Choosing a new house battery

[joelc]

I am confused. I have a 2012 Carriage Cameo with a battery box that measures 25Lx13HX8 5/8 deep and can not be enlarged. We recently had to purchase a 12V fridge, so now my demand for 12V is very high. My problem is what kind of battery and BRAND to get. I will probably need at least 200ah, Deep cycle. Don't know whether to get AGM or LI. If I get a LI then I will also have to change my on board converter/charger. I want to know the type of battery experience you have (Brand and type and size) and if you recommend it. When I go on the internet I find good reviews about "brand X", then find out that another site says the battery is junk. So what do you say? Remember, this is NOT for starting. Just a reliable HOUSE battery. By the way...mid price. Can't afford a $1000 battery. Also, I live full time, and am hooked up to shore power.

[StirCrazy]

yes the lower internal resistance of a LFP means it will accept a higher percentage of the charger output, or even a more powerful charger.

[cummins2014]

It's going to get tested today , the weather here in Montana has finally shaped up enough to get fishing . I have always run AGM batteries with my inflatable one man pontoon boat , they have always performed well, but a 27 AGM is not that portable at nearly 70 lbs . I am anxious to see what the time it takes to recharge these Lithium , AGM was not bad , supposedly the Lithium charges up much faster .

[StirCrazy]

cummins2014 wrote:


If it's truly just the battery , then I would disagree ,when the time comes, and I only need one battery it would definitely be lithium , not the $100 Wally special , although I do have two of their Everstarts in my truck ,and have been great now for about three years. My point is that lithium is going to last thru three or four of those cheap ones , if anything not having to mess with a battery , especially if it's not maintenance free.

Just went to a 100 amp lithium for my electric trolling motor , the weight alone is worth it to me , but that's a different issue .

and not to downplay the fact that if you forget about plugging it in and it goes to 0, not a big deal just means you can only do that 3499 more times 🙂

[joelc]

Just so you all know what is going on. I ordered a new charger/controller. The unit I ordered will be able to service Std, AGM and LiPO4 batteries by switching modes. This way, I can observe the unit with my current battery, and if necessary then get another battery later. In the event there is anyone else that is thinking of changing over at a later date, one must be sure that the LI battery is charged before use. So, you would have to have a LI charger prior to hooking it up to the RV. The unit I am getting is from Progressive Dynamics and is not on the open market, but is available only through the company. The model, in case anyone wants to look it up on their web site is PD9300.

[cummins2014]

fj12ryder wrote:

joelc wrote:
We are upgrading to a Lithium battery and a charger/converter that will accommodate same. We are getting a 12 V 100 ah+ battery. My only problem is that it appears they all might be made in the same Chinese factory, but have different names. So, I have to look closely. I can not afford those made in U.S.A. as they are out of my reach. I hope to get either 1 or 2 100 ah and put them in parallel.
If anyone has purchased a Li LiFePO4 battery in the last year and likes it, please let me know the brand and if you have it the warranty contact information.
By the way, the battery I have now is a Diehard Gel, deep cycle.

Just curious why you would ask a reasonable question, get several good answers, and ignore them. To repeat: if you're plugged into shore power all the time, basically it doesn't matter much what kind of battery you have. You can spend $400-$600, at least for 200 ah lithium batteries, or you can spend about $100 for a Wally World special. Both will work fine when you're plugged in to shore power. The only difference is you'll be about $500 poorer if you go with the lithium. 🙂

If it's truly just the battery , then I would disagree ,when the time comes, and I only need one battery it would definitely be lithium , not the $100 Wally special , although I do have two of their Everstarts in my truck ,and have been great now for about three years. My point is that lithium is going to last thru three or four of those cheap ones , if anything not having to mess with a battery , especially if it's not maintenance free.

Just went to a 100 amp lithium for my electric trolling motor , the weight alone is worth it to me , but that's a different issue .

[StirCrazy]

joelc wrote:
We are upgrading to a Lithium battery and a charger/converter that will accommodate same. We are getting a 12 V 100 ah+ battery. My only problem is that it appears they all might be made in the same Chinese factory, but have different names. So, I have to look closely. I can not afford those made in U.S.A. as they are out of my reach. I hope to get either 1 or 2 100 ah and put them in parallel.
If anyone has purchased a Li LiFePO4 battery in the last year and likes it, please let me know the brand and if you have it the warranty contact information.
By the way, the battery I have now is a Diehard Gel, deep cycle.

THIS seams to be the best bang for your buck battery on the market right now in terms of build quality at a low price. will did a tear down and things these might be made at the same factory that makes the chins as the packaging and build is identical. They tested at 103AH capacity and are grade A cells.

