Marine Batteries

Steve Clayton

Steve Clayton

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 May 2003
Messages
7,478
Location
Benitachell - Spain
www.aloeland.co.uk
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The technical spec looks a bit slim. CCA of 800 also looks on the high side for domestic use, which I presume is your intention.
They look like proper sealed jobs (some 'sealed' batteries have a big sticker covering the caps, so are sealed in name only), which will slightly reduce the voltage you're able to charge at.
As I'm sure you've noticed, the Numax and Lucas versions of the 110Ah look pretty much identical, so maybe just a branding exercise. If so, the former is better value. And remember the old motorcycling epithet: 'Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness'. ;)
 
Steve Clayton said:
Looking for a couple of 110AH batteries.

Found this: http://www.batteries4leisure.co.uk/marine-batteries?gclid=CPzMgKOX2rgCFbHKtAodxmQALw

Price looks good; testimonials are OK, and there is a reference to them being Original Equipment fitted to Sunseekers

So anyone used them? - or recommendations pls

(Had a look at the Katana site but far too much technical detail that went right over my head)
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Not come across Katana but the technical specification is the information you need to look at when choosing a battery,

Price looks good, delivery charge too

I recently bought a new leisure battery from Tayna Batteries. The best price I found for the one I wanted. Excellent service. Ordered early one day and delivered first thing the next day
 
moodyNick said:
Just like most threads about batteries, Sailorman will suggest batterymegastore but I will tell you not to touch them (due to a bad experience) and go to Barden's instead.

Steve - they are only about half an hour drive from where you are.
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i also mentioned Alpha batteries
Barden would not deal with another forumites claim on duff Trojans if your memory goes back 2 yrs
 
moodyNick said:
Just like most threads about batteries, Sailorman will suggest batterymegastore but I will tell you not to touch them (due to a bad experience) and go to Barden's instead.

Steve - they are only about half an hour drive from where you are.
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For the battery I bought Barden would have been approx £11 dearer after allowing for free delivery. Rather more if you add in an hours round trip to collect!
 
I wouldn't claim to be an expert, but I'd put Numex near the top end of the budget batteries. If I were a liveaboard, I'd be thinking Trojan, but Numax and their (quite possibly badge engineered) rivals hit the sweet spot for price & longevity for my small cruiser.

I had a second hand Numax as my domestic battery. It gave good service for a few years, in spite of my battery management being of the "lights look a bit dim, better charge the battery" variety. It died when I forgot to turn it off and didn't come back for a couple of months, which ran it down to about 3v, so it's hardly the battery's fault. My current batteries were new this winter. So far, so good, but it's too early to talk about longevity.
 
Excuse the slight thread drift here, but would a leisure battery be suitable for an anchor windlass drawing a maximum 60A, or would it be better connected to the engine starting battery?
(My boat is quite new to me and although I discovered that the 700W windlass was fitted with a 20A circuit breaker, I never got round to tracing it's electrics back to the battery.)
 
PaulJS said:
Excuse the slight thread drift here, but would a leisure battery be suitable for an anchor windlass drawing a maximum 60A, or would it be better connected to the engine starting battery?

(My boat is quite new to me and although I discovered that the 700W windlass was fitted with a 20A circuit breaker, I never got round to tracing it's electrics back to the battery.)
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There's so little difference between a so-called 'leisure' battery and a starter battery that it makes little or no odds. The leisure batteries the OP is asking about have a CCA of 800, higher than some dedicated starter batteries.
My own preference when using the windlass is to have the engine running and to use both battery banks.

Sorry, another thought: I dimly remember a previous post by you (I presume) about that strange 20A breaker. It may be nothing, but it's conceivable that such a low rating was chosen to protect undersized cable. You'd be well advised to check.
 
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macd said:
There's so little difference between a so-called 'leisure' battery and a starter battery that it makes little or no odds. The leisure batteries the OP is asking about have a CCA of 800, higher than some dedicated starter batteries.
My own preference when using the windlass is to have the engine running and to use both battery banks.

Sorry, another thought: I dimly remember a previous post by you (I presume) about that strange 20A breaker. It may be nothing, but it's conceivable that such a low rating was chosen to protect undersized cable. You'd be well advised to check.
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Thanks for the reply and the concern. I'd normally be running the engine while raising the anchor anyway and I will be checking the cable and which battery it's connected to when I fit the correct breaker, but from memory it was pretty hefty cable, about 8mm conductor diameter.

Paul
 
macd said:
The technical spec looks a bit slim. CCA of 800 also looks on the high side for domestic use, which I presume is your intention.
They look like proper sealed jobs (some 'sealed' batteries have a big sticker covering the caps, so are sealed in name only), which will slightly reduce the voltage you're able to charge at.
As I'm sure you've noticed, the Numax and Lucas versions of the 110Ah look pretty much identical, so maybe just a branding exercise. If so, the former is better value. And remember the old motorcycling epithet: 'Joe Lucas, Prince of Darkness'. ;)
Click to expand...

