[C320-list] Battery Question

[Jeffrey Hare]

Well,  if money's not the object, go with AGMs.  They have virtually no
leakage loss, so they're ideal for storing over the winter or at a mooring
with no trickle charge.  Flooded batteries drain by themselves and like to
have a float charge on them.  Gels are better than flooded, but not as good
as AGM.

Deep cycle and combo-starting/deep cycle batteries (which we mostly have)
typically have lower cranking amps regardless of their type simply due to
the thicker plates.  The thicker plates, however give them the ability to
stand being discharged to 60% repeatedly, whereas the batteries with higher
cranking amps (thinner plates) are damaged faster by discharging them.

The cranking amps are less important than the amp hours.  CCA of 700+ amps
is plenty and a 4D sized gel/flooded/AGM should deliver that pretty easily,
but if you're worried about that add a starting battery and forget about the
whole issue.

 :)

-Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Stieber [mailto:djstieber at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2006 7:19 PM
To: C320-List
Subject: [C320-list] Battery Question

I apologize for not reading all the questions and answers about batteries in
the past.  But, now I have two dying batteries, and I was going to replace
them with West Marine gel batteries.  I noticed that the gel batteries have
two disadvantages.  One is lower cranking amps.  The other is more of a
warning that "gel batteries must charge at lower voltages than deep cycle or
AGM" batteries.  Any suggestions on gel vs. AGM?

Thanks...  Doug Stieber, Second Chance #406
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