GC2 battery brands

[23hotrodr]

What brands of GC2 batteries have you had good luck with? How about from Sam's Club?

Thanks-- Mick

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The subject reminds me of a needless death of a friend. He had type I diabetes. He ignored diet and insulin but concentrated on body building workouts every day. He passed away with failed kidneys.
The only way to quantify battery life is to compare time to total quantitive amp hour transactions accumulated.

If you are satisfied with your experiences with a brand of battery then that's the sole thing that matters.

But the fact remains that batteries that undergo cycling tests and use hard numbers offer irrefutable proof. I used to program various intensity discharge and recharge tests then disappear for months. For 11-years. The survivors were never off label specials. And maintenance was key. Armando, not only watered batteries he recorded ML of water added. Some tests were utterly destructive. Five amps discharge until 00.00 volts then recharged to 14.7 volts 5 amps amplitude.

When you find a battery brand that works for you Great. But don't tout the brand as an equal or superior to a proven high quality tested battery. Anyone can abuse and mistreat a battery just like they can render a Rolls Royce into scrap faster than you'd ever believe. My 11 year old Lifeline BTW tests at 92% capacity. Jesús did a brutal overcharge on my weak sister 2 volt cell and brought specific gravity back to 1.259
The key is satisfaction. Nothing sways a satisfied customer. But listen to campfire discussions and their arguments. Everyone is convinced only they are correct.

[Vintage465]

Gjac wrote:
I think maintenance trumps battery brand any day. When I first bought my MH folks on here told me Trojans were the best 6 v GC batteries to buy. They lasted 4 years and people said that's about right because you only dry camp. The next set were Sam's Club batteries that I bought in 2007 and paid $74 a piece about 1/2 the price of Trojans. I think they were Duracell batteries. They are still working fine after 13 years. Do I believe they are better than Trojans, no I just figured out how to maintain them better. I don't keep them on a charger 24/7, when the get to 80% or so I recharge them, only once got below 50% SOC, equalize them several times per year and never go to FHU CG's. Having said that there have been a number of posts about Costco batteries failing prematurely because they have changed brands and I'm sure Sam's Club batteries have changed since I bought mine. I also noticed as a previous poster pointed out there may be different brands at Costco or Sam's based on the region of the US you are in. My Walmart starting battery lasted 9 years in the MH because I charged it when I charged my chassis batteries. I never had a starting battery last that long in my cars only being charged from a alternator.

I'm going with everything said here. I smoked my first batteries with lack of maintenance and flattening them a couple times Now I have Duracell/Deka's and they are lasting nice and performing well.....because I know better now!

[Gjac]

I think maintenance trumps battery brand any day. When I first bought my MH folks on here told me Trojans were the best 6 v GC batteries to buy. They lasted 4 years and people said that's about right because you only dry camp. The next set were Sam's Club batteries that I bought in 2007 and paid $74 a piece about 1/2 the price of Trojans. I think they were Duracell batteries. They are still working fine after 13 years. Do I believe they are better than Trojans, no I just figured out how to maintain them better. I don't keep them on a charger 24/7, when the get to 80% or so I recharge them, only once got below 50% SOC, equalize them several times per year and never go to FHU CG's. Having said that there have been a number of posts about Costco batteries failing prematurely because they have changed brands and I'm sure Sam's Club batteries have changed since I bought mine. I also noticed as a previous poster pointed out there may be different brands at Costco or Sam's based on the region of the US you are in. My Walmart starting battery lasted 9 years in the MH because I charged it when I charged my chassis batteries. I never had a starting battery last that long in my cars only being charged from a alternator.

[Gdetrailer]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Do you think a Rolls is going to survive that treatment any better?

I proved it irrefutably in white paper test studies.

But people *refuse* to learn how to recover a battery. They are too lazy to read the free Rolls battery manual download. My crankiness suggests these are the same people who blame schools for not raising their children right.

Paper "studies" often lie, they are often based on theory or flawed/skewed data.

Not saying you are lying, just saying in real life practice, most if not all of those studies are null and void the mere second the rubber hits the road in real life use.

As a reminder, RVs are land based, inconvenience happens but death is much more rare when a RV loses power.

While one can "recover" batteries, over the years I have found that it will never be what it once was once you do something stupid with it.

