Batteries

[madhatter1]

Posted on Brian's thread about where to pick up some batteries at a great price. I bought an 8D AGM at Electro Battery for $570. I had to buy one from west marine in Marathon during our Key's trip because we had one go bad. The one if front of it was getting hot so rather than wait I replaced it.

Well, guess what? The Electro battery is the exact same battery west marine sells for $890. At least I got mine for about $700 on sale.

Starboard side is next.

Electro has the standard lead acid 8D's for $190. This is in St. Petersburg FL. If anyone is passing through and wants to change batteries I can assist with my truck to swap out. Just PM well in advance.

 

[carolinacoast]

8D's are going up since East Penn and others stopped making at least the 195's I was using. It is recommended to change all batteries in a charged bank together. Adding 1 will likely bring it down to whatever the weakest is.
I just changed to 8V golf cart batts, but my setup is like MikeP's was. (I have a separate start batt for my #2 gen). These batteries are not rated for CCA, and hence the controversy over using them for this application.
DC Battery has done their own testing, and has many happy cruisers using them. I'm happy so far, and motors spin better than the 195's produced.

I am using the Trojan wet model T875, which is the only golf cart 8V that DC carries also. About $170 per battery. Still 32V, and now only using 1 battery box per side of the gen room.
I do not use or have the inverter wired up, so my risk of a problem is much lower.

Some will say this is an incorrect choice, but after 13 years of ownership, I am willing to try.

 

[Boatsb]

I replaced 3 8d agm batteries for q customer with the victron agm of similar size. If memory serves they were mid five hundred delivered anywhere. It's a little shorter or narrower but fits in an 8d box easily.

 

[oceanjake]

8d flooded cells at $180 or so is a good price. Regarding golf carts, I have 4 8v cart batteries for each bank. Powertron near me sold them for $145 each out the door and they work great. After 2 years I checked just last night and found the electrolyte low. They have quick release caps...took 10 minutes to top all 8 off. Well worth the thousands saved in my opinion and if they fail I will toss them and replace with new without feeling bad about it.

 

[carolinacoast]

added a flowrite battery water system, which is fabulous, and takes seconds. 2 32 volt configurations was $150 or so.

 

[Capt Paul]

Are you guys using smart chargers? I found after replacing the original Sentry I hardly ever even have to add water.

 

[Seapig100]

I have a Charles 3 bank charger and I have to add water once a year.

 

[Briankinley2004]

Madhatter I am assuming the 8D's are 12 volt. Is that correct? Do you know if Electro carries any 8volt besides golf cart batteries? That is the only 8 volt they had on their website. I plan to call them but am in Orlando all week so won't be able to get there until next week.

Those of you using golf cart 8 volt batteries. Any of you using them for a house bank as well as starting? If so how do they perform. I have though about moving the newer lead acid I purchased for the starboard engine to my house bank then putting cart batteries on the starboard bank. it is only used to crank that one engine. All this talk about different lead thicknesses messing things up has me concerned about not going back with identical batteries on all banks. I am going to pull manual on my charger next week and look

 

[oceanjake]

Yes to the smart charger. Adding water annually or every 2 years is nominal.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I would like recommendations on 4D batteries, if anyone has them. My boat uses two 4Ds in Blue Seas cases out under the aft deck, it's about time for new ones. Thinking about 4D AGMs..

 

[mike.s]

Madhatter I am assuming the 8D's are 12 volt. Is that correct? Do you know if Electro carries any 8volt besides golf cart batteries? That is the only 8 volt they had on their website. I plan to call them but am in Orlando all week so won't be able to get there until next week.Those of you using golf cart 8 volt batteries. Any of you using them for a house bank as well as starting? If so how do they perform. I have though about moving the newer lead acid I purchased for the starboard engine to my house bank then putting cart batteries on the starboard bank. it is only used to crank that one engine. All this talk about different lead thicknesses messing things up has me concerned about not going back with identical batteries on all banks. I am going to pull manual on my charger next week and look

I put a set of golf cart batteries in about 8 months ago. They are used for both starting and house batteries. So far they have performed great. I did two sets of 8 so 16 batteries total. It cost me $1,500 for the batteries and cables to hook the extra 8 batteries into the system. I actually preferred letting the 16 lighter batteries in and out of the hole over the 8 old heavy batteries. Time will tell how they hold up, the battery shop I got them from said they have been using them on 32 volt boats for a long time and usually see 7-10 years out of them. I have 1292’s and have no problem cranking them.

 

[Briankinley2004]

Mike did you use 4 volt golf cart batteries? Or did you put two somehow parallel two banks of 4@8 volts to make one bank. I am confused.

 

[mike.s]

Mike did you use 4 volt golf cart batteries? Or did you put two somehow parallel two banks of 4@8 volts to make one bank. I am confused.

I connected 8 batteries per side in parallel to essential make 4 larger batteries. Then connected the 4 sets in series to make the 32 volts. That was my main concern, all the connections. So far I’ve had no problems. I do check the connections every couple weeks to make sure they are staying tight, and I make sure I keep some of the battery spray on them to try and prevent the corrosion. I talked to one of the technical people at Trojan and he said while they don’t advertise CCA for testing purposes they say the batteries are 550 CCA. So paralleling them should double that. When I bought the boat one side had 4 golf cart batteries that were 5 or 6 years old and I never had a problem starting that side with the 4.one of my Big Deka batteries on the other side failed which is why I decided it was time for new batteries, and I like to do them all at the same time. I figured if 4 worked 8 would be even better. Especially for the price compared to getting starting batteries, it was worth seeing what happens.