<span class="highlight">Battery</span> Information

Thanks Bigfish, I was thinking that was the answer but did not want to admit.

Ditto on what Bigfish has said. I had two of the Powersonic's identical to yours and got eight, hard years out of them. A cell collapse in one put paid to the other while the vehicle was parked up between trips. At that age and with it being plugged into an Engel I'd hazard a guess and say your cycle rate has been to deep on too many occasions. Time to change out.

Happy New Year.

Mick

https://www.power-sonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/PS-12120%20technical%20specifications.pdf
"• 5 year design life "
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Hi Peter,
thanks for you help. My battery is a Power Sonic 12100 B which is a 100 amp as shown further down on the spec page you forwarded. In regards to you question, the charge drops when the battery is at rest and the Engle, which is a ripper, is about 15/18 years old (40lt). When the battery has been stored fully charged it has nothing connected. It has been used for the Engle when on trips.
I purchased the battery in September 2014 and kept charged with a Projecta 4300 Maintenance charger.
Thanks for your help.

Brendan and there lies your problem "kept charged with a Projecta 4300 Maintenance charger." The AC ripple would have helped kill your battery.
If you want to maintain an AGM correctly you need to do it with a solar panel 10W per 100Ah, and a quality precision temperature compensated solar regulator.
The fridge is an Engel not an 'Engle'

Many thanks. I will look into these.

This post has been read by the moderation team and has been moderated due to a breach of The Double-up Post Removed Rule .

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ian g.

I think Bigfish you might be misrepresenting Power Sonic batteries a bit, in my opinion and also a lot of very knowledgeable people they are a far superior battery to Full River, I have had one doing the exact job Brendan M is using his for and has lasted eight years and is still going strong. If you need some comparisons just compare weigh.

Haven't misrepresented them at all mate. I have compared weights. Almost the same 105 Fullriver30.2kg
107 Power sonic 30kg.

Most of the various people I go away with have Fullriver and never have a problem. I,ll plug Fullriver any day as I see a lot of people getting sucked in by slick advertising that makes you think your getting a bargain when in fact your being sold mediocrity at best. If you are having a good run from Powersonic then stay with them by all means.

Overall there is very little difference in AGM quality today buying from a reputable supplier. Paying a higher price often means allowing for a high retail margin. I certainly wouldn't be paying a higher price for a brand name today. Buy from a direct importer and seller online. Now we are mainly LiFePo4 but still run 2 AGM. Need to buy 120Ah AGM prior to going away on this year's trips. Lasted 4 years considered had my moneys worth. Will be buying from the same supplier.

Powersonic is just yet another brand AGM no better than any other AGM from reliable long term suppliers. Paying over the odds for an AGM is just not smart. If you get 4 years of good use out of an AGM consider you have had your monies worth. AGM is limited to cycles and depth of discharge and very little difference between brands from reliable long term suppliers. There is plenty of advertising and hearsay around which is just that - unsubstantiated.

Dave B18...Dont know where you got your info from but there is a big difference in longevity between brands. If I was to only get 4 years from an agm I,d be disappointed...as would many others who are experienced in remote area travel. Paying a higher price certainly does not mean a higher retail profit. I am happy to get 7-10 years of reliable service from a reputable brand. Heaps of people on various forums are not even getting 2 years from their agm,s. My newest camper is just on 12 months old. I,ve had it a week...both 100amp hr batteries are failing dismally. Stick with what your happy to pay for. Life has taught me that the poor man pays twice. Quality was drummed into me as a comms tech for remote Australia. Forums such as Explore oz are great places to gain knowledge and let people make up their own minds.

