Need Battery Help ASAP

Sam Spade wrote:

westend wrote:

were installed yesterday afternoon and are still showing as good this morning

I'd suggest that you get some type of battery monitoring that is accurate and easily visible. This could be as simple as a voltage meter.

This is REALLY important as an inaccurate indication can lead you to think you are doing OK when you really are leaving the batteries LOW and greatly reducing their life span.

Now that you have a good set of batteries, maybe we should have a short discussion about what your "normal" routine is for using them and keeping them charged.

^^^^THIS (in bold)^^^^

Over discharging AND failing to recharge as soon as possible WILL cause the batteries to fail very quickly.

Discharging to 10.5V (totally flat) on any "12V" system is a no no.. Doing that just once and failing to recharge immediately can severely reduce the life of the battery.

SOOOO.. If you don't have a generator or solar, it might be a good time to consider changing your system and charging habits (IE buy some solar panels or a generator)..

I realize many folk like to be a weekend warrior or even go a whole week without running a generator.. BUT, in doing so you are killing the batteries and as you found out, it gets kind of expensive when you have to start replacing them every few years.

Shallow discharges with a recharge as fast as possible WILL net you the longest battery life you can get.

Deep discharges with a long period of the battery sitting discharged results in very short battery life.

Treat them right and there is no reason you should not be able to get 10-11yrs of useful life..

Treat them badly and expect 2-5yrs and then have replace..

Take you pick of poison..