AGM Battery recomendations

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Seems that there are quite a few battery manufacturers around in the deep cycle AGM space.. Some publish very comprehensive and useful datasheets (Rolls for example) and others have nothing (Platinum Batteries)..

As always the collective experience of the forum is always a good place to check things so which AGM batteries are recommended and which are to be avoided?
 
Posting on the off chance the info may be helpful.

Last summer I wanted to replace my Trojan T105 wet cells with the AGM Deep Cycle version, and I was keen to stick with Trojan if for no other reason than they would exactly fit my battery boxes.

But, I struggled to find a UK supplier, so I contacted Trojan in the US, they suggested the Trojan Solar SAGM 06 220 and a UK supplier, proinso.net. The price (for 4) was relatively cheap at £786, but delivery was quoted as £110 so I opted to arrange my own pallet collection. Early days with the batteries but so far more than happy. Trojan stated that their life expectancy, as leisure batteries, would be 3 times that of the equivalent, 'dual purpose' AGM.
 
Obviously personal experience, but of Rolls a complete disaster. I am very suspicious now of their batteries, and there has variously been some discussion that their standard is nothing like it was. Previosuly I had Lifeline, eventually replaced with Rolls after superb service, and now back with Lifeline, again performing superbly. They may cost more, but they seem as robust as it is possible to get. At least I can say based on my experience you will not go wrong with Lifeline.
 
GaryCottam said:
Posting on the off chance the info may be helpful.

Last summer I wanted to replace my Trojan T105 wet cells with the AGM Deep Cycle version, and I was keen to stick with Trojan if for no other reason than they would exactly fit my battery boxes.

But, I struggled to find a UK supplier, so I contacted Trojan in the US, they suggested the Trojan Solar SAGM 06 220 and a UK supplier, proinso.net. The price (for 4) was relatively cheap at £786, but delivery was quoted as £110 so I opted to arrange my own pallet collection. Early days with the batteries but so far more than happy. Trojan stated that their life expectancy, as leisure batteries, would be 3 times that of the equivalent, 'dual purpose' AGM.
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These do look good. I scanned the specs. quickly and they have much lower self-discharge than T105s (as expected) but they have better expected lifespan. These look like a good 6V AGM and price vs. lifespan isn't too different from T105s wrt value for money. Higher financial risk but much lower maintenance requirements.

All 12V Trojans I looked at were more expensive and had half expected lifespan of T105s. I've never understood why they can't make a 12V model with similar performance. I assume it's driven more by market forces than technology.
 
I too have Lifeline AGM batteries and they have given stirling service for the past 11 years. However, they are now beginning to show signs of age, so I am looking at replacements and unfortunately they are now almost prohibitively expensive. After discussion with the experts on this forum, I decided that either Trojan or Rolls were the best option. I cannot yet speak from experience of either, but decided to go for the Trojan 275 AGM as they better suited my charger and are marginally less expensive.
 
deep denial said:
how about Enersys NP batteries, available from Merlin. I have used Merlin's previous batteries, and they seem to be a pretty good company
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How does their published test data stack up? Many companies make great claims but chicken out when asked to supply detailed data. I haven't checked Enersys but do have data from Trojan's technical department.

Pretty well known that you won't achieve published performance as it is carried out under ideal conditions. It does provide an indication of relative performance and I tend to assume approx. 50% of published lifespan in real world.
 
deep denial said:
how about Enersys NP batteries, available from Merlin. I have used Merlin's previous batteries, and they seem to be a pretty good company
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They are fairly ordinary maintenance-free batteries, primarily designed for float applications, certainly not deep cycle.
 
pvb said:
They are fairly ordinary maintenance-free batteries, primarily designed for float applications, certainly not deep cycle.
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Not as bad as I expected and I did find published figures on expected lifespan. I assume the methodology would be similar to Trojan's, modified in any way they could to optimise for their product.
30% DOD 1,200 cycles vs. 2,100 for T105s
50% DOD 600 cycles vs. 1,200 for T105s
100% DOD 250 cycles vs. 550 for T105s

Seems reasonable if they cost approx. 50% of T105 price. I'd guess they'd be similar in price and you would need to value the low maintenance a lot to buy them. I also found something to indicate that they might be Yuasa batteries, not completely certain.
 
