Which Battery To Use

Gday Kev and Notso

I'll second the recommendation on the Exide extreme, I have 4 now - 1 in the boat, 2 under the bonnet, and 1 in a portable pack for the car/boat/anywhere really.

With just two, (only one powering the fridge) I got 2 days running an 80l waeco. Relitively cheap battery that performs well and has a 2 yr warrenty from memory.

Cheers Andrew

Hi Notso and Andrew,
I just checked the Exide site and the closest size that is available to fit my tray is 260mm Long. My tray is only 225mm do you reckon that I could fit a packer under the battery to give it a solid base for it to sit on in the tray?
If not have you tried the Exide Endurance, They have one that is 238mm long so it's a bit closer in tray size.
Cheers Kev

andrew B
It's ok to go and do a warrenty claim if your near where you bought it but every time i have battery or Alternator troubles I'm 1000s of Ks from where i bought the item, and worst of all warranties don't do a damn thing to help when your out in the middle of the S/Desert not that I have had trouble like that in remote area's but there's always a first time, I think that battery I just had trouble with was an Excide bought at Autopro in Blackall, ....where does it fail...on the Nullabor.

Doug

Notso

it seems notso about the time it takes to charge a deep cycle..

quote from the Ad
Optima's Yellow Top Deep Cycle Battery uses the same SPIRALCELL technology that out performs the competition. Optima Batteries fully recharge in as little as one hour. The Yellow Top has been verified in Life Cycle testing to exceed 350 complete discharges - outcycling conventional Deep Cycle batteries by 30-50%.

check the Yellow Top section www.borderbatteries.com.au/optima.htm

Gday Doug

Quite a while ago I had an Exide fail - finally found the reciept and it was from a dealer on the other side of the country. Took it in to a local dealer - replaced it without question and also said you generally don't need a reciept as the serial no gives them the age of the battery. Had good service, not sure if the serial numbers are from manufacture (may loose some time if the battery sat on the shelf for a while), or whether they have some form of data base matching serial numbers to sale dates.

I have been re-assured several times that any exide dealer will replace a warrenty battery.

Cheers Andrew

PS I am still skeptical, so the reciepts are in the glovebox (about all that will fit in a GU glovebox anyway!)

AHHH but you see I did Say a Standard Deep Cycle battery. Not one of those fancy things??

Isn't it great how some people jump on a couple of words instead of reading the whole post?? Gotta be a reason, lord knows what it could be though?

Hi Alloy c/t,

I just looked up the AGM HGL battery and found that there is one available that would fit my tray. It is a HGL 60-12 Full River AGM battery with a 60AH capacity. The site states that the capacity is a 20H rate capacity rating, Can anyone explain what this means. I presume that it will discharge at a constant rate for 20H before it drops in voltage.

Kev

The number of amphours you get out of a battery depends on how quickly you discharge it. Amp-hours are specified at the 20 hour rate - i.e fully discharging it over 20 hours.

"It is a HGL 60-12 Full River AGM battery with a 60AH capacity. The site states that the capacity is a 20H rate capacity rating"

So it will discharge at 3 amps for 20 hours - but it will not discharge at 20 amps for 3 hours - it may be more like 2.5 hours.

AGMs can be discharged to 20% remaining, without shortening life too much.

Mike,
Thanks for clearing that up, that makes more sense now.

Kev

Alloy c/t,
The 2 day senario probably wouldn't happen that often, it was probably more hypothetical than a reality. Does any one know of a good distributor in south west Sydney for one of these batteries?
On the web they are around $170.00 is this reasonable?

Hi Derek,
I was wondering when I'd see a comment from you. I just went out and checked the tray again. I reckon that I'd get away with a 227mm but the 233 would be about 1-2mm too long.
You know doubt have come up with another solution to my choice of battery.
I look forward to hearing what it is.
cheers Kev

OK found it.

The new Supercharge range of MRV batteries (Marine and Recreational Vehicle) are suited to accessories as well as cranking. They are sealed maintenance free and spill proof up to a 60 deg angle.

