Another battery question

[camper4life]

I need to buy a new battery for my new trailer.
I've been reading a lot of post about which battery
to buy. I'm planning on using my battery to run my
12 volt lights. I'll use a maintainer at campsite to charge
my battery. Would I be ok with marine batter or should I
pay a lot for an Optima battery?

[Shadow Catcher]

Marine batteries are a compromise design some place in between a true deep cycle and a starting battery meant for higher short burst usage. Optima does not make a true deep cycle battery and the design wastes space so not as many amp hours in a given foot print. The advantage of an AGM is you do not have to add water and they do not need to be vented (conventional deep cycle may produce hydrogen).
I made the choice of a 150 AH Lifeline battery because I am feeding it with solar and it is powering a refrigerator lights TV etc.
Best source of concise battery FAQ http://www.solar-electric.com/deep-cycl ... y-faq.html

[tony.latham]

If you are just going to power lights - especially if you use LED bulbs - a marine battery is fine. I've never owned an Optima but since they moved to Mexico I have read numerous complaints about them. If I was just going to power LED lights, I'd go with a group 24. Cabelas had their AGMs on sale recently. Dunno if they still do.

[Redneck Teepee]

Trojan makes a true deep cycle AGM battery.

[Dale M.]

Another consideration for sealed cell battery....

http://www.odysseybattery.co

Dale

[len19070]

I've been building and using Teardrop and small travel trailers since 1989 and have never gotten anything more than the cheapest group 24 deep cycle battery.

For $80 they last for 4 years. The fancy-schmancy ones for $150 last 5.

I run Lights and a fan all the time. No "devices".


After all, I'm camping.

Happy Trails

Len

[48Rob]

I'm planning on using my battery to run my
12 volt lights. I'll use a maintainer at campsite to charge
my battery. Would I be ok with marine batter or should I
pay a lot for an Optima battery?

If you don't take the time/effort to determine how much power you will use, it will be very difficult indeed to know how much power you need...
Something like saying that you are considering buying a new car, and asking how big an engine should I get?

If as you suggest, all your camping will be at a site with a 120 volt plugin to run your charger/maintainer, you may not even need a battery.

I'm not trying to be mean, or a smart A**, my point is that you are asking for an answer to a question that you have not yet defined to a point that anyone can give you an answer that will be of practical use.

Rob

[MtnDon]

I agree with Rob. Your needs and wants for power will not necessarily be the same as someone else. I'm an admin on a different board that gets asked a similar question re off grid power; how many and what kind of batteries and solar panels do I need. I always respond with the question about performing an energy estimate; how many watts for how many minutes/hours per 24 hour period. Without that information it's guessing with as much chance of designing a system that is adequate as one that is too small or too large. Either is inefficient and bad for long term battery health as well as the happiness of the owner.




Note: A "battery maintainer" will not recharge a battery that is fully or partially depleted from use. A maintainer is for use at home during periods of idleness. They keep the charge up to full to improve the battery lifespan. Some chargers, those with automatic 3 stage (bulk, absorb, float) charging, will also act as a long term battery maintainer when in the float mode. But a unit sold as a maintainer or minder are not powerful enough to recharge in a timely manner.

[tony.latham]

Don and Rob are right. But how do you figure out how much power each device uses? I bought one of these amp meters to figure out how much juice my devices use:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000X2 ... UTF8&psc=1

It' reads out down to the tenth of an amp.

I've got an LCD volt meter in my 'drop that tells me how much voltage my battery is producing (it reads a surface charge so has a lag period for an accurate reading, but at least when I get up in the morning, I've got something to eyeball.) I don't let the battery get below 12Vs. I use this chart to guide my usage: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qtbKtwygtXs/T ... Bchart.jpg

If I recall correctly a Group 24 marine battery has about 40 useable amp hours you can use before you hurt it.

Tony

[camper4life]

Thanks for all the feedback. Most of my battery use will be at night for a few hours. I will have 2 single reading lights, 1 double reading light, 1 dome light, fantastic fan,
2 porch lights and 4 plugs for my usb cords. If my battery runs down at night, we will use our headlamps or battery lanterns. I have been a tent camper for over 30 years, so this will be a huge step up. It will be so nice to be able to put my kids to sleep in the trailer without having to set up a tent @ 3 am. I know I really need to know how much each wattage each light uses, but some of the sites don't mention wattage or amps. I just don't want to spend any more money than I have to. I'm looking at the Stanley BC1509 15 amp charger/maintainer. I hope this will help with my wants and needs.