Thor Forums

[Chance]

Originally Posted by ellenov

We just got rid of our 2 , 12v AGM and replaced with 2, 6v good of Cary batteries. They have more plates in them and two are equal to four 12 volt.

Unless you’re comparing apples and oranges, two 6-Volt batteries are NOT equal to four 12-Volt batteries. If your talking about batteries twice as large each, that’s a different matter. In your case you may be referring to much larger golf cart batteries versus small AGMs.

When comparing equal size and weight batteries of same type and chemistry, there is not much difference at all in energy storage.

This keeps coming up simply because many people (including in sales) don’t understand that a 6-Volt battery of equal energy capacity will have 2 times as much Amp-hour rating as the equivalent 12-Volt battery.

Example: 100 Amp-hours of 12V is equal to 200 Amp-hours of 6V.

If you have 2 batteries, and connect correctly, you’ll end up with same 200 Amp-hours total either way. It’s a personal preference whether you’d want 2 batteries in series or parallel, but it won’t double your capacity.


If looking at 4 total (lead based flooded or AGM) batteries, it makes more sense to go with 6 Volt batteries so that you end up with 2 strings of 2 batteries each in series. If one went with 4 X 12-Volt batteries all in parallel, the 4 strings is more than recommended.

Hence, with 2 batteries you can go with 6 or 12 volt batteries but it makes very little difference. With 4 batteries I’d go with 6-Volt (again — assuming lead-based batteries and not lithium).