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AGM Batteries vs. Cheap 'Leisure' Batteries


Patrick_C

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Just now, rusty69 said:

What are they suited for? Mudweights? 

Ballast?

1 minute ago, mrsmelly said:

Which is why we have Travelpower :lol:

Well so do we. But why make noise and vibration when you can just recharge once you are cruising? We do use the TP for the tumble drier, washing machine etc.

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On 26/08/2017 at 21:34, nicknorman said:

 But why make noise and vibration when you can just recharge once you are cruising?

 

Spoken like a true Japanese buzz box owner.

If only you had an engine which is a joy to listen to... like a Kelvin.  

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18 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Spoken like a true Japanese buzz box owner.

If only you had an engine which is a joy to listen to... like a K̶e̶l̶v̶i̶n̶ Merlin. 

Corrected for you. 

Mind you, the only Guy i know of who had a Merlin engine and a narrowboat boat was Martin 

Edited by rusty69
Needed correction
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14 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Corrected for you. 

Mind you, the only Guy i know of who had a Merlin engine and a narrowboat boat was Martin 

Except he never 'had' either. The boat was bought by the production company and sold as soon as filming was complete. The Merlin he actually did nothing to ;)

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On 26/08/2017 at 20:43, mrsmelly said:

As well you know on a boat he will use a gas cooker to heat the water for the coffee and the gas grill for the toast like the rest of us :) stop tying to wind him up ;)

Nope.

We have stupid 2.7kg Camping Gaz bottles on our boat at £32 a bottle. We were using at least two extra bottles a year for boiling the kettle so we switched to using an electric kettle. 

Our gas consumption is greatly improved, now down to two bottles a year and we still get roughly the same time out of our batteries. Four years from the last lot.

8 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Spoken like a true Japanese buzz box owner.

If only you had an engine which is a joy to listen to... like a Kelvin.  

Looking forward to listening to our Swedish green lump singing for us this afternoon. :D

 

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It wasn't a Rolls Royce Merlin.  It was actually a Rolls Royce Meteor engine, from a tank.  The Meteor is I admit a pretty similar design to the Merlin but doesn't have a two-speed supercharger ( 'cos it's not needed below several thousand feet up) and the power take off arrangements are much better suited to a land vehicle.

 

N

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34 minutes ago, BEngo said:

It wasn't a Rolls Royce Merlin.  It was actually a Rolls Royce Meteor engine, from a tank.  The Meteor is I admit a pretty similar design to the Merlin but doesn't have a two-speed supercharger ( 'cos it's not needed below several thousand feet up) and the power take off arrangements are much better suited to a land vehicle.

 

N

Interesting :)

i recall it being promoted as having a Merlin and I also recall RR's horror at the beast. 

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1 hour ago, BEngo said:

It wasn't a Rolls Royce Merlin.  It was actually a Rolls Royce Meteor engine, from a tank.  The Meteor is I admit a pretty similar design to the Merlin but doesn't have a two-speed supercharger ( 'cos it's not needed below several thousand feet up) and the power take off arrangements are much better suited to a land vehicle.

 

N

That's correct, it did have a Meteor engine,  but saying it had a Merlin sounded so much sexier :D.

It made an awesome sound, literally you could hear it coming some distance away.

Edited by cuthound
To add the last sentance.
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Cheap or expensive?

Everyone contributing has made good points, but although I have tried both routes, I'm still not sure which is best.

I currently use series 5000 Rolls lead acid deep cycle batteries which have a 10 year warranty; a market leading warranty I believe. These would cost today about £2800 to replace for roughly 1000Ah worth at 12v (C20). I could buy, as I have in the past, 8 x 130Ah cheapo leisure batteries for just £800ish. 

I know I will get about two and a half years of use out of the cheap batteries if I don't run them down below a 50% charge (liveaboard use) and as my Rolls batteries approach the ten year mark, there is some sign of performance drop off.

I should say that whatever batteries I use, I don't abuse them, especially when they cost nearly three grand to replace.

One huge advantage with buying leisure batteries over Rolls batteries is that you can get them on board without pre-booking a hernia operation!

Over 10 years there really isn't much difference in the cost, and the 12 volt they deliver seems to work just as well.

In my opinion, if one ensures that the 'at rest' voltage of any battery bank doesn't drop below 12.2v (if it is a 12v battery), then the life you can expect is roughly proportional to the amount that you paid for the batteries in the first place. I am only talking about lead acid batteries as I have no experience of AGM or other variations.

 

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11 minutes ago, Bargebuilder said:

Cheap or expensive?

Everyone contributing has made good points, but although I have tried both routes, I'm still not sure which is best.

 

How long did your Agm batteries last? 

Or are you comparing cheap and expensive wet cell lead acid batteries? 

Edited by rusty69
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worth pointing out to beginners that 'maintenance free' just means you can't open the cells to top them up. 

.................................  except in most cases you can, simply by removing some vinyl labels and levering the cover strip off with a screwdriver.

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4 hours ago, rusty69 said:

How long did your Agm batteries last? 

Or are you comparing cheap and expensive wet cell lead acid batteries?

My only experience is with Rolls 10yr guarantee lead acid wet cell at £2,800 for 1000Ah at 12v and a similar capacity in 'cheap' wet cell leisure batteries for nearer to £800.

Very roughly 4x the price for a battery that lasts 4x longer; in terms of warranty length anyway.

How would an AGM battery bank compare for a similar 1000Ah in terms of cost per year of warranty offered, if wet cell lead acids work out to about £300 per year, irrespective of whether you buy cheap ones or expensive ones?

 

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3 minutes ago, Bargebuilder said:

How would an AGM battery bank compare for a similar 1000Ah in terms of cost per year of warranty offered, if wet cell lead acids work out to about £300 per year, irrespective of whether you buy cheap ones or expensive ones?

I suspect that is the question the OP wanted to know the answer to. 

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A very quick look found that a 120Ah AGM battery costs around £150, so 8 of them would cost £1200. This particular one has a 4yr warranty so the cost per year of warranty would be, guess what? £300, approximately the same as for cheap leisure wet batteries or top of the range wet deep cycle batteries as per my previous post.

Very approximately though, because there are so many variables.

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