There are points in time when you have to realize that trying to revive a damaged, dead or dying battery becomes nothing more than traveling down the rabbit hole and the BEST way IS to prevent the need to "recover" a battery is to TAKE BETTER CARE OF THE BATTERY UP FRONT.

There is NO brand name battery which will 100% survive total abuse and recover to 100% of new capacity.. Even if you do recover it, it IS going to have significant loss in capacity.. At that time you just have top pull the plug on life support, regroup with fresh then don't repeat the same process that lead you to that rabbit hole.

Better to TEACH good battery habits on a lower cost battery than to encourage one to buy the most expensive than they destroy that battery in the same time as the previous battery they had.

[time2roll]

Sam's Club is a fine battery at a good value.

Actually I don't think you can really find a significantly inferior GC2.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Do you think a Rolls is going to survive that treatment any better?

I proved it irrefutably in white paper test studies.

But people *refuse* to learn how to recover a battery. They are too lazy to read the free Rolls battery manual download. My crankiness suggests these are the same people who blame schools for not raising their children right.

The batteries from DEKA are not the batteries from west coast US Battery yet both slap Sam's Club labels on GC220 batteries.

And out west is not the patchwork East Coast. It can easily be a four hundred mile (read destroyed vacation) to warranty Sam's Club batteries. I got caught with my drawers down on a hundred eighteen dollar Wal-Mart yellow battery. Six months old and SIX HUNDRED MILES from the nearest outlet. No they don't warrant USA batteries in Mexico. This is the bitterest of lessons.

My customers about fell over when I informed them my service calls were regularly priced at their campsite in Yosemite National Park. The consensus was I prevented a vacation from becoming destroyed. The same in Mexico.

If a person does not mind spending a hundred dollars on fuel, plus losing a campsite and a day or two of vacation, shoot, go for it.

Just to remind some of a story that I posted on this site maybe 15 years ago under MEXBUNGALOWS.

A skipper of a sailboat approached me and told me a tale of woe. The alternator on his sloop full-fielded and before it burned out, it gassed and blew up all 8 L-16 batteries on his vessel. Rolls & Surrette L16's.

Blew up means blowing football sized holes, tossing case material all inside the lazarette. It took him 20 lbs of baking soda to neutralize the corrosive acid.

I had brought down 5-gallon buckets of resin used for repairing polyethylene battery cases. I began a 5-day odyssey of Chinese puzzle reassembling eight battery cases from the plates upward. He had to rig a bimini above me to keep me from getting fried. He was convinced all was lost. I told him, if things did not work out he only owed me for materials. I must have purchased every square inch of fiberglass cloth in the large city of Manzanillo.

I had his help and that of his crew to fit the jigsaw puzzle of pieces back together. Some small pieces were gone, so I had to patch fiberglass cloth and resin to fill the holes. Three days cure time then back to the city to buy five, three-gallon boxes of electrolyte. I had to settle for R/O water. I rigged up a low pressure air tubing that fit a couple of feet into the cells to mix the electrolyte. I performed a tropical blend to 1.260 while the cell caps were curing.

I then had to do another 392 mile drive to repair his nine hundred dollar alternator. Oh lucky me. I had a 180 amp big frame ford stator at home. And 50 amp 1/2" diodes. All 12 of them.

Back north I went. The 1.1 star hotel had saved my room. The belts were changed, the Yanmar 6-cyl engine was started and I found that the Ample Power regulator had been wired wrong. I swapped terminals, the regulator ramped up after 30 seconds and settled at 14.2 volts bulk charge. A couple of hours later voltage dropped to 13.2 volts (the tropics). Jubilant wasn't the word for the skipper.

He rode with me to the hotel. Paid my bill then we went to Banamex. He wire transferred six thousand four hundred dollars into my account and slapped thirteen one hundred dollar bills into my hand. Oh yeah the vessel was a 72' Nautor Swan.

His wife took dozens and dozens of images during the work. At the 1993 Los Vegas battery convention I wandered over to the Rolls booth. I slapped the pouch on their desk and said "I'd like to relate a story" It took them a few hours to digest it all. Then I presented the final Telegram. It was from the Aegean Sea.

The vessel was on its final leg of a circumnavigation. Problem free.

And don't ask where my battery bank came from.

[Gdetrailer]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Find an alternative brand to my 23 year old 2 volt cells? Or my 10-year old 31XT Lifeline that last capacity tested in the high eighties percentile?

