Costco GC2 Batts

[jake2250]

Well, One of my 4 year 4 month old GC2s from Costco just coughed up a cell during a cold Coast camp trip!! Sure I could buy another $86 Batt,, but I would still have a 4+ year old one..
Ordered two T105 Trojans,,, hopefully I wont report back for five or more years!!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Hahahaha on one of your trips to Costco try and sneak back to the loading dock and snort a dose of reality. I worked out the math for a vendor re how much a warranty really costs and he then went Trojan 100%.

Again cents per kWh is the only intelligent way to measure a cyclable battery. Avoiding this calculation is bunk science and economics

[pianotuna]

What inverter are you using? What is the wattage when the air is running? Voltage drop on the batteries?

3 tons wrote:
Well, since I never drive the camper over the greens, and can run my 11k air conditioner for short periods (30 to 60 min, depending on SOC) off of two 208 a/hr Costco $85 GCs, I believe thay are a serious alternative to the 'better' brands....JMO from actual personal experience....

3 tons

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Good battery good charging = Happy Camper
Omitting one of the two makes for a busy forum.
Omitting both makes an ex-RVer.

[Searching_Ut]

hammick wrote:
The Costco and Sams Club GC2s are Interstate branded and made by US battery. They require a 15.3 volt absorption charge which is no easy task. Your stock converter or stock solar charger controller will mean a short life. If your are going to go the GC2 route you have to study up on the getting them properly charged and buy a good solar charge controller and probably something to properly charge them when it's cloudy or in the winter.

Interstate GC2 charging specs

Setting your charging system up correctly makes more of a difference in battery life in my experience than does the brand you purchase. Unfortunately, that isn't always easy as they put garbage converter/chargers in from the factory. My current rig came with a PD 9280, which is pretty much garbage, no adjustability, and of course poorly installed by the trailer manufacture which makes it even worse. On the plus side, I do have my solar charge controller set up right for my Interstate batteries. You also have to keep in mind that things like the electronics of my Norcold Refrigerator have max voltage limit of 15.4 volts, so you have to make sure your set up to not go above that when it gets cold if you're using temperature compensation. While I only used solar maintainers on my two previous rigs, they were big enough to fully charge my batts once the battery switch was turned off, which went a long ways towards giving me good battery life since I couldn't plug my trailer in to fully charge in the storage lot.

Keep um wet, fully charge as often as possible and you can generally get good performance for a lot of years.

[landyacht318]

Interesting link.

The screwy31 is a 12v group31 USbattery, and I can say the 15.3v finishing/absorption voltage, was key to keeping the specific gravity walk every cycle down to a minimum when cycled deep, daily.

14.7v was a joke and Specific gravity would tank if all it got each day was a few hours of 14.7v.

The 12v battery in that link says a 15.5v absorption voltage! And only 15.6v equalization.

Now a word from out resident USBattery nemesis......
He might start sputtering something about Herb Tarlick and paisley ties 🙂

[hammick]

The Costco and Sams Club GC2s are Interstate branded and made by US battery. They require a 15.3 volt absorption charge which is no easy task. Your stock converter or stock solar charger controller will mean a short life. If your are going to go the GC2 route you have to study up on the getting them properly charged and buy a good solar charge controller and probably something to properly charge them when it's cloudy or in the winter.

Interstate GC2 charging specs

[grizzzman]

theoldwizard1 wrote:

grizzzman wrote:

My Costco 208 ah 6ers weight was 62 lbs. They looked at me funny A. find the newest batteries B. Voltage test C. Dip um .

Dip em = check the specific gravity ?

grizzzman wrote:
And I brought my scale and weighed them. They just left me be and allowed me to pick the ones I wanted. The batteries at the front of the rack were 6 mo. Old...........

Was there a measurable weight difference between batteries ?


Costco GC2 have to be the best bang for the buck !

I found no difference's in weight.
Dip em = check the specific gravity ? Yep

[grizzzman]

jake2250 wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:

grizzzman wrote:

My Costco 208 ah 6ers weight was 62 lbs. They looked at me funny A. find the newest batteries B. Voltage test C. Dip um .

Dip em = check the specific gravity ?

grizzzman wrote:
And I brought my scale and weighed them. They just left me be and allowed me to pick the ones I wanted. The batteries at the front of the rack were 6 mo. Old...........

Was there a measurable weight difference between batteries ?


Costco GC2 have to be the best bang for the buck !

I agree on the best bang for your buck, but at this present time I have TWO almost 4and a half year old Costco GC2's that are starting to fade, I suspect a dead or dying cell in one because of the lack of holding its full charge. Heater ran through two cycles, them fan came on but wouldn't light,, voltage panel was showing just under 12 volts. Next morning with solar it ran great and voltage was over 13V.
We are back now and I have to remove batteries before I store
trailer.
with the age and possibly one going bad, I found out new GC2's and T105's at a $42 difference and decided on the Trojans.
I'll post what I find. But bottom line a January camp trip will need flawless battery supply.