[joelc]

My 2012 Carriage Cameo does have LED lights in one main area. The rest are halogen. The battery is not quite a year old. This problem did not occur until the Dometic 12V fridge was installed. Initially, the fridge was not working properly on the 18g wire that was in the coach for the 3 way Norcold, so I installed 10g (?) wire and it is running colder, but still on often. It seems to suck up a lot of juice. I feel that the inverter/charger just can't keep up with it and replenish the battery or keep it going on its own without a voltage drop. Yesterday, I ran the 12V with and without the converter and just on battery finding some interesting observations. I now also have a separate charger at 15A on the battery. It is hard finding a solution to something you can't see.....electricity.

[fj12ryder]

I wonder if that 2015 has LED lighting. If it's not LED, the amount of power to run regular lighting could be pulling that converter down quite a bit, and if the battery is on its last legs, that could cause an issue. How old is the battery? Is it the original?

[laknox]

After re-reading this, and thinking back to the past nearly 15 years of reading RV fora, seems to me that people that have light dimming while on shore power often times =do= have a battery issue. What's happening is that the battery is going TU and the converter simply doesn't have the umph to charge it and run other stuff at the same time. I can't recall an RV that doesn't require a battery in-line to run 12v, again, because the converters don't have the capacity to handle that much.

Lyle

[joelc]

Well thanks for staying on course for believing the problem might be my inverter/charger. I am not sure, but I ran a bunch of voltage tests and you might be right. If it is the Progressive Dynamics unit, then I still would have to make a purchase, but I could hold off on the battery. I sent a memo to Progressive wondering if there is a "smart" unit that can sense and handle both Deep Cycle AGM and LiPO4 batteries. I might also give e-trailer.com an email to see what they say. They have been excellent in the past with getting back with their tech. support. I will also still check on Li batteries, just in case.
Thermmoguy: Thanks for your story. At night, when I put my scare lights on or too many interior lights they all dim too.

[fj12ryder]

joelc wrote:
We are upgrading to a Lithium battery and a charger/converter that will accommodate same. We are getting a 12 V 100 ah+ battery. My only problem is that it appears they all might be made in the same Chinese factory, but have different names. So, I have to look closely. I can not afford those made in U.S.A. as they are out of my reach. I hope to get either 1 or 2 100 ah and put them in parallel.
If anyone has purchased a Li LiFePO4 battery in the last year and likes it, please let me know the brand and if you have it the warranty contact information.
By the way, the battery I have now is a Diehard Gel, deep cycle.

Just curious why you would ask a reasonable question, get several good answers, and ignore them. To repeat: if you're plugged into shore power all the time, basically it doesn't matter much what kind of battery you have. You can spend $400-$600, at least for 200 ah lithium batteries, or you can spend about $100 for a Wally World special. Both will work fine when you're plugged in to shore power. The only difference is you'll be about $500 poorer if you go with the lithium. 🙂

[time2roll]

Chins is as good as any. Most low cost (and even some premium) batteries have some sort of issues periodically. #1 issue is expecting to use an LFP converter that charges at 14.60 volts instead of a more reasonable 14.2-14.4 volts like the standard PD. The issue is cells can be initially out of balance enough that the BMS will disconnect. Eventually the BMS will balance things out but induce troubles in the mean time. Slightly lower charging voltage will reduce the issue and still charge to 100%.

[Thermoguy]

joelc wrote:
time2roll:
I cut the 12V shut off switch and the V coming from the PD is 14.4V. I am not going to disconnect wires to check other voltages. As mentioned I had checked the Progressive unit per there converter guidelines and called Progressive and it checked out as working........It would be nice is someone just answers my question about the batteries in their towable rigs instead of trying to troubleshoot.
Thanks

The reason people are trying to help you troubleshoot your problem is because you do not have a battery problem. Switching to AGM or Li is not going to solve your issues. You are running shore power so the battery is not used. Your converter takes AC power and converts it to DC power to run your fridge, your battery is a storage compartment, in case you lose AC power and your converter has nothing to convert. Upgrading your batteries will be good if you lose AC power and need to go "off grid" for a while, but will not help your current situation.

I had a similar situation where my lights would dim when I used a heater. Eventually, my DC side stopped working all together. For me, my ground near my batteries had corroded and come lose. I had to move my batteries and redo my ground connections. Things have been working fine since.

If you still want battery recommendations, I run 2 6v golf cart batteries from Costco.

[joelc]

We are upgrading to a Lithium battery and a charger/converter that will accommodate same. We are getting a 12 V 100 ah+ battery. My only problem is that it appears they all might be made in the same Chinese factory, but have different names. So, I have to look closely. I can not afford those made in U.S.A. as they are out of my reach. I hope to get either 1 or 2 100 ah and put them in parallel.
If anyone has purchased a Li LiFePO4 battery in the last year and likes it, please let me know the brand and if you have it the warranty contact information.
By the way, the battery I have now is a Diehard Gel, deep cycle.