Mistroma said:
Not as bad as I expected and I did find published figures on expected lifespan. I assume the methodology would be similar to Trojan's, modified in any way they could to optimise for their product.
30% DOD 1,200 cycles vs. 2,100 for T105s
50% DOD 600 cycles vs. 1,200 for T105s
100% DOD 250 cycles vs. 550 for T105s
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The Enersys NP datasheet says 1200, 450, 150 cycles.
 
pvb said:
The Enersys NP datasheet says 1200, 450, 150 cycles.
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I took the figures from Merlin, looks as if they might be describing another battery or just telling porkies. I just remembered that's where I saw Enersys, formally Yuasa on battery in the picture.

https://www.merlinequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Merlin-NP-Series-Batteries.pdf

I was expecting to find something more like 400 cycles at 50% and a little surprised to see 600 cycles which isn't that bad (but not as good as Trojan or Rolls). Your figure of 450 cycles is certainly believable. I did look on EnerSys website but didn't spot any decent datasheets.
 
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Mistroma said:
I took the figures from Merlin, looks as if they might be describing another battery or just telling porkies.

https://www.merlinequipment.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Merlin-NP-Series-Batteries.pdf

I was expecting to find something more like 400 cycles at 50% and a little surprised to see 600 cycles which isn't that bad (but not as good as Trojan or Rolls). Your figure of 450 cycles is certainly believable. I did look on EnerSys website but didn't spot any decent datasheets.
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Have a look at the Enersys NP datasheet - http://www.enersys-emea.com/reserve/pdf/EN-NP-NPX-RS-003_0314.pdf
 
pvb said:
Have a look at the Enersys NP datasheet - http://www.enersys-emea.com/reserve/pdf/EN-NP-NPX-RS-003_0314.pdf
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Thanks for that. The steepness of the high DOD curves is very telling. They use 60% capacity remaining for lifecycles figure but it really is a rapid drop from 80%. I don't know where Merlin obtained the figures they quote. Almost as if they extrapolated and quoted lifecycles when capacity is down to 0%. :D

It looks as if they will only last 4-5 years even if you don't use them and just keep them on float charge.
 
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richardbrennan said:
Tanya are usually very competitive.
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Niet, Olga are offering lower price now. Tanya is over hill, da. (I'm led to believe). :D

Sorry, couldn't help it when I saw the typo regarding Tayna. They were very good when I used them some years back and called to offer an alternative for immediate delivery. I had choice to cancel, part order immediately, wait a couple of days for everything or take same battery with slightly different post layout. Very helpful and decent prices.

https://www.tayna.co.uk/
 
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One of the winters tasks is to remove the paralleling from the 5 house and instrument batteries and find out which ones actually work and which ones are ballast ...

I was thinking of a Raspi Pi as a voltage logger and stick some small heater on them as a load ...
 
rszemeti said:
One of the winters tasks is to remove the paralleling from the 5 house and instrument batteries and find out which ones actually work and which ones are ballast ...

I was thinking of a Raspi Pi as a voltage logger and stick some small heater on them as a load ...
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See http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?514382-Constant-Current-battery-capacity-tester

I did a test usung a variety of large and small bulbs to keep the load fairly constant and also took SG readings every hour. Very labour intensive but it did provide the information I needed.

I'd probably log with a Pi or similar now but think I'd still monitor SG hourly for max. data from the test. SG every 3-4 hours would probably be more than adequate. Bottom line is Voltage of course and determines end of test, SG is just an extra.
 
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