New house batteries

robertager1962

robertager1962

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www.sailing-south.com
Hi all. I wonder if anyone can help out with some advice on purchasing leisure/deep cycle batteries for the boat. We have 2 x 135ah batteries (Elecsol (now defunct))
We are currently in Northern Spain and I am struggling to find a supplier. The nearby chandlery can get them but it very much a case of this is what you get rather than what is best.
Amazon seems the best bet for getting delivery to us but I would rather get a good quality battery than just obtaining "what I can get" most of the material on the forum is very out of date (followed one of the links and found it was dated 2003!)
Unfortunately my charging regime will not allow me to use gel batteries without a major re-work which I don't want to undertake.
 
Unless you are wanting to buy proper deep cycle batteries like Trojan or Rolls, you could do a lot worse than nip into your nearest Halfords, (whatever the equivalent in Spain), and buy a couple of their 12V batteries. Most leisure batteries are no more than rebadged starter batteries, so at least you won’t be kidding yourself.
 
Hi. Thanks for your replies. We are live-aboard and en route to the Med. I mainly use the solar panels for charging (2 x 100 watt) that give me up to 9 amps. We have wintered in a marina (since late September) and have until recently not needed to charge from shore power as the sun has kept the batteries fully topped up. Other than the fridge (the only main draw of about 4 amps ) the boat is fitted throughout with LED lighting. I use a NASA BM1 battery monitor to keep an eye on charge etc. The batteries are now charging very quickly during the day (from solar) but also discharging quickly at night, which is indicative that they are on their way out. The batteries were fitted in 2010 so have had a pretty good innings.
 
pandos said:
pop into the building suppliers... many will sell batteries for solar storage at good prices...
Click to expand...
Thanks for this and I will definately check. My main problem seems to be that the majority of solar storage batteries are gel which have a maximum charge rate of 20amps. I have a switch mode charger which gives up to 30 amp, split between the starter battery and the domestics. This is an expensive bit of kit that I don't want to replace.
 
I certainly remember seeing large batteries for sale in Bricomart around Spain when we were there between 2012-2016. Problem is finding one really close to the coast to avoid a long taxi ride. I remember one in Bilbao but didn't really visit others until we were in Aguadulce for a couple of winters.

I use T-105s so didn't pay much attention at the time other than checking prices in https://www.batteriemegastore.fr/ in case I needed replacements. I don't remember an equivalent .es site. I don't know if the French site still exists but might be useful if you are still near the border.

I'm amazed that 200W is enough in N. Spain at this time of year. I think that my calcs. for Galicia predicted an average of 20Ah per day from 200W in December/January. I guess the fridge duty cycle will be pretty low at this time of year.

Having 300-400W of solar is a game changer for most of the season as there's enough to keep up with a fridge even at 40C. It means you don't really need to deep cycle and should manage with cheaper batteries. I still have T-105s but would seriously consider cheaper batteries next time (but only if they were quite a bit cheaper).
 
robertager1962 said:
Thanks for this and I will definately check. My main problem seems to be that the majority of solar storage batteries are gel which have a maximum charge rate of 20amps. I have a switch mode charger which gives up to 30 amp, split between the starter battery and the domestics. This is an expensive bit of kit that I don't want to replace.
Click to expand...

This charge rate is very low. If you mean less than 20A for your total battery bank this is less than 0.1C. This is not typical for deep cycle gel batteries.

I would check the manufacturer’s specifications as you may have been given the wrong advice or misinterpreted.For example with two house batteries in parallel a 20A limit will mean the total battery bank can be charged at 40A which would be OK with a 30A charger. Splitting this with the start bank will only reduce the charge rate further.
 
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Mistroma said:
I certainly remember seeing large batteries for sale in Bricomart around Spain when we were there between 2012-2016. Problem is finding one really close to the coast to avoid a long taxi ride. I remember one in Bilbao but didn't really visit others until we were in Aguadulce for a couple of winters.

I use T-105s so didn't pay much attention at the time other than checking prices in https://www.batteriemegastore.fr/ in case I needed replacements. I don't remember an equivalent .es site. I don't know if the French site still exists but might be useful if you are still near the border.

