Jump to content

UPG Batteries or ?


LindaH

Recommended Posts

6 minutes ago, LindaH said:

Good to know!  However, I think we'll have to go with the smaller Group 31 batteries

Absolutely NO problem with going with smaller and especially lighter weight batteries, they may come in at the 65 to 75 or so weight class. I'm pretty sure FullRiver or Lifeline or Trojan or Renogy and many others have 100 to 135 Amp Hour smaller frame AGM batteries and If one isn't enough amp hours and if you have room, hey go for two of the 12 volters in parallel. When this all started you were looking at a SINGLE 135 Amp Hour to replace your 80 Amp Hour so that may still be all you need?????? ONLY YOU can answer that

John T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 62
  • Created
  • Last Reply
Just now, oldjohnt said:

When this all started you were looking at a SINGLE 135 Amp Hour to replace your 80 Amp Hour so that may still be all you need?????? ONLY YOU can answer that

Oh, no, we have every intention of buying 2 batteries, which is what we have now.

LindaH
2014 Winnebago Aspect 27K
2011 Kia Soul

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, LindaH said:

Oh, no, we have every intention of buying 2 batteries, which is what we have now

Great, you can get a 12 Volt 100 Amp Hour in the size and weight shown below

Dimension:13.0 X 6.8 X 9.0 from Renogy at https://www.renogy.com/renogy-deep-cycle-agm-battery-12-volt-100ah/

and Trojan and FullRiver and Lifeline and many others sell a similar 100 Amp Hour 12 Volt in same approximate size and weight

 

OR    you originally asked about a 135 Amp Hour 12 Volt Renogy  AGM in the still smaller frame size

Regardless with your 290 solar watts and say 200 to even 270 Amp Hours using two smaller frame AGM's in parallell (if enough room???) will make you a solar rock star lol

John T  

 

Weight: 66lbs

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you boon dock quite a bit, and plan on keeping the Aspect long enough to amortize the costs out. You could really spend some coin and shift to drop in lithiums. 

This LifeBlue is a well thought of Lithium, in Grp 31 (Which is what I believe the Aspect came with X's 2 Grp 31's?):

https://www.lifebluebattery.com/rv-boat-lithium-ion-batteries-1/125ah-lithium-battery.html

Yep, quite a bit more expensive going to this upfront. But it pays dividends back by lasting quite a bit longer DoD Lifecycle wise, so costs over time will sometimes pencil out to be less then the costs of multiple AGM's replacements. It can be discharged down to a bit below 85%. I'd use 75% of rated 125AH, or 250AH for X's 2 of these, so about 187AH's available, with some contingency left to boot! Lithiums charge much faster then Wet/AGM, so solar could cover you replenishment needs. And they don't go thru the traditional Bulk/Absorb/Charge cycles. You just bomb away with full Bulk until they're just about fully charged. Another advantage, is they do not need to be brought back up to 100% SOC every 3-5 days, like Wet/AGM's do to avoid lost capacity. And, they a bit lighter weight too. The LifeBlue are considered a 'drop in' lithium, and have a Battery Management System (BMS) incorporated. 

Possible battery compartment modification would be required, or relocate these somewhere inside of the coach, and convert the existing battery bay to more external storage, as Lithium's do have a more stringent temperature range. The BMS protects the battery from itself, and you may not find the temperature range too much of a problem, depending on how you camp. 

======

All of the above was to just assist you spend some coin:)! And this link to AMSOLAR's website, includes some good comparison info between AGM and Lithium Drop In's, down towards the bottom. DoD Life Cycles are included here. And realize if you only consume say 50% of the overall battery capacity each cycle, that usage would double the rated Life Cycle reflected. (So LifeBlues would potentially yield 5600 days of cycling usage at 50%. Vs say Lifeline would potentially yield 2000 days of cycling usage at 50%.) (Note, that's not how it really would work, but you get the idea of how a potentially extended life of usage could spread that costs out over quite period. And it does not factor the other benefits of say much faster recharge, potentially all by solar.) And did I mention they're lighter weight? That's nice for while installing, and every few pounds less weight, could yield more wine carrying capacity in your Aspect!!! 

======

All that being said. I have Lifeline (X's 4 L16's) and they're a rock solid performer. I've heard many positives about Fullriver too. When my bank of L16's need replacing, which I hope is in 6-8 years out timeframe. I expect Drop In lithiums prices will have dropped even more, and I'll shift over to lithiums at that time. And that should be the last bank of batteries we'll need for this coach. As I'd expect a lithium bank to last 12-15 years, or longer... 

======

No right or wrong on this, just choices. And as I was reading the thread, I found myself nodding at the input from the gang:)!

