Recommendation for replacement battery

[TxTiger]

First, anyone traveling this weekend I wish you a safe and fun trip.
My battery is going on 3 years old and doesn't seem to maintain a charge for very long so I'm going to replace it. Any advice on what type of battery to get (deep cycle, big cranking amps, etc) and brands that have worked well for you would be greatly appreciated. I see batteries listed as rv/marine, but some seem to be deep cycle, others with large cranking amps. I would think deep cycle would be better than something with a lot of cranking amps, or something with both. But looking for advice since I don't know.
Thanks

[SidecarFlip]

Kayteg1 wrote:
Don't see the "price down" effect.
13 years ago the $270 bought me bank of 4 Sam's batteries and good dinner on top of it.
Now we are happy getting single battery for that money???

That is all relative to the rate of inflation, the devaluation of the dollar and other things not germane to this forum.

The price of admission will go down as the technology becomes more mainstream. How it works, but you already know that.

13 years ago, McDonald's large fry was 25 cents too. Economy of scale.

[covered_wagon]

It's not just the price of Lith Ion batteries, its that their energy storage is limited and then you have the problem of heat if charged/ discharged improperly, the thin membrane separating the plates presents a danger as does the impact of mining the lithium. They are not a panacea as the talk goes around the tech world.

Tesla has to have each battery in a separate fireproof container in their cars due to the danger of fire.

[Kayteg1]

Don't see the "price down" effect.
13 years ago the $270 bought me bank of 4 Sam's batteries and good dinner on top of it.
Now we are happy getting single battery for that money???

[SidecarFlip]

Powerdude wrote:
Ok, learned something new. Thank you.

Lithium Iron Phosphate does sound pretty good. However, at 800 bucks a battery, I'll save that for the next upgrade cycle in a few years.

By then the price might have come down to some manageable level so I could afford it.

$270 for a Trojan group 31 AGM vs. $800-ish for the latest stuff, I'll just get another Trojan and have money left over for some solar panels and a controller.

Heh.

My thought exactly. Time and technology advances will bring the price down, it always does. I can wait too. Nice thing is you can put them anywhere, even upside down and they need no venting so a conventional battery box is not needed.

[Powerdude]

Ok, learned something new. Thank you.

Lithium Iron Phosphate does sound pretty good. However, at 800 bucks a battery, I'll save that for the next upgrade cycle in a few years.

By then the price might have come down to some manageable level so I could afford it.

$270 for a Trojan group 31 AGM vs. $800-ish for the latest stuff, I'll just get another Trojan and have money left over for some solar panels and a controller.

Heh.

[Kayteg1]

How is Trojan lately?
When I was shopping around for batteries 13 years ago, I called few golf carts dealers and none of them would carry Trojans due to poor CS and that is why I went to Sam's.
Sounds like they improved lately?

[covered_wagon]

Cowboy country folks seem to never disagree. Thank you

[wyocowboy00]

covered wagon wrote:
Capacity remaining is also inaccurate just like reading voltage, they both are still close enough not to cause permanent damage when recharged at the correct level.

The only way a reading can be accurate is to read the specific gravity on the electrolyte in each cell.

This is true.

[covered_wagon]

Capacity remaining is also inaccurate just like reading voltage, they both are still close enough not to cause permanent damage when recharged at the correct level.

The only way a reading can be accurate is to read the specific gravity on the electrolyte in each cell.

[SidecarFlip]

Powerdude wrote:
I just got a Trojan group 31 AGM for my camper. 100 AH is awesome. 200 would be better.

It will run the fridge on DC all day while driving, and it will still be at 12.3-volts at the end of the day.

The lithium ions are nice, but I talked to a battery guy at the battery store, and he said they are too expensive, plus you would have to have a special charger/converter for them.

Progressive dynamics makes the converter for them, but I still think the technology is too pricey at the moment.

Not correct. I didn't say Lithium-Ion (which does take a special programmable charger). I said LITHIUM-IRON which does not. Lithium-Iron batteries charge just like a normal flooded cell / agm. No difference except you can completely drain a Li-Iron battery without no side effects, unlike a conventional battery when discharged below 50% starts gassing off and producing lead sulfate which eventually shorts the plates.

Reading the voltage on a battery is a poor indicator of actual charge left. You could be well below the 50% threshold and be unaware of it. You need a unit that is capable of reading capacity left, not voltage. Only 2 I know of, SeeLevel and Trimetric.

You need to educate your battery guy on the new technology.

When my Trojan(s) expire. I'll have 2 in the battery box. Hopefully, by then, the price will come down a bit.

https://battlebornbatteries.com

[Powerdude]

I just got a Trojan group 31 AGM for my camper. 100 AH is awesome. 200 would be better.

It will run the fridge on DC all day while driving, and it will still be at 12.3-volts at the end of the day.

The lithium ions are nice, but I talked to a battery guy at the battery store, and he said they are too expensive, plus you would have to have a special charger/converter for them.

Progressive dynamics makes the converter for them, but I still think the technology is too pricey at the moment.

[Rubiranch]

Buy the heaviest one that fits in the compartment.

I bought a group 29 RV battery from Wal Mart.

Maybe one of these when you're not using your camper.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IQRMD30/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AXLVUUCJK6134

[SidecarFlip]

JimK-NY wrote:
My Lifeline AGM batteries are 7 years old with at least a third of that time in full time use. They tested out at near 100 percent capacity. Of course, that is without any sort of maintenance or care except for trying to avoid depleting the charge more than about 50 percent.

I vote for Lifeline and Trojan before anything else and it you have a wallet of extreme depth, a Battle Born Lithium Iron battery is tits. The price is the killer, 500 bucks a toss.

I have Trojan's myself. My wallet isn't that deep.

[Kayteg1]

On the cheap Sam's batteries during 12 years of use I recall adding water 2 times.
The batteries have been sitting disconnected for up to 10 months couple of times as I had no power in the storage.
But I had high-tech converter/charger with multi-stage charging.

[covered_wagon]

Never buy expensive batteries until you have a good smart charge system.
Never install a battery shut off switch that won't let the frig run on propane.
Having two batteries in parallel significantly increases the longevity of the two batteries verses just having one battery.
If you never need to top off with distilled water in the wet cells it is an indication the battery is not being fully charged.
A full charge that tops off the battery properly in the final stage is very important for battery longevity.