Battery life

[castaway]

I have just dragged my 4x 135 amp hr 6 volt batteries out of the engineers shed after their winter rest and noticed that they have a "1st charged date of 1993"sticker on the top. The bats appear to be fine at the moment ... but I just wonder what is a reasonable life expectancy assuming they are well looked after. (They are Exides) . Thanks Nick

 

[Chris_Stannard]

Over time the capacity of the batteries will drop (due to sulphating?) if my memory serves me right. As long as you do not have a collapsed cell and the loss of capacity is not a problem, you should be okay. The battery in my wife's Golf lasted 9 years in daily service. In a Sigma 362 I haad to replace the batteries when the boat was 11 years old but, as I was the third owner and can only state that the batteries were at least seven years old when they failed, I think they were the originals so I take the manufacturer's three to five years with a pinch of salt.

Chris Stannard

 

[billmacfarlane]

On my last boat I started with a pair of Lucas "marine" batteries charged directly from the alternator. They lasted 4 years before they packed up. I then bought a pair of Italian ( can't remember the name ) deep cycle batteries and installed a TWC intelligent charger . When I sold the boat seven years later the battries were still going strong.

 

[rogerm]

Depends what you mean by 'well looked after'. If you have some sort of intelligent charger that understands things like providing a 'topping charge' on the one hand but not overcharging on the other then you might get a couple more years out of them. However I would say you were doing quite well already. Put it on your list of things to be done soon ie replacements.
Roger

 

[dickh]

I replaced 2 gel Sonneschein batteries last year with Exide M110? . The sonnecheins were 12 years old and had totally died, there is a TWC(now Adverc) smart regulator fitted, and hopefully I should be OK for a few more years. Incidently I enquired about new Sonnecheins and I bought the 2 Exides for much less money than 1 Sonnechein.