The MRV48 is the one you need. $120.00

Length 227
Width 173
Hight 208

Amp Hours 60

Cranking 525 cca

Regards Derek.

Derek,
It sounds the goods, apart from you up in gods country, is there anyone down here in s#!+y Sydney that supplies them.
Thanks
Kev

Phone 1300 BATTERY

Dealers

Thanks Derek,

I'll chase them down here, if I have no luck I'll call you next week for other means of getting one of those batteries down to me.

thanks Kev

Hi,
The million dollar question is though what is the actual dimensions of the battery and how much did you pay for it?

Kev

Kev,
I posted mainly to give you an idea of the time I achieved out of my 105 A/Hr battery.
The battery came with my camper as standard although I saw a post by someone who paid $196 a year ago at Battery world Springwood Qld.
No idea what they are today.

No worries, it seems I will just have to live with a 60AH battery.
Kev

Which means that for battery longevity it was discharged too far ,,10.2v = 1 very flat battery .....105amp divide 42hrs = 2.5 amps per hr ..

Hi Alloy,

The Waeco site suggests a draw of as little as 0.83 amps/hr (126hrs running) up to your 2.5 figure.

The meter I used to check the battery has 3 indicator lights - charged, low, flat.
When the fridge showed error, the meter showed low, NOT flat.
When home, I connected the battery into the Projecta Maintain'n Charge 3500ma unit. This unit indicates any of the following - 1. charged, 2. charging, 3. damaged.
The unit showed 2. charging and the next morning 3. charged.

Maybe you are right - all my meters and my battery are stuffed.

Time will tell.

I think the point here is that if you continually discharge the battery that low you reduce the life span of the battery. The battery may initially recover and fully recharge but it appears to be widely known that to discharge the battery excessively often reduces it's effective lifespan.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong
Kev

Kev,
Derek has suggested a 60 a/h battery for your 2 day requirement.
I've used a 105 a/hr battery for less than a day and a half.
What's the beef?

From what I've read from all the people that have posted that in reality I won't be able to run the fridge for the 2 days as I first thought. To preserve the lifespan of the battery it looks like I'm going to have to charge the battery within the 2 day period.
I'm not saying that the battery would not do it, it would just reduce the life expectancy of it if I didn't.
I'd prefer the battery to work for me continually in that time period but why cause it to prematurely die from over discharge.

Gday Kev

You still may get the 2 days with proper management of both the fridge and battery. I have defyed the odds twice with my 80l waeco. For a couple of hours prior to arrival, crank the fridge right up(down?) to get everything in it almost frozen, and then adjust the temp back to normal after turning off the car. You will gain a few hours, as it will take a while for the fridge and its contents to warm up to the normal fridge range.

I also do the normal minimise opening thing, and have an esky for the nights beer supply, and also have kids drinks, milk etc in here so the fridge gets disturbed less often. I keep an eye on the temperatures in the fridge, and also the battery condition. Whatever battery you get, find out the minimum safe voltage you can let it drain to, and don't let it get below that (either manually or with a cut out switch) Also, if you happen to start the car, even for a short time, crank the fridge while the power is comeing from the alternator.

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers Andrew

Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the tips, I already use an esky for drinks during the day in the cab, but I hadn't thought about cranking the fridge up prior to shuting the car down for the day. It may be a habit that I will need to get into if I want some more life out of the battery.
Cheers
Kev

G'day Doug,
I just had a look at the links you posted and found that the optima yellow don't fit, the tray the shortest length of the optima is 236mm when I need 230mm max.
I guess that I'm going to be restricted on the type of battery that I will be able to get for it.
Thanks for your input,
Kev

Hi Doug

I like both the Optima and Orbital Batteries but price is a big problem in the market place. The size is also a bit of a restriction in many applications but I can't fault them.

Regards Derek.

G'day Sand Man,
As suggested I might look at getting a "Thumper" in the future. But I am still yet to decide on the type of battery that I get. I suppose it will depend on the availability of both batteries mentioned in this thread as to which I get, as I can't seem to differenciate between the two apart from the cost.

Cheers Kev