Wednesday, Aug 18, 2004 at 05:29
DriveSafe,
Deep Cycle batteries are a 'cheaper' as in less expencive, form of traction battery or 'storage' battery where the power is taken out slowly over a long period of time, then the battery is recharged, whereas the Cranking battery is designed to allow a quick power discharge to start the engine, then be recharged.
The thinner the lead/alloy plates the quicker the battery recharges, a distinct dis-advantage to DC batteries as their plates are much thicker, giving them the capacity to be discharged over a longer time.
That is a distinct advantage with the AGM batteries as they have very thin plates and many more of them, giving them very quick recharge times, and also high Cranking amps as they have far more surface area, however they have very low Amp hour capacity by comparison.
They are an excellent Cranking battery and if you can recharge them often (daily) they are a good replacement for a DC battery, if it does not get recharged often you quickly run out of power when you only have 55 to 75 A/H available and at about $400 each it does not make any sence to me to use them when you are camped in the one place for more than a few days.
Some people use 'Heavy Duty' cranking batteries because they are cheap and they start their vehicle often when on holidays, either going to shops or into town or for a drive to see the local sites, however if they went somewhere and never started their vehicle for a week they would be without power to the fridge.
That is where the calcium battery and solar panel combination wins hands down, it is totally dependant on your own idea of a holiday, I prefer to go fishing or diving and never worry about
battery power, so I use calcium batteries and a solar panel.
You can't have too much power (Amp Hours)
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