I run into floods of obstinate "opinions" that argue my maintenance practices for instance holding a Lifeline at 14.4 volts for 8-hours when regaining access after an extended tour of heavy cycling. Then the same people remark they "only got six years service out of their Lifeline. Others wouldn't lower themselves to test a single weak sister cell very occasionally with a hydrometer and yet that is exactly how to double the life of a true premium flooded battery. Then they go on to say there is no difference.

Occasionally on the forum I encounter 12 year Lifeline owners but sadly few actual premium flooded owners who maintain their batteries correctly and flourish in their amazing lifespan.

Camping in a "RV" is typically no where near "life or death" if a battery runs out of charge or gets less than 10 yrs service from heavy abuse.

Most RVs you have a "house" battery for the camping part and then you have the "starting battery in the vehicle or chassis. NEVER use your "starting" battery or your Chassis battery for the camping part and you have some means of starting the vehicle and recharging the "house" battery.. You CAN limp along that way if needed.. Or just break camp for a few hrs to get a replacement battery.

Inconvenient? Sure. But hardly life threatening. Certainly not worth spending $300+ for a battery!

If you are camping and your life doesn't depend on it so much, go with a battery which fits your wallet comfortably. To me, the Sam's GC2s really fit my budget, the first set gave me 9 yrs of service (I could have gotten 10-12 yrs as they did have some useful capacity, but they were using twice as much water and had less capacity and I depend on them to power my home fridge conversion).

It also makes me cringe when folks suggest using Rolls or any high dollar brand name when many folks have KILLED their low cost batteries in one or two yrs..

Do you think a Rolls is going to survive that treatment any better?

I don't think so.

Fail to charge them quickly and properly after being discharged along with checking water level often enough can easily render a Rolls just as dead and just as quick as a $50 no name brand battery. You just simply flush more money down the toilet in the same amount of time.

Now if you were on a boat and totally stranded with no fuel for engine, broken engine and no solar or means to recharge, heck yeah it MIGHT be well worth having a robust battery for at min some communications, lights, GPS..

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Find an alternative brand to my 23 year old 2 volt cells? Or my 10-year old 31XT Lifeline that last capacity tested in the high eighties percentile?

I run into floods of obstinate "opinions" that argue my maintenance practices for instance holding a Lifeline at 14.4 volts for 8-hours when regaining access after an extended tour of heavy cycling. Then the same people remark they "only got six years service out of their Lifeline. Others wouldn't lower themselves to test a single weak sister cell very occasionally with a hydrometer and yet that is exactly how to double the life of a true premium flooded battery. Then they go on to say there is no difference.

Occasionally on the forum I encounter 12 year Lifeline owners but sadly few actual premium flooded owners who maintain their batteries correctly and flourish in their amazing lifespan.

[Gdetrailer]

Mex, There ARE times when some brand names like Rolls, Concorde, Crown and their extreme high prices just do not make any sense to pay.

If you are out in the middle of the ocean on a boat with very little backup method of charging then I would say that those brands and prices would certainly be justifiable.. That is a place where your life may be at risk but then I would have to say that one would have to be dirt stupid to go there without a few backup power contingencies.

A RV with even a small solar panel and perhaps a small 1Kw generator, not so much, at worst, you have to break camp, drive maybe an hr or two to find a battery or means to charge your battery.. Heck even in an emergency a pair of jumper cables from your tow vehicle to RV could work in a pinch while camping..

Folks love to exaggerate a lot about how much "better" a $300 Rolls battery is over a $90 Sams club GC2 battery.. In the end with camping that $90 Sams GC2 will perform well and at the end of the day with only light care will last just as long as a Rolls..

Most FLAs can easily get you 10-12 yrs of service IF you have enough capacity, you do not discharge very deep and you recharge them as soon as possible.

Now, if anyone can give SOLID evidence (proof) to me that they HAVE personally had a Rolls FLA (or AGM or any Lithium) give them 30yrs-40yrs of REAL service then I would be all ears and could justify the cost..

Folks flock all over the latest trends in batteries like expensive brand names, AGM and Lithium Ions because they think that brand or tech will last longer and require zero care, the truth is you can kill them just as easy as a cheaper FLA and in some respect, FLA actually can tolerate some severe abuse that newer tech will not.

