Walmart Battery Comparison

Eric212 wrote:
Roughly 5 years ago I installed three 12V Marine batteries that I purchased from Walmart. I can fit a maximum of 3 batteries on board, so I decided to go with 3 12V batteries instead of 2 6V batteries. Each was rated at 125 Amp Hours and I was very happy with their performance, especially for the low price.

First: Wal*mart cheats on their battery ratings, they rate them at the 1 amp rate, so your 125 amp hour batteries means they can provide 1 amp for 125 hours.

There is no legal standard but when we talk of batteries here we use the C/20 rate,, and a Group 29 is aroudn 100-105 amp hours at the C/20 rate

A pair of GC-2 Six volt wired in series would cost roughly the same a a pair of G-29s (Well the MAXX at lest) and would deliver 215 to 230 amp hours, that is more power for the same price,, AND, the Interstates my coach came with celebrated 8 birthdays, possibly 9 depending on exactly when they were installed,, before failing.

Another advantage, the Wal*Mart batteries are MARINE/Deep cycle (less you find a trolling battery) which means they do not really care for a 50 percent state of charge, they are Starting batteries first and foremost and only give lip service to "Deep cycle" considerations.

The Golf Car - 2 (GC-2) is a TRUE deep cycle, 50% soc is no problem, just recharge soon,

Advantage the Wal*mart 29s.. Maintenance free, means low gas, no adding water, and so on,, but you know.. I can put in a lot of distilled for the difffernce in cost per watt of storage.