I'm amazed that 200W is enough in N. Spain at this time of year. I think that my calcs. for Galicia predicted an average of 20Ah per day from 200W in December/January. I guess the fridge duty cycle will be pretty low at this time of year.

Having 300-400W of solar is a game changer for most of the season as there's enough to keep up with a fridge even at 40C. It means you don't really need to deep cycle and should manage with cheaper batteries. I still have T-105s but would seriously consider cheaper batteries next time (but only if they were quite a bit cheaper).
Click to expand...
Hi many thanks. I was in Bricodepot last Friday funnily enough. There is a large one in A Coruna where we ate wintering. Since we arrived in September I have never used a taxi as the buses are fabulous and along with my folding bike and trusty trolley; we get by pretty well. I tend to trawl the DIY places now before hitting the chandlery as much of what I need can be bought at a fraction of the cost. I don't remember seeing batteries there but will check again after the hols here.
We have got by pretty well on our charge regime throughout the summer and I only switched the shorepower charger on in november/devember when we had a lot of very crap westher. We are back to sunny days now so get a constant charge throughout the day.
 
noelex said:
This charge rate is very low. If you mean less than 20A for your total battery bank this is less than 0.1C. This is not typical for deep cycle gel batteries.

I would check the manufacturer’s specifications as you may have been given the wrong advice or misinterpreted.For example with two house batteries in parallel a 20A limit will mean the total battery bank can be charged at 40A which would be OK with a 30A charger. Splitting this with the start bank will only reduce the charge rate further.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks so much for your reply, which makes sense. I have to say the maximum charge I have seen to the batteries is 19 amps (even with the alternator). My concern is the switch mode supply does say for flooded wet cell lead acid batteries and I am not sure whether gel batteries may damage the charger or vice versa. If I could use them it would make my life simpler as I can get Rolls batteries delivered to me.
 
Hi. Thank you so much that is incredibly kind. It is a VXI charger model BCM1230 (www.vxipower.com) see attached picture. I have quickly realised that I am very poor at understanding manuals, so would appreciate another opinion.
 

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It looks like the absorption voltage of that charger is 14.40 v and the float is 13.80 v. This is ideal for the Rolls gel batteries at around 20°C.

There does not seem to be any temperature compensation for this charger but with a little bit of voltage drop you are OK using the the charger with battery temperature up to about 25° C.Below these temperatures is still OK but you need to exercise some caution if the battery temperature is higher.

You can reduce the voltage output to make the charger suitable for hotter battery temperatures in a few ways, but you need some eclectically knowledge and none are as good as charger with adjustable set points or even better one with proper temperature compensation.

If you use this charger with a normal flooded battery the opposite problem exists where the charger is OK for very hot temperatures but will tend to undercharge at more normal temperatures.
 
I would opt for Gel batteries if possible as they can be discharged to 20% without any damage.
Perhaps 3 of these in parrallel.
Ebay 303123835963
12v 90 AH £90
They can be fitted in any orientation, end on or even upside down if needed
 
robertager1962 said:
Hi thanks. Yes I saw these and great price. Unfortunately they only ship within the UK.
Click to expand...
If you're Med bound and can hold on til the algarve, there's a company just outside Faro which runs a truck down once a week so you can order and get delivered to their UK depot and collect in Portugal. Time it right car hire can be really cheap to go get them, though bit more in the summer
T105s get a huge vote from this. Liveaboard ?
 
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GHA said:
If you're Med bound and can hold on til the algarve, there's a company just outside Faro which runs a truck down once a week so you can order and get delivered to their UK depot and collect in Portugal. Time it right car hire can be really cheap to go get them, though bit more in the summer
T105s get a huge vote from this. Liveaboard ?
Click to expand...
Hi thanks for this. We are leaving in april so not sure whether we will be able to last that long as I would like to spend some time in the Rias. I know this is a dumb question but what brand are T105s?
At the moment the batteries seem fine but we do have very sunny weather so not a great test.
 
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