Battery

Jack B

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13 Apr 2011
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River Stour
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Hi,
Does anyone know where the best place to buy a cheap (under £30) 12v battery is, i plan only to use it for light domestic use in the cabin and then take it home every weekend for charging, it will be completely separate from the lighting system, ( which is already powered by AAA batteries.
Thanks Jack
 
Take a look at Batterymegastore http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/

Go to " batteries by application" and look what's on offer for some of the applications there.

A deep discharge battery or traction battery for a lawn mower, golf trolley, mobility scooter etc etc might be the best suited to your needs as it won't be harmed by regular deep discharging.

The cheapest though will most likely be a small car battery
 
I bought a Lucas 12 v., 12Ah., battery intended for a mobility scooter for use in my dayboat to power a bilge pump. It will last a whole season on one charge, the only snag being that its brass strip terminals are fragile and won't withstand many attach/detach cycles so I have permanently attached and well secured wires now and a remote plug/socket. Not cheap at £40 but it pumps out the boat beautifully whilst I'm getting the sails uncovered, hanked on etc.
 
Lugging a heavy 12 volt battery home every weekend is not necessary. Sooner or later you might drop it through the floor of the dingy or on your toes or it might spill acid or you might bust a gut lifting it. Leave it in place (strapped down) and hook up a small car/caravan type solar panel to keep it trickle charged. Will even run a little bige pump if you have dribbles or rain filling her.
Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
 
As an alternative consider NiMh batteries as used in battery drills. I bought Sub C batteries at 6AH quite cheaply. In fact I bought 20 for the sort of price you suggest. You need 10 in series to make 12v so 20 gave me 12AH and small enough to fit in a small lunch box and weighting about 1kg. Charge at home on a low current plug pack charger over several days. Low charge current means no harm if it is left on and is kinder to the batteries.
NiMH batteries love deep discharge and being separate cells you can just replace a cell if one dies. Just don't completely discharge ie below 10v if you can help it. An alternative to Sub C size is D sized NiMH rated at 13AH but a bit more expensive. From China of course via Ebay. good luck olewill
 
Get a second hand battery from a scrapyard. If you take a hydrometer they'll probably let you test it.
Yup or even your local marina, was chatting with some one yesterday about this when ever his landy battery got tired he just picked up another one at the local marina...

Lugging a heavy 12 volt battery home every weekend is not necessary. Sooner or later you might drop it through the floor of the dingy or on your toes or it might spill acid or you might bust a gut lifting it. Leave it in place (strapped down) and hook up a small car/caravan type solar panel to keep it trickle charged. Will even run a little bige pump if you have dribbles or rain filling her.
Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5
I did not run the bilge pump but did 3 seasons like this, if I was in a marina I had a battery charger to top it up.. Worked very well...
 
just a thought but perhaps an emergency car starter battery may do
There is a gadget called " porta jump" which costs circa £25-00 it is very small but is supposed to have enough oomph to start a car
from Overstock.com I believe
 
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