gel battery v regular led acid

[67hat34c]

is there any real advantage to gel batteries? We had a 4D gel and an 8D gel. the 4D is fried. was thinking of saving some and replacing it with a regular led acid. 8D Gel runs the Starboard engine and house. the 4D runs the Port engine and bridge. Gas engines.

 

[Boatsb]

Steve give me a call on the cell. 321-239-4753. I got a few ideas for the batteries. I also have 3 4D batts at the marina.

 

[thoward]

As long as you stay on top of the maintanence the lead acid will last as long as the gel.

 

[Trojan]

I agree. I buy standard batteries. Use them for 3 years and give them away. I can't see the advantage over the cost. Ever 3 years I have new batteries I can trust. I think the gels are heavier.


BILL

 

[SKYCHENEY]

We had gels in a motorcoach as the house batteries. We ran 2 inverters off of them and they lasted 10 years. Not bad even at the inflated price.

 

[Kathy L]

Check out the Odyssey batteries. They have a 10 year warranty and you can can install them upside down if you want! If you can't find them, send a PM and I'll get you the info.

 

[Trojan]

What good is a warranty or an extended life battery or to be able to say I've had these batteries for 5 years and they still work. When your setting at anchor 20 miles out with dead batteries saying the batteries should be good. I have a warranty. I would rather short cycle my batteries and know I have a better chance of starting because they are new. Than take a chance on they should have been OK. You warm weather boys have never sat in a car at 10 below zero and listen to the starter go click, click, click, click. Every time you run down your batteries beyond there starting ability. You loose 20% of the battery power for ever and that's for ever every time you do it.. Hay! Just another one of My tidbits. Being a retired Farmer and Engineer I have lots of them to use up.



BILL

 

[jim rosenthal]

AGM batteries seem to be better than gel cells, FWIW. Their charging profile is closer to lead-acid cells.

Good quality, properly maintained lead acid cells will last a LONG time if you take care of them. I have never made the move to AGMs because of this. If the battery location makes it very hard to check levels, AGMs have some advantage there. Also, they can't spill.

I have had better luck with Trojan batteries than any other make. I think Rolls are overpriced. Any good genuine deep-cycle battery should do well in a house battery position, if you have a good smart charger, and if you hae enough of them you can use them as a backup to start your engines.

Karl posted (a while back) explaining how he had rewired Gigabite to have one set of batteries just do the starting chores and the other house only, with optional paralleling if needed. This is a major improvement on the way these boats were originally wired, in most cases. Also, using multistage regulators makes a big difference. These are not expensive changes to make, compared to a lot of the things we spend money on for our boats, and they really make a difference in how the boat performs and your enjoyment of it. for one thing, it is a lot less likely that you will end up stranded with no way to start your engines. Click, click, indeed.

Oh- many of us who live in warm climates like me USED to live in cold areas. Like me. This is WHY we live in warm climates now.

 

[34Hatt]

I have wet cells just replace house bank of 6 volt Trojans after 6.5 years they where on there way out. My two 8D's I replaced this winter because I only needed 4d's now and they where 8+ years old still checked out good.

Trojan
When your setting at anchor 20 miles out with dead batteries saying the batteries should be good.

Batteries very rarely good bad overnight you can tell by watching their charge rates and gravity! I New last year my house bank was on it way out but used it for another 8 months then decided to go new! plus if one goes bad I can link them together to get home.

Also remember no matter what batteries you get it all comes down to how GOOD your charger is you need 3 stage with equalization otherwise new battery's every 2-4 years.

 

[(Nobody You Know)]

If you have the right charger gel batteries will last years. I installed a gel "house" battery in an old Sea Ray in 1990, sold the boat in '97. That battery was still going strong!

Not surprisingly there are chargers and charger/invertors thet can be set to charge (one set of) all three (flooded cell, gel, and AGM).

Capt'n Bill

 

[67hat34c]

dont know anything about the charger, will get name and model and look it up. also pull face plate off and see if there are settings.

 

[Genesis]

Karl posted (a while back) explaining how he had rewired Gigabite to have one set of batteries just do the starting chores and the other house only, with optional paralleling if needed. This is a major improvement on the way these boats were originally wired, in most cases. Also, using multistage regulators makes a big difference. These are not expensive changes to make, compared to a lot of the things we spend money on for our boats, and they really make a difference in how the boat performs and your enjoyment of it. for one thing, it is a lot less likely that you will end up stranded with no way to start your engines. Click, click, indeed.

Gig was planned to get that rewire this summer, but was sold before she did. It was quite a bit of work due to the replacement of cables that was required to do it correctly.

The design work was done on it though. The idea was to have two G27 or 31 AGM batteries in parallel for engine start (shizloads of CCAs but not much in the way of reserve capacity) and then use the remaining three boxes for 6V Golf Car batteries wired in series/parallel for the house. Both engines are fed off one engine start bank; the house bank feeds only the house. I was also going to put a motorcycle battery in the bilge to separately provide generator start, with a second combiner to echo charge that off the engine start bank, although that is not strictly necessary.

You charge only the house with the AC charger. A combiner is connected between the two. The alternators on the engines restore the start bank, and then if running, the combiner closes and the house gets refilled.

This is how I've done all my smaller boats and its a vastly superior system.