how long does your battery last?

clg82 wrote:
Right now I'm showing 12.68 and 12.62 on both new batteries that I bought when I returned from camping a couple of days ago....are both of these bad as well!?!?!?

Both of those voltage measurements are typical of a new battery, you're OK there.

If you really want to measure what's happening with your batteries, you can get a hydrometer and measure the specific gravity of the electrolyte. Since a lead acid battery is storing electricity using a chemical reaction, measuring the acidity of the electrolyte is a more precise measurement. Your voltage measurements will do for now to monitor the system.

The next step in assuring your 12V system will function to it's best ability and to keep battery purchases to a minimum is to make sure you have an adequate charger. As has been mentioned and you seem to accept, the Magnetek you have is probably inadequate. Your choice on how to replace it is personal but a call to Randy at Bestconverter.com may bring some insight to how you want to handle that.

As was mentioned, solar charging, when correctly implemented, is a seamless, hands-off, battery maintenance system. I have had a single 235W module keeping two banks of batteries, one bank of 2-6VGC2's and another of 3-12V AGM batteries fully charged and ready to go for over a year. I have done nothing except monitor the state of health of the batteries in that time. I have not used a charger, a converter, or a generator in that time.
The solar controller I use has a battery temperature sensor and compensates for battery temperature. This means that in Winter, the charge is higher and in Summer, the charge is lower. The controller has programmable set points for charge voltage and that function allows for better charge profiles than even the best 120V smart charger. As was posted, solar charging can be the best for battery health.