Would not touch Numax with a barge pole. I had 4 new ones they lasted 1 season - 2 had to go overboard gasing and very hot. Battery suppliers said the negative poles were loose. I have now had 4 Korean E-Nex - available in Greece Not sure where la la land is. These hold their charge - just amazing how the Numaxes were always down to 12.3 over night and these have never dropped below 12.7 or 12.6 when 8 amps is being drawn for fridge in morning. Brilliant batteries - manufacturers RECOMMEND charging at 14.8 volts even though they are sealed recylcling batteries. I suspect Mr Charles Stirling would approve:mad: I only charge at 14.4 as I am sure that is what destroyed the badly made Numax's.
 
PaulJS said:
Thanks for the reply and the concern. I'd normally be running the engine while raising the anchor anyway and I will be checking the cable and which battery it's connected to when I fit the correct breaker, but from memory it was pretty hefty cable, about 8mm conductor diameter.

Paul
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In which case the alternator will be putting in about 20amps (usually low revs when raising) so the draw from the windlass is even less, I'm sure it'll be fine.
 
Chris_Robb said:
Would not touch Numax with a barge pole. I had 4 new ones they lasted 1 season - 2 had to go overboard gasing and very hot. Battery suppliers said the negative poles were loose. I have now had 4 Korean E-Nex - available in Greece Not sure where la la land is. These hold their charge - just amazing how the Numaxes were always down to 12.3 over night and these have never dropped below 12.7 or 12.6 when 8 amps is being drawn for fridge in morning. Brilliant batteries - manufacturers RECOMMEND charging at 14.8 volts even though they are sealed recylcling batteries. I suspect Mr Charles Stirling would approve:mad: I only charge at 14.4 as I am sure that is what destroyed the badly made Numax's.
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The reason they are recommended to be charged at 14.8 volts is because the plates are alloyed with calcium and not antimony. Charging at 14.4 volts will undercharge them and cause premature sulphating. Nearly all "Leisure" batteries now use calcium in the plates instead of antimony; this reduces their parasitic discharge loss from about 10% per month to about 2% per month; this greatly improves their shelf life when they are not being charged.
 
pmyatt said:
The reason they are recommended to be charged at 14.8 volts is because the plates are alloyed with calcium and not antimony. Charging at 14.4 volts will undercharge them and cause premature sulphating. Nearly all "Leisure" batteries now use calcium in the plates instead of antimony; this reduces their parasitic discharge loss from about 10% per month to about 2% per month; this greatly improves their shelf life when they are not being charged.
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I have never seen any other Sealed batteries recommended to charge at 14.8 irrespective of a calcium/lead plates
 
Chris_Robb said:
I have never seen any other Sealed batteries recommended to charge at 14.8 irrespective of a calcium/lead plates
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You are right in that it is extremely difficult to get authoritative information upon the charging of lead/calcium or calcium/calcium batteries. I understand (rightly I hope) that lead/calcium means that only the +ve plate is alloyed with calcium, whereas calcium/calcium means that both plates are alloyed. I can only assume that the battery manufacturers are unwilling to change the established practise of recommending 14.4 Volts because that figure is so ingrained in the psyche of their customers and, to continue to charge at 14.4 Volts is safe; if there is a slight loss of battery life through premature sulphating then, so what - no harm done. Our experience is based upon ten years of using 4 X Delphi Freedom BE105 105 Ah calcium/calcium batteries and, latterly, 4 X Varta LFS105 for our domestic bank (this model Varta being a re-badged Delphi from the same East Penn factory in the USA). We are an all electric boat (no gas), using an induction hob and a Sharp microwave/convection/fan oven/grill for cooking through a Victron Phoenix 12/120/2500 Multi Inverter/Charger. We also use shore power or our Fischer Panda 4000i generator for AC. Our batteries usually last 4 years of heavy usage. The Victron has a 4-Stage charging profile with the bulk charge at 75 Amps, Absorption Voltage at 15.4 Volts, reducing to 14.4 Volts Float Voltage. The system has both a temperature and a voltage sensor at the batteries to take account of voltage compensation for temperature change and to reduce the possibility of "gassing". Another reason why 14.4 Volts is so readily recommended is because of the fear of "gassing" in the enclosed space of a boat consequently, I would not recommend our approach to charging unless the system has the facility for both temperature compensation and voltage compensation sensors at the battery.
 
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Chris_Robb said:
I have never seen any other Sealed batteries recommended to charge at 14.8 irrespective of a calcium/lead plates
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I used to have a domestic bank of 6 x 110Ah Delco 2000 batteries. These were maintenance-free "sealed" batteries and Delco recommended a charge voltage of around 15.5v, if I recall correctly. I charged them via an Adverc booster, which increased the alternator's output so that the voltage at the batteries was around 14.8v (depending on temperature) and they lasted around 8 years. I replaced them with Merlin PowerPack batteries, which have a similar construction, and these are lasting well too.

Delphi Freedom batteries can be charged at up to 16.0v, as can current AC Delco maintenance-free batteries.
 
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