Batteries

[March]

JohnBill:
Interesting suggestions: I can't quite see how I would have installed the batteries incorrectly, since the system worked fine for a whole season. When I recharged them in the spring, I installed them exactly in the same way. The Xantrex combiner worked just fine at first; if I had installed them incorrectly, the combiner should have shown that. There was no short on the circuit; naturally, that's what I suspected first. The short was in the battery itself--the dealer tested it when I took it back. Mixing AGM and wet cell? I dunno. I bought two optimas, as stated in the message: one was a deep cycle marine, the other one was a regular optima. I can't quite see how I could have mixed a wet-cell and AGM. I was under the impression that Optimas are not wet cell batteries, but I might be wrong. I don't have the specs here, but you are right--I got some of the money back: 60 dollars for the 150 dollars I invested. That's what "pro-rated" probably means. 18 months is still below the typical three-year warranty for a regular workhorse battery, but, like you said, some people are perfectly happy with that warranty. If it works for you, cool.

The dealer admitted that it must have been a lemon, which makes sense, since these were yellow Optimas

[John Christian]

You can search archives for all the "Wally vs Cadillac" posts so I wont add to that. I will give you an alternative to Optima's if your inclined to AGM's. These were highly recommended to me by several of the Marina's in my area. East Penn They are widely used in the RV and Bus industries and have performed flawlessly for me for two seasons. Good midwest company and a leader in the industry.

JC

[Wa2paa]

Thanks John,

Great Link for Battery Care, and General understading of " Gel vs AGM " Designs , and many downloadable pdf files of interest to all.

Thanks
Jack
Happy New Year 2009

http://www.eastpenn-deka.com/default.aspx?pageid=468