Battery Recommendations?

Re: Battery Recommendations?

The first batteries in our Airstream were Interstate SRM-27, but they didn't last very long. In fairness, part of the problem may've been the 55A single-stage (13.8 V) Parallax converter/charger.

I replaced the batteries with group 27 Lifeline AGMs and the converter with a 60 amp Progressive Dynamics Intelipower with 3-stage Charge Wizard. No problems since then.

Re: Battery Recommendations?

gee, i guess it was over 5 years ago i bought mine as that thread was dated june 2003! how time flies. now i'm starting to wonder just when i did buy it.

Re: Battery Recommendations?

I have had great service with the T-105's. My first set of 4 powered my off grid cabin for 4.5 years and I still have 2 of them powering a water pump, and cfl fixture in a small bathroom. (the other 2 were given to a friend so he could start a small system) They are now over 5.5 years old. I now have 6 of them (installed 6/07) supplying power to the cabin and have used Water Miser caps on all of the batts. They are equalized every 28 days, watered 3 times a year, and the batts have never seen a Dod > 25%. They see temperature ranges from 10 degrees to 100 degrees F. In my opinion....for the money the Trojans are a great way to go, especially in a small, moderately used system. Best of Luck, Mark

Re: Battery Recommendations?

I second the Trojan T-105's. I have a set going on 10 years in seasonal service, powering a cabin. Never equalized until about year 7 because I didn't know what that was. They sit in an unheated shed 12 months with temps near -40f, and are kept up with a 53 watt panel.

Ditto with the Trojan l-16's My neighbor went 8 years on a set of six in full time off grid service, charged with ~ 300 watts of panels. 1 failed in year 8 and he sold the remaining 5 to me for a song. 1 has failed every year since, so now I am down to 2 in year 11, running a seasonal cabin.

I don't know if the Canadian PowRsurge line from Trojan will have the same life expectancy, but I am currently running 4 T105's. I am just over a year on them now,,so far so good.

Tony

PS I think that you get what you pay for, and with batteries the heavier the better. All things being equal. given the costs of the t-105's vs the cost of the l-16's I figured the lifecycle cost of the t-105 was less, assuming that the 105s last 7 years, the l-16's 10. Every year after is a bonus.

It would be an interesting test to install a bank of say 400 amp/hours of "good" batteries, and 400 amp/hours of "cheapies", run them the same, and do a real time life cycle cost. My intuition is that it might be cheaper to by the cheapies, and replace them more frequently because their initial cost is so much less due to mass marketing. You can buy "deep cycle" batteries everywhere, but good quality t-105's or l-16's are a specialty item and as such command a premium price (and or shipping)

Re: Battery Recommendations?

My first batteries were used telephone company Exides, 16 cells at 840 amp hrs for our 32 volt windgenerator system. Then we added a set of 17 cells at 1680 amp hrs which we used for almost 12 years, until we moved to a different town and sold the batteries as salvage at a profit. We currently use a set of SBS (out of Milwaukee, WI) forklift style 2 volt cells, 1500 amp hours, set of 12 for our 24 volt system. We switched to an inverter when we moved and set it all up again, and the set of SBS batteries is about 10 years old and shows no noticable wear. But they were not cheap--about $4000 in 1998 or 99.

Re: Battery Recommendations?

Exide Golf Cart batteries; 6 volts, 205 amps. Bought at Sam's for $70 each.
After one year: Excellent service. No complaints.

Crewzer:

Three years ago you paid $220 for each of your Dekas...
["At $220 each, my four 8A4D AGM batteries were $880 plus tax."]

Now it is almost $500 for each one, at NAWS!

Re: Battery Recommendations?

We installed 73 slightly used Exide 350AH 2 volt lead/calcium batteries in 1994 that were removed from service at Buckley Air Force Base in Denver. We've never cycled them more than 10%. They are still going great after 14 years on our 144 volt system.

Re: Battery Recommendations?

Cariboocoot wrote: »

Being displeased with the latest batch of batteries I bought, I'd like to ask about other people's experiences:

What brand/type batteries have you used, and how satisfied with them were you?
Did they live up to manufacturer's claimed specs?
Would you buy them again?

I won't mention what I'm using now, because I don't want to "prejudice" my "survey".

Thanks for your input!

Being that this post is almost 6 years old now, what type of batteries did you get to replace the bad ones? are they still kicking and living up to your expectations?

Re: Battery Recommendations?

thanx Coot,

I'm ordering my batteries this weeks......and was torn between the T-105+ and the US2200......I think I just may go that rout.

Re: Battery Recommendations?

here is a bit of info I got by email today that probably will interest you 2...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9WsEVEOWfU&feature=youtu.be

Re: Battery Recommendations?

Rybren wrote: »

Chris,

I have the the US2200 as well. I only got mine late last summer, but I'm happy. They were also cheaper than the Trojans.

Jerry

Hi Jerry,

The price here is pretty much the same for both brands....just shy of $800 for 4...that's why I have been torn between the 2. But I I'm leaning towards the 2200's as you guys have both had good luck with them.

Re: Battery Recommendations?

Chris wrote: »

The price here is pretty much the same for both brands....just shy of $800 for 4...that's why I have been torn between the 2. But I I'm leaning towards the 2200's as you guys have both had good luck with them.

So you all are going with 6 volt golf cart batteries instead of a 2 volt RE HD2V XC (2V) type battery, I'm looking at adding batteries and a Xantex XM6048 inverter charger to my Grid Tie system so I can have power when the light go out. Why choose the 6Volt battery over a larger capacity 2Volt battery.

My application is when the power goes out I can still have lights and well water pumping, which happened when we had a wild fire in the area. Also when SHTF.

Rancher

Re: Battery Recommendations?

Cariboocoot wrote: »

Simple: how much battery capacity do you need?
In the case of you grid-tying with a 6kW 48 Volt inverter you need a minimum 600 Amp hours.
In the case of me needing a couple of kW hours per day 232 Amp hours @ 24 Volts fits the bill.

Never buy more or less battery than you need.

OK, so what I'm really asking is, not knowing what I really need, what would you suggest.

Best case scenario is one 1/2 hp well pump running at a time, and worst case would be 2 - 1/2 hp pumps running at the same time, with some lighting since cooking and water heating is by gas, and in the case of SHTF I would convert that to wood, or take cold showers.

Water is my main concern, I have a 1/2 hp submersible pump that pumps to a storage tank and a 1/2 hp centrifugal booster pump that pressurizes the pressure tank.

And 8.4 KW grid tie collectors on the roof...

I guess give me a range, if I wanted to do the 6KW max what would you recommend for battery storage.



Rancher