Quote:
Originally Posted by Chateau_Nomad
I bought two 6-volt GC2 Duracell golf cart batteries at Sam's Club for $89 each. Each has 215 AH, wired in series gives me roughly 107 AH useable (1/2 battery capacity) at 12 volts.
I call $180 a fantastic deal for that capacity. If I had room, I'd double up to 4 batteries for 214 AH. I don't think there's a better deal anywhere than $360 for 200+ AH... Lead-acid is 100 year old technology, but still hangs around like utility poles. They're still the overwhelming choice in power backup systems because of its time tested reliability.
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Upfront, I am a believer that quality is defined for fitness of use. Each person has different needs from a battery, but let me tell you why I did not go the way you suggest.
#1. The only reason I wanted new batteries was to get rid of the requirement to water the batteries. Do your GCs require water? If so, it is not a fantastic deal for me, it is/was nonstarter for me. I gave away 2 brand new OEM NAPA FLA batteries because I could no longer take it trying to get 2 or 3 years out of them
#2. I went from 65 AH supposedly available at 50% on my OEM FLA (more like 40AH in actual usage) to
125 ah available at 50%. After a month or two, I realized that I don't need 125 ah based on my most extreme conditions of how I use my batteries, so I have reprogrammed my AGS to cycle my batteries when 60% is still available about
12.5vdc
#3 Despite #2 125 ah being more than I need, it is better to have than the 107 ah over your 6vDC GCs.
#4 I don't know if your GC would even fit my compartment, if they did they would be taller and more likely to make catastrophic error and touch something because I am not a professional, I can and will make mistakes. But a bigger item for me on the battery physical design is the fact that the Pure AGM Deep Cycle do not have the automotive posts, even less risk of doing some major damage.
#5 My Vmax Tanks batteries are rated 8 - 10 years, I will take 6 because that is likely when I move to lithium. The fact that I was willing to dispose of good dual purpose FLA to get these Pure AGM Deep Cycle is proof that I will pull the trigger to get what I need or
"fitness for my use" These batteries can cycle 3 times more than FLA.
#6 The only reason I don't own a ACE 29.3 is because a brand new OEM FLA battery in a brand new 2019 29.3 Battery exploded in the battery compartment on the Dealer's lot!!!!. They tried to clean it up, but could not get rid of the rust and corrosion that was on the hydraulic pump system, the floor and the entire compartment.
#7 For me, I don't want FLA period, even if the 2 6vdc FLA GCs were given to me free; I would dump them like I did my OEM NAPA Dual Purpose Deep Cycles.
#8 Because I was open minded, I checked for ANY 6vDC GC that was NOT FLA, but maintenance free and pure AGM. I found a few at ridicules cost but non that came close to the 125ah available capacity I have at 50%. Even VMax tank Engineering told me for my RV application; the SLR125 I was looking to buy would serve me better than their own Pure AGM 6vdc GC battery
https://www.vmaxtanks.com/V6-225-6Vo...ery-_p_48.html When they told me that... along with a discount from published price, free shipping, incredible delivery speed and packaging I was convinced. Both batteries came in with 13 vdc plus right out the box
#9 so unless you have lithium, I can go toe to toe with anyone as far longevity goes, but I can make a point that even lithium would do me no good right now. You see I use to worry about getting through the night before the generator would need to come on, I was only getting about 8 hrs off my batteries, so quiet time was a challenge; so I would turn some things off. Now I can go 24 hours. But I don't need to because my AGS turns my genset on every evening 2 hours before quiet time to top off my batteries. It works great. This point flies in the face of Lithium users who have spent $ thousands who crow about going down to 10% SOC,... Even if I had Lithium's theoretical available capacity today; my actual demand would not change because I am already running all I need without worry
The only benefit could be that maybe I could go 2 full days before the recharge is required? But then I would not be able to use my Quiet time feature on my AGS because it will turn on every night anyway in it's design attempt to make sure the batteries are at 100% BEFORE quiet time begins.
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