Best type of house battery

I would never consider anything other than a deep cycle battery for my house battery. The advantage AGMs have over standard flooded batteries is lower maintenance (I've used them in boats for that reason). If people want to take the next giant step in RV batteries these days, they're going with Battle Born lithium batteries. They're pretty expensive, though.

Rob

I deploy my jacks with the motorhome motor still running. I imagine a fifth wheel owner could deploy the jacks and slides in the same way, so the power doesn't deplete your house batteries. I have gotten a lot more life and power out of AGM's than I did with LA batteries. The AGM's also need very little maintenance, so I think they are worth the extra cost. One hint is to look for craigslist ads for AGM's that are overstock or are being retired from UPS systems. A good way to get new or near new batteries for a fraction of the retail price.

Best? That would be lithium :)

Nickle Iron but oh they cost!

Your premise is incorrect. Most use a single starting battery (sometimes relabeled as a combination battery but really just a starting battery if you open it up and look at the construction).

If you don't camp off grid, it's a perfectly good solution. Jacks & slides will generally pull less than 100amps for less than 30seconds and a starting battery does just fine doing that.

Only reason to consider Gel or AMG is if you are going to roll your RV. The big advantage to them is they don't leak out the acid if you put them on their side or upside down (planes, boats, jeeps can gain advantage as they often spend time substantially off level). They offer no real advantage in an RV.

X2 big bucks for something most rv,ers don,t need.I,ve been using wal marts deep cycle for over ten years without a problem. and I boon dock most times. they last about four years. still charge but I changed them out for a long haul.

Two Trojan T-105's in series. My first set was replaced a year ago after 8 years full time service. Use the Trojan watering system and top them off twice a year and you are good to go. Zero maintenance - No, but darn close. And they are true deep cycle batteries.

My replacements were the same.

I love my 2 Lifeline AGM Group 31 batteries..

Marine batteries and deep cycle batteries are not the same thing. Deep cycle batteries are meant to be ran down and recharged many times without causing excessive damage to the batteries. Starting {cranking}, batteries are meant for a quick, high discharge needed to start a vehicle. They are not meant for long slow discharge. Marine deep cycle batteries are really a combination of both deep cycle and starting batteries. They are not the best at either, but are a compromise as a boater needs things like fish finders and radios running when the engine is not running, yet still needs to start the boat. True deep cycle batteries are best for house batteries. Generally you will get more storage capacity out of two 6 volt deep cycle batteries than you will two 12 volt ones. These are the same type that a golf cart would use. Just thought I would put that out there, as lots of people seem to believe marine batteries are true deep cycle batteries, when in fact they are not. Cheers

gmg wrote:
Most RVs seem to have lead acid deep cycle marine batteries. However I’m just thinking that most but not all RVers rarely camp without shore power. The most instantaneous power demand is when running out slides or deploying jacks. So it seems to me that a standard or combination starting battery makes more sense than the deep cycle marine battery. One more question I have: I’m wondering if the higher cost for agm batteries is worth the money. The plus side to me is not having to keep up with the electrolyte levels. I would be interested in what others think about this or have experienced.

The so-called "deep cycle" marine batteries aren't true deep cycle, meaning that they can't be drawn down and recover time and time again. They just provide a lot of cranking amps. What a lot of us do is to simply get a couple 6v golf cart batteries and connect them in series to make 12v. Maybe a few less amp hours storage, but the ability to draw them way down in voltage without damage is worth more than having all but the absolute best 12v batteries. For about $200 (2 batteries from Costco or Sam's and a crossover cable) it's way cheaper than 12v batteries, too. Now, if you have deep pockets, go Lithium using Nissan Leaf battery modules. 2 modules at 7.2v each, give you 14.4v in series, with 64 amp hours. Start stacking them together in parallel to get as many amp hours as you need. NOT cheap, but you'd probably go through at least 3 sets of flooded batteries in their lifetime. They're also about half the weight as flooded batteries.

Later: Forgot to mention that, personally, I leave my FW plugged into my truck while setting up or hitching up to leave when we're boondocking. Less stress and strain on the coach batteries. Now, if I'm in a CG, I'll stay plugged in while I unhitch, then plug into shore power before leveling and running out the slides. When leaving, the shore cord is the last thing to be packed before leaving.

Lyle