran, but it was just above freezing outside, maybe 40*f. They weren't deeply discharged before I ran the genny either.
Either way, I will get them tested after I have them fully charged on the bench with a real battery charger. I guess if they are still good, I'll have a bank of 4 instead of just 2 :).