Bigfish suggest you do some research and study on AGM battery cycles.
1,600 cycles @ 30% Depth of Discharge considered average reasonable life. Anything over 30% DOD the cycle life drops drops quickly.
Divide 1,600/365 and what do you get around 4.4 years.
If you are using the battery on a regular basis, never ever would you get 7/10 years. Firstly you shouldn't make furphy claims of the impossible, and secondly you are having dream time fantasies of male fairies.
Because your new camper batteries are no good, certainly doesn't mean they are a crap brand. They could be old and not maintained. Overall there is very little crap to low quality on the market today in stuff like batteries as nobody wants to go out of business and manufacturers want repeat orders. Have been buying no big brand name Chinese AGM batteries for fair number of years from a direct importer and seller, who sells a lot of batteries to repeat customers. Why because they are good an inexpensive compared to paying retail.
Really simple why people don't get 2 years, isn't because of the brand. Caused because they believe direct charging through a battery isolator works, consequently battery never gets correctly charged. Majority of AGM batteries are not maintained correctly out of service, majority are either under charged or overcharged in the different seasons as they are using crap solar regulators with no temperature compensation.
In my case my AGM may go five years, but I ain't going away with a battery that has done a lot of work in the 4 years may fail, and stuck with a fridge full of food, and no washing machine. Prefer to be called a chicken than be a turkey like so many meet travelling and in trouble some way or another. I also prefer not to confuse people like yourself with facts, you may actually learn something.
Paying a higher price sure does mean a whopping retail profit for a brand name. Too many are hooked on brand names, sucked in by advertising to pay a higher price because they are incapable or technically incapable to do the necessary research or they subscribe to the lazy tax of walking into a retail store and paying over the odds. In some cases for the best you have to pay retail like buying Velcro or 3M Command type goodies, double sided tape. However they are only small purchases and not a lot of money. Buying Coles or Aldi alkaline batteries gives you substantially better value than paying for Energizer or Duracell.

.
Dave, 1,600/365 infers that the battery is being cycled every day of the year.
Even on a "regular basis" I would think that most of us would be travelling no more than 100 days per year so that would become 1,600/100 to yield 16 years. Big difference.... BIG difference!

Well how about that. Now you say I am a liar because I get 7 years out of a Fullriver battery and living with the fairies. After reading your post I now realise that obviously wereas I am living on earth you are living on planet cukoo. The batteries I had in my camper were 11 months old. The forum that I am on has dozens of people also saying their cheap chinese agm batteries are stuffed. I run Victron regulators, enerdrive dc/dc chargers ( as well as Redarc and Projecta) and have been looking after solar powered communication sites around Australia for many years and certainly know a thing or two about batteries. Guess what...the company I worked for spent hundreds of thousands on batteries around Australia. All were top quality and the reason they had to be top quality was because of the expense of flying us around in helicopters to visit these sites. Your cheap chinese crap that you seem to be in love with are just that..crap. There are pages and pages on the web of peoples bad expeiences with these batteries. Naturally I assume you drive a Great Wall vehicle because its nice and cheap and just as good as any Toyota or Nissan. There will be many on here reading your post and like me...wondering what the dribble is. I,ll leave it at that as I cant handle your ignorance .

Bigish don't intend to bore you with my extensive experience and qualifications. You are obviously captivated by advertising and never did I mention cheap Chinese. Matter of fact majority of the batteries they use I the business I used to own are not made in China - technically. There are many excellent Chinese batteries, so bang goes your story. I would never believe people on forums saying their batteries are stuffed as majority don't know how to use, look after or maintain batteries.
Sadly you are so biased and I will go and spend my time talking to sensible and knowledgeable people.

Dave, I won't bore you with my expertise and qualifications: I don't have any (in this area). I do have two Remco 100Ah AGMs, which have been running in my vehicles(2) for over 8 years. At the time of purchase I was told not to go with the Fullriver, only because there were good alternatives at a lower price (yachting friends and merchants). So I'd guess they may have been correct on this.

My batteries have been run off a simple VSR (including in the Ranger, with "smart-charge" turned off) and solar through a PWM. The only time I had an issue was on a trip earlier this year. I had a problem with charging (my fault) and they went down to 11.2v. They would not pick up to maintain charge past 11.8v so I presumed they were finally gone. I have now replaced with two LifePO4s.

I put them on slow charge a few weeks ago and - surprise - they are maintaining 12.7v! I couldn't agree with you on 7-10 years being a fantasy.

Cheers,
Mark

Mark,

"I put them on slow charge a few weeks ago and - surprise - they are maintaining 12.7v!"

Have you load tested them? Lead-acid batteries that have suffered as yours have will often take a charge and appear to be ok voltage wise, but lose capacity.

If you haven't already done something similar, try running a fridge off them and see how they go compared to before the unfortunate event.

Cheers

Ran the Waeco 65lt for 24 hrs, they recharged just fine. Not really too bothered at this point anyway, I will be using one to run a 12v water pump for my garden water feature (don't ask!) with a spare 100a panel. If it survives... great! If not? Can't complain about the life I've had out of them.

Cheers,
Mark

Hi Rangiephil,
My battery is a 100 amp not 12 am as suggested.
Cheers