[Gdetrailer]

23hotrodr wrote:
I am replacing 2 Walmart group 27DC batteries that I got 6 years out of. They are just now starting to use some water in a couple cells. I would love to replace with AGM batteries, but not sure I can justify the cost of the batteries and some recommend that I should also replace my PD 9260C with a Boondocker converter to use with AGM. I am strongly leaning toward just getting 2 GC2 batteries from Sam's or similar and hope I get at least 4 years from them. I must say that I am very pleased to have gotten 6 years from the Wally batteries.

Thanks for all the information. Happy travels-- Mick

A pair of Sam's GC2s will most certainly be a massive upgrade over the pair of Group27s.

Group 27s have about 70Ahr capacity each so you have about 140Ahr with the pair.. But, for those you do not want to use more than 20% of the capacity for longest life.. More than that and you reduce the life..

Sam's GC2s will get you 210Ahr and with the GC2s they are rated at 50% depth of discharge for max life and they can withstand as much as 80% discharge with only moderate reduction in life.

I have no issue getting 9 yrs out of Sam's GC2s and I am hard on them as they support my home fridge conversion.. a pair of group 27s would never survive my needs..

[23hotrodr]

I am replacing 2 Walmart group 27DC batteries that I got 6 years out of. They are just now starting to use some water in a couple cells. I would love to replace with AGM batteries, but not sure I can justify the cost of the batteries and some recommend that I should also replace my PD 9260C with a Boondocker converter to use with AGM. I am strongly leaning toward just getting 2 GC2 batteries from Sam's or similar and hope I get at least 4 years from them. I must say that I am very pleased to have gotten 6 years from the Wally batteries.

Thanks for all the information. Happy travels-- Mick

[MEXICOWANDERER]

PRICE
And I can fill up on a couple of Swanson's TV dinners. If price was master then Rolls & Surrette and Concorde would have gone out of business long ago. You can extrapolate that to any length you want.

People are silly as I have pointed out before. Go to a gambling hall in Nevada. They play dollar slots and throw 100 dollar chips around like confetti then go upstairs and stand in line for an hour to save five bucks eating chow hall grade slop.

I'll wager not ten percent of readers have downloaded the Rolls or Lifeline battery manuals and actually read them.

And for folks living in other areas of the country has is occured to you that unbranded batteries some love so much may come from a totally different vendor in the midwest and a 3rd on the west coast?

Blanket endorsements and curses at unbranded batteries are utterly worthless. It takes universal praise regionally to make an endorsement valid.

I got hosed by a Walmart west coast battery that failed internally 6 months after purchase. Left me stranded 300 miles from the nearest barbed wire fence.

So please if your region is not listed please abbreviate

[Gdetrailer]

Lwiddis wrote:
I think the AH rates are marketing tools for many battery makes...like engine horsepower, tow ratings. Generally in the ballpark but that is it.

I would somewhat agree.

But, I do think that there may be a few differences between brands which may have SLIGHTLY more advertised Ahr capacity. But the biggest thing is the more expensive brands typically have a bit more replacement warranty. But keep in mind, you paid for that in the price up front..

Example, the Duracell GC2s Sams sells has 210Ahr capacity and if you have a membership already out the door at about $90 each.

A Crown CR-220 (220 Ahr) can set you back $149 EACH
HERE

$59 more per battery and yet you only get 10 Ahr more advertised capacity.

You can buy 4 of Sam's Duracells and get 420Ahr for a mere $360 vs 2 of Crown CR-220 for 220Ahr at a mere $298.

So for $62 more with 4 Sams you get nearly double the Ahr capacity of Crown.

I saved money upfront by buying the Sam's batteries even though they may not have as robust warranty. Why? Typically the battery WILL outlast the warranty provided you didn't do something stupid to kill them.

I gave up years ago buying the most expensive batteries, Dihards at one time come to mind, used to pay top premium price for them because they had a top notch warranty.. Did have a couple replaced under warranty but since it was prorated, got basically beans back on said warranty.

Now I buy ALL of my auto/tractor/RV battery needs at Sams and save lots of bucks on a wear item.

Price and name is not what it used to be.

[Lwiddis]

I think the AH rates are marketing tools for many battery makes...like engine horsepower, tow ratings. Generally in the ballpark but that is it.