Which is the Better Battery Bank?

"Ooo Ooo Toodie look at this B.S. site"

http://www.secbattery.com/product-category/gel-batteries/deep-cycle/?gclid=CNyR6rON6NACFUa1wAodQ3UFXA

Deep cycle GEL? Cyclable Toilet Paper? Great tasting Near Beer? After adding you can run your engine for hours, without oil? Pons & Fleishman? Bernie Madoff is your go-to investment man!

And people wonder why I am so sarcastic abut battery claims.

Sheesh!

If taken down to 10% remaining do they perform a remarkably realistic impression of Mount Saint Helens, with PMS?

landyacht318 wrote:
I know of another firefly AGM with leaky caps, This one in an RV. The owner got in touch with firefly distributor who mailed them new caps.

If they can indeed rest at 50% for 6 months and be restored to 100% of original capacity, they are a game changer.

That and the ability to go 1000 cycles down to 80% DOD.
Or 1800 cycles down to 65%, 600 down to 100%. That increases their "effective" Ah over regular AGMs and FLAs. And could make them cost-efficient.

Is all the lead replaced with carbon foam in these things?

I know of another firefly AGM with leaky caps, This one in an RV. The owner got in touch with firefly distributor who mailed them new caps.

If they can indeed rest at 50% for 6 months and be restored to 100% of original capacity, they are a game changer.

pnichols wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Hi all,

I'm loving this thread. Does anyone know much about the carbon foam batteries?

It looks like the Firefly Group 31 weights in at 75 lbs. and is a 116 AH deep cycle 12V battery:

http://www.bruceschwab.com/uploads/2016-firefly-handout-2pg-1.pdf

That means it's the same weight as the Lifeline, but 9 AH less.

On a boating forum, one person stated that their new FireFly batteries were spitting electrolyte out of the "valves". FireFly replied, "this was normal and it would stop soon". That was the only negative I have ever read about FireFly.

I have learned that US Battery ( or their Independent Lab ) does this for their "Cycles vs DOD" charts
* 6V Golf discharge at 75 Amps
* 8V Golf discharge at 56 Amps
* 12V Marine DC discharge at 25 Amps

I am not sure if these discharge rates are specific for only US Battery or are "standard discharge rates" based upon the batteries AH rating. It appears that we have to pay $ to obtain the exact steps of the BCIS-06 Battery Test. Apparently, the specifics are on a "need to know basis" and they do not feel the we need to know how they actually test their batteries. "Trust us" ... wink-wink

It could be that the best battery is wasted on you! You have to look at how often you use it and for how many years and the price and so forth to see if you will ever benefit from the better battery vs the average sort of battery in your case.

Then if it turns out you can get the better one for nearly the same price as the average one, then of course , go for it. But don't pay extra for features you will never get to use.

Concorde says same .105" plates. Glad to hear others are doing battery tests. But it takes tremendous resources never mind money to really do comprehensive testing. If those pallets of batteries dis not arrive free of charge and had I not scoured the Lockheed auctions plus get the SCE bills paid for no way could I have done what I did. Be thankful for whatever you can get because comprehensive testing is a near thankless job.

Street price for the Trojans last time I checked was under $120/ea

Lifeline offers 2 different group 31 batteries
The GPL-31T is 105Ah
The GPL-31XT is 125AH
They also make on in the t-1275/ scrubber category which is s slightly enlarged footprint but an inch or 2 taller.
The GPL-30HT is 150AH and its increased weight/ capacity and only slightly inflated CCA ratings, could lead one to believe its plates are even thicker than the gpl-31XT

Most carbon foam AGM info can be found on marine forums. I will be waiting eagerly for more info from poster Maine Sail on cruisers forum or poster CMS ( same marine technician) on trawlers forum about them. I don't expect to be battery shopping for another year, or 2.

Mainesail does perform 20 hour capacity tests with all the special equipment to maintain temperature and amperage as voltage drops. He says the failure rate when a battery tests below 80% capacity skyrockets, and only foolish blue water sailors leave port with batteries testing at 80% or under.