Would you share what chargers and at what the charging volts you used were?

[jake2250]

theoldwizard1 wrote:

grizzzman wrote:

My Costco 208 ah 6ers weight was 62 lbs. They looked at me funny A. find the newest batteries B. Voltage test C. Dip um .

Dip em = check the specific gravity ?

grizzzman wrote:
And I brought my scale and weighed them. They just left me be and allowed me to pick the ones I wanted. The batteries at the front of the rack were 6 mo. Old...........

Was there a measurable weight difference between batteries ?


Costco GC2 have to be the best bang for the buck !

I agree on the best bang for your buck, but at this present time I have TWO almost 4and a half year old Costco GC2's that are starting to fade, I suspect a dead or dying cell in one because of the lack of holding its full charge. Heater ran through two cycles, them fan came on but wouldn't light,, voltage panel was showing just under 12 volts. Next morning with solar it ran great and voltage was over 13V.
We are back now and I have to remove batteries before I store
trailer.
with the age and possibly one going bad, I found out new GC2's and T105's at a $42 difference and decided on the Trojans.
I'll post what I find. But bottom line a January camp trip will need flawless battery supply.

[3_tons]

Well, since I never drive the camper over the greens, and can run my 11k air conditioner for short periods (30 to 60 min, depending on SOC) off of two 208 a/hr Costco $85 GCs, I believe thay are a serious alternative to the 'better' brands....JMO from actual personal experience....

3 tons

[theoldwizard1]

grizzzman wrote:

My Costco 208 ah 6ers weight was 62 lbs. They looked at me funny A. find the newest batteries B. Voltage test C. Dip um .

Dip em = check the specific gravity ?

grizzzman wrote:
And I brought my scale and weighed them. They just left me be and allowed me to pick the ones I wanted. The batteries at the front of the rack were 6 mo. Old...........

Was there a measurable weight difference between batteries ?


Costco GC2 have to be the best bang for the buck !

[hammick]

grizzzman wrote:

jake2250 wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:

hammick wrote:
Anyway if you can get the T-105RE for just a little more might be worth looking into. I think you also get a longer warranty with the RE models.

The T-105RE have the exact same specs as the T105, but the weight 5 lbs more !

Not sure if they are the T105RE's or not, I told him I was looking at the T105HD's and he said he's get the better ones (didn't know they had good and bad ones), but specs he sent showed these at 62 pounds.

My Costco 208 ah 6ers weight was 62 lbs. They looked at me funny A. find the newest batteries B. Voltage test C. Dip um . And I brought my scale and weighed them. They just left me be and allowed me to pick the ones I wanted. The batteries at the front of the rack were 6 mo. Old...........

I found at least at the Kansas City Costcos and Sams Clubs that if you by in the Spring you will get fresh batteries. My Costco Interstates have a 4/15 sticker and I bought them 4/15

[grizzzman]

jake2250 wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:

hammick wrote:
Anyway if you can get the T-105RE for just a little more might be worth looking into. I think you also get a longer warranty with the RE models.

The T-105RE have the exact same specs as the T105, but the weight 5 lbs more !

Not sure if they are the T105RE's or not, I told him I was looking at the T105HD's and he said he's get the better ones (didn't know they had good and bad ones), but specs he sent showed these at 62 pounds.

My Costco 208 ah 6ers weight was 62 lbs. They looked at me funny A. find the newest batteries B. Voltage test C. Dip um . And I brought my scale and weighed them. They just left me be and allowed me to pick the ones I wanted. The batteries at the front of the rack were 6 mo. Old...........

[2oldman]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Chew & Spit RVs are not eligible for discussion.

What does that mean?

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Go to a Golf Course and ask them about less expensive other brands. You will get laughed right out of the car maintenance shed. Push come to shove only one other brand can best Trojan and that is Rolls & Surrette.

Oooo I just had six green-top off-brands shoved on me. You know, the one's that are eight months old - get unequal cells the first week of use then a hard and fast equalization gets them equal again then they go 100 hours then revert to their evil ways. If you really boondock many days (15+ continuous) a year, really cycle off-brand batteries then the day you head home use a hydrometer and find all cells at any level of charge being equal please let me know. Especially batteries that have seen several seasons like this. Unh UNH! no cheating! No taking gravity after having been nursed a thousand hours on a power pole.

How many dollars a year do your batteries cost you? Chew & Spit RVs are not eligible for discussion. Some people drive ALL the way across town to save twenty cents a gallon on gasoline.