Battery survey

[Bruce]

Been doing online research for storage batteries and have lots of data from 30 years of installing them.

Kinda like the Prevailer 8d gels for longevity.

They will be powering either a inverter or dc equipment directly as a backup emergency power supply in the Faraday cage garage.

Some of the long time boaters who have used batteries, especially gel or AGM what experience have you had with brands?

I had high hopes when I had become an Odyssey dealer given the data they fed me. While most of it was good, I haven't had good experience with dead storage which is supposed to be 7 years and 50% of my stock didn't last 5.

[Rawleigh]

Bruce: I have had good luck with Exide Orbital AGM's. Have a 10 year old pair in the boat that are just dying. Need to be replaced this year. that being said i do not know if they are still built the same or have been cheapened or outsourced.

[Bruce]

I really used to like Rolls flooded lead acid and are much better than gels and the positive plates were really heavy which is the key to long battery life, but aparently the company was sold by its long time owner and as typical QC and company response has hit the skids.

[Pete Fallon]

B ruce,
Good to see you yesterday, nice little get together at Bill's boat.
I used Surette Batteries for years in New England, The were made in Salem, Ma. I used their group 31 lead acid units which weighed about 75 pounds each. Old John Surette's grandson took over the business in the late 90's and changed the name to Rolls, he was in the FT Lauderdale area the last I heard. Quality batteries that lasted 10-12 years up North and 6 to 7 down here in the high heat. The units were expensive, heavy, but lasted. Now I just changed over from Exide group 31's to 4 D Exide's, see how long they last. I wonder if anyone makes a long lasting battery that will last more than 3 years down in the heat of South Florida. I'm staying with lead acid because my charger is a 3 bank 40 amp stainless Charles unit, located under the aft dinette seat and it works great, the unit came out of Jack Nickalus' big boat 10 years ago, and its only for lead batteries.

[Bruce]

Lead acid still have heavier pos plates than corresponding sealed batteries and thus are better for longer life.

They won't take fast charges like gels or sealed do, with the proper charge rate and use they should last 8 years.

Maybe I'll look back into Rolls.

Good to see you also. After your surgery we defiantly have to play a round.

Good to see the Porsche race team of Linda and Russ, Bill and his wife and their really, really nice 31 and of course Brewster, one of the classiest of people I've ever met. He's forgot more about fishing than most ever learn. A true sportsman.

[Craig G]

My experience has been that the Gel cells are the best. When I bought my previous boat, a 1988 Formula 35PC in 1992, the seller had just installed 3 Prevailer gell cells in the boat, 2 for the engines, and one for the generator. I sold that boat in 2001 and never had to remove a single battery which was a good thing, because they were very difficult to get at. I bought my current boat, a 1968 Bahia Mar (much easier battery access than that Formula) in 2004 and it also came with Prevailer gell cells. I could never find the date code on those batteries, but they looked just like the ones in my old Formula. I suspect they might have been 1995 vintage as that was when my engines were installed. They lasted 6 years since I bought the boat, and then died. I searched and couldn't find gell cells, so I bought Exide batteries at Boat Owner's Warehouse, and they only lasted 2 years. After much research, I found Gell Tech gell cells which are supposedly the Prevailer Gell Cell battery that was produced under license in the U.S. from the German company that produces Prevailer. I think you can still buy the German Prevailer batteries, but they are much more expensive. I bought my Gel Tech batteries from Lauderdal Battery for about $250 each. They did mention, that if I want them to last long, that my alternators and/or battery charger should not put out more that 14.1 volts. Oddysey batteries are probably very good, but with my personal Gell cell experience, I wouldn't use anything else. :-D

[bob lico]

Phoenix in the last ten years have been in extremely sensitive areas. Absolutely no room for failure and price is no object.the FAA complex outside islip airport is. One such place.we did lightning protection and then into UPS for computor power that control every single plane from Maine to Cleveland coming in from overseas.essential power comes from two powerhouses opposite end of island two separate banks of 5 generators in each and this answer your question. They have a lead lined room about 30'. By 30' with 480 batteries on racks each battery is about 2' high and 1'wide .battery output is 1.2 volts each and batteries are called Edison cells.place in series 575 volt total .this system is used in that minute or so the generator bank starts up and comes to operating speed then with automatically switch over ,each electrical panel board has a auto transfer.the next was a top secret installation lightning protection and UPS for computer bank holding terrorist info as well as intapole . They went with AGM exide made size 27 .i think there were about 64 batteries in all. The engineer explain most of the failure of AGM come from not keeping a correct constant charge. Possibly your odyssey failure came about because of the storage factor. The federal government uses these AGM on all there UPS installation including "space mountain" in Colorado mountain . This is the command center to launch all missiles.Cannot have a dead battery situation !!!!!!!

[Rawleigh]

Bob is right: the charger is key!! I had a friend who killed an Exide AGM like mine with a conventional charger in a month.

[bob lico]

Rawleigh I through I was going to be a hero on this board and give away 60 or so rolls lead acid battery ------ not. Suffolk county police also 911 headquarters yapank ny. Replaced lead acid based UPS for computer back up and had to have giant generator on standby running just to back up the 50 second to run time for main generator as we removed UPS and again engineers made AGM battery no substitution prerequisite. Then I had to show dumpster certification that the lead acid batteries went into the dumpster and was taken by a qualify recycle yard.

[Rawleigh]

What a waste Bob! That must have made you sick! So much for recycling and repurposing!! Trash it rather than reuse it seems to be the order of the day now. Even if they went to the recycler, what more efficient way of recycling is there than to reuse something that still has life left in it!

[bob lico]

I have seen a lot worse!,Suffolk county police have a impound yard in westhamton beach . Some time to stay in the groove we take a low profit time and material job for government so here we are at the impound yard running a security power line underground . At least 50 acres of cars section off in areas . One area has piles of Mercedes,Lexus jag stack up all burnt up. So I inquire "that's the lease area" people put 20,000 miles on a 10,000 mile lease then burn it rather then paid the huge premium or they leave the keys in the ignition at less then desirable area. They all get banged by auto squad .next area is drugs in car confiscated .i saw a Plymouth prowler in red with a few hundred miles just rotting there and countless corvettes,Mercedes,etc.then a dwi yard with every day cars ,some poor bastard getting caught coming home from a wedding or. Whatever. The police take the car on a second dwi.

[In Memory Walter K]

We are a wasteful society...which is what our parents weren't...the ones that survived the Great Depression and gave us our greatest generation. Gone.