battery selection

[fraz627]

Being on a budget, thinking of using the Duracel 6v golf cart batteries, I'm not that worried about maintence or the fumes while charging.
anyone out there usings FLA, I just want the most for the buck.
Also any thought of chargers, I plan on Renogy 2000 PSW invertor.

 

[ldsreliance]

The 6V GC2 batteries that Costco and Sam's sell for around $90 each are excellent starter batteries.  They are durable as heck.  If you know what you are doing with maintenance and making sure they fully charge every day you can get a lot of bang for your buck from them.

 

[PeterPiper]

If you go to the Costco website, the reviews for those cells are not good.

Why do so many give them poor reviews?

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

anyone out there usings FLA . . . I plan on Renogy 2000 PSW invertor.

I'm starting on year 8 with two Penn-Deca GC2s; 208AH.  Never had a problem with outgassing after I got the charging correct.
My system:
 - 2 X 100W mono solar panels
 - Morningstar TS-45 PWM controller
 - Powerwerx PM3-35LX charger (seldom used)
 - Sportsman 1000W inverter generator (seldom used)

Curious on what you need a 2000W inverter for?  That's awfully big for a small system.

 

[ldsreliance]

If you go to the Costco website, the reviews for those cells are not good.

Why do so many give them poor reviews?

Good question.  When you go to the actual Costco page there are no reviews at all.  But in the Google results page it shows a 1.8 rating on 36 reviews.  So who knows?

I suspect that most of the reviews are from people that bought them not fully realizing they were 6V batteries instead of 12V.

I know they aren't on the level of Trojan or Rolls or whatever but for a cheap starter battery you can't do any better.

 

[highdesertranger]

I have flooded batteries, Sams Club 6vGC batteries 89 bucks each. So for 4 of them I was out the door for under 400 bucks.

You have to make sure you keep the water level up. So once a month around the first I check the water level and top off. In the summer heat they consume a lot more water. If you do your maintenance flooded batteries work fine. It's not hard for me, at the first of the month pay your bills and check water levels.

My guess on the bad reviews is that people did not do the maintenance so the batteries did not perform as expected. People for the most part don't like to do maintenance.

Highdesertranger

 

[bullfrog]

Something to consider is where and when they were manufactured. Many battery companies import batteries as well as produce them in the USA. I have had much better life out of ones produced within the last few months before purchase which are usually produced in the USA as there is less shipping time. It pays to check where and when the batteries were made. Duracell is one of those companies that produces in the USA and imports. I bought my Duracell AGMs through Batteries Plus who were able to order factory direct from the production facility in PA. They were less than 6 weeks old when I installed them. Speciality batteries sometimes sit many months or even years on the shelf which is not good. I imagine a lot of bad reviews are results of sitting on a shelf for a long time.

 

[XERTYX]

This is what I did when I chose my batteries. However. Just my 2 cents.

When I worked at Wally world sometimes the batteries still had frost on them from the freezer.

When they're cold like that you cant put the sticker on them. So they ship with the stickers. I had to do busy work stickering a pallet of batteries before.

Anyway a Wally world battery has a small circle sticker. Such as 5/21 which means it was recieved may 2021. This was from Excide in ATL. We were in the metro ATL area and got excide batteries. We had an employee who worked during the day for excide. In the freezer.

 

[highdesertranger]

At Sams I got to pick and choose between 2 pallets. I got all 4 manufactured the month before I bought them. I also bought my meter in the store with me and checked the volts. Highdesertranger

 

[[email protected]]

I got my 2 six volt batteries from Sam's Club for $89 ea. Great service from them. I had the same batteries in my motorhome for 5 years no problems, I used a table service ketchup bottle from a cafe to keep them full.

 

[fraz627]

Thanks, I've read both bad and good reviews, and yes I begining to think 2000w PSW invertor is to much, My AC loads will be phone charger, lap top , a smalll TV and a small microwave, thinking that a 1000w would do just fine.
Again thanks for the adivce.

 

[rvgrandma]

So you are happy with the Batteries Plus batteries? I was looking at Interstate deep cycle but was reading another article on choosing batteries where Batteries Plus was a highly recommended. I notice I can get a Duracell AGM for not that much more than the Interstate deep cycle. I just need to know which one - 24 or 27M? Their prices on lead deep cycle are not bad either.

 

[bullfrog]

So far so good but i baby my batteries as I seldom go below 75% charged, full charge everyday usually by noon as I mainly use them to charge Ryobi 18 volt lithium tool batteries via a 12 volt vehicle charger. This allows me to run Ryobi lights and fans at night without over burdening my house batteries. With a 305 watt solar panel that I can adjust the angle, a MPPT charge controller and two 100 amp hour batteries I seldom need to use my generator to bulk charge. My batteries tend to last a long time.

 

[rvgrandma]

Thank you for the reply. I won't have solar - at least not for a while but I do plan to boondock this winter if I can get my generator running. The Les Schwab batteries I have were bought 2008 (starter) and 2010 - 2 coach batteries. Probably lasted this long because I have been plugged in most of the time but want to replace them before I hopefully head out this fall. I have a 34ft class A.

 

[Sofisintown]

2 AGM sealed batteries, 55AH each from Walmart. I had them now for over a year and they are topped off daily from a 100 Watt panel on the roof. 40 amp Epever MPPT inverter.
So far they behave.
The 55 AH is all I could or wanted to lift. They are about 35 pounds each.
The 100AH batteries weight 67 pounds.