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woodgeezer's avatar
woodgeezer
Explorer
Sep 20, 2013

Batteries, Baqtteries, Batteries

I have an opportunity to buy very high quality AGM batteries at an excellent price. The question is, I have space to accommodate three 102ah batteries at 75lbs. each, but should I stick with two? Something is sticking in my mind that I need to do this in pairs. I can opt for two 124ah batteries at about 100lbs. each, but the weight means install and never move again, for me. These are UPS storage batteries that are less than four years old, but the price is about 22% of new. Comments are appreciated.
  • BFL13's avatar
    BFL13
    Explorer II
    Sep 20, 2013
    Usually a UPS battery would be designed with a lower SG electrolyte and not be so good at doing frequent "deep cycles" as say, a golf car battery would be, but would be better for lighter draws over a longer period.

    So how do you do you camp?

    AGMs come in various types. Some here have UPS AGMs in their RVs but I don't know how deeply or often they cycle them, etc. See the comparative table at the end of this wrt UPS batteries

    http://www.engineersedge.com/battery/specific_gravity_battery.htm
  • wolfe10's avatar
    wolfe10
    Explorer
    Sep 20, 2013
    Sorry, we have no idea of your electrical needs, amount of dry camping you do or your coach's reserve capacity for adding extra weight to that location. If, for example you rarely dry camp, adding hundreds of pounds of batteries would be a real waste of money.

    And, as long as these are 12 VDC batteries, you can use any number of them-- does not need to be an even number. Or course, if they are 6 VDC's, they can only be used in pairs.
  • pianotuna's avatar
    pianotuna
    Nomad III
    Sep 20, 2013
    Hi,

    There is no reason to not go with three so long as you wire them as method #3 on the smartgauge site.


    correctly interconnecting multiple twelve volt batteries

    Others may say it doesn't matter--but unless there is a compelling reason to not optimize charging and discharging why not do it the best possible way?

    Make sure you know the exact charging profile they need.

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