Best to you,

Smitty

Be safe, have fun,

Smitty

04 CC Allure "RooII" - Our "E" ride for life!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Smitty77_7 said:

If you boon dock quite a bit, and plan on keeping the Aspect long enough to amortize the costs out. You could really spend some coin and shift to drop in lithiums. 

Yeah, way too much money!  Maybe if we were younger and just starting out fulltiming, that would be a great option, including a lot more solar, but at 80 and 73, we have no idea how much longer we'll be able to continue being snowbirds, spending ~5 months in the SW.  We're in pretty good health right now, so hopefully, we'll be able to continue for at least another 5 years, but stuff happens, so one never knows.

LindaH
2014 Winnebago Aspect 27K
2011 Kia Soul

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a kill a watt in the mail, will do an audit on both our CPAPs.  Linda have you looked online at walmart, TSC or another local company to you to see if you can order one?  Those places ship to store and don't charge delivery prices.  I'll be in the same boat as you, I'm not going to pay ridiculous delivery charges either.  I did pick up at Sam's Club an interstate group 31-120 amp there last year.  I paid a little under $200 for it, I have no idea if that was a good deal or not.  It's an AGM deep cycle, using it for house battery and so far has worked great but only one year on it so far.  It's in the garage on a battery tender at the moment as camper is surrounded by many feet of snow.

I will say, after the audit, if I need a large amount of batteries, I will just stay on the honda generator as I already have one.  Where we boondock, we are alone for many miles, think 20-25 miles atleast.  It's amazing no one else goes there, it's on a pretty good fishing lake.

2002 Fifth Avenue RV (RIP) 2015 Ram 3500 Mega-cab DRW(38k miles), 6.7L Cummins Diesel, A668RFE, 3.73, 14,000 GVWR, 5,630 Payload, 27,300 GCWR, 18,460 Max Trailer Weight Rating(For Sale) , living in the frigid north, ND.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, oldjohnt said:

 

Other places you can buy AGM batteries WITH FREE SHIPPING but you have to pick them up at the store (wow soooooo hard lol) is Home Depot and Walmart. No way I would pay as much for shipping as the battery costs. If you Google 12 Volt AGM battery you will get a gazillion hits including stores that offer free shipping for in store pickup. Finding a couple of the smaller frame 100 to 135 Amp Hour 12 Volt AGM's is simple, just look for the best value in the ones you choose and delivery is fairly fast, EASY PEASEY

John T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, NDBirdman said:

I have a kill a watt in the mail, will do an audit on both our CPAPs.

Good plan Birdman, run the audit and we can see exactly how much battery storage capacity you need to run both CPAP's overnight without discharging more then 50% SOC. If you're lucky, you may get by with 200 battery Amp Hours and those are available all over the place (Renogy, FullRiver, Lifeline, Trojan, etc etc) in  a huge Frame size 4D 129 pound unit,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BUT you may need more ??? ONLY will your energy audit tell. FWIW I needed more then only a single 200 Amp Hour (one CPAP and small dorm size 120 VAC compressor fridge) but a CPAP consumes less then my fridge...……….  

John T

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Jaydrvr said:

I had Lifeline 8d's before my current Fullrivers, and I bought them from http://www.staabbattery.com/mm5/merchant.mvc. They had the best price delivered, and were great to do business with.

 

17 hours ago, oldjohnt said:

Other places you can buy AGM batteries WITH FREE SHIPPING but you have to pick them up at the store (wow soooooo hard lol) is Home Depot and Walmart.

Thanks for the information!

LindaH
2014 Winnebago Aspect 27K
2011 Kia Soul

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/14/2019 at 12:05 PM, NDBirdman said:

I have a kill a watt in the mail, will do an audit on both our CPAPs.  Linda have you looked online at walmart, TSC or another local company to you to see if you can order one?  Those places ship to store and don't charge delivery prices.  I'll be in the same boat as you, I'm not going to pay ridiculous delivery charges either.  I did pick up at Sam's Club an interstate group 31-120 amp there last year.  I paid a little under $200 for it, I have no idea if that was a good deal or not.  It's an AGM deep cycle, using it for house battery and so far has worked great but only one year on it so far.  It's in the garage on a battery tender at the moment as camper is surrounded by many feet of snow.

I will say, after the audit, if I need a large amount of batteries, I will just stay on the honda generator as I already have one.  Where we boondock, we are alone for many miles, think 20-25 miles atleast.  It's amazing no one else goes there, it's on a pretty good fishing lake.

Would this battery monitor work well to do what you want?

image.png.13ca23090e186591e891cc647e2e1e2a.png

 

2000 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom USQ40JD, ISC 8.3 Cummins 350, Spartan MM Chassis. USA IN 1SG retired;Good Sam Life member,FMCA ." And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.  John F. Kennedy 20 Jan 1961

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Ray,IN said:

Would this battery monitor work well to do what you want?

image.png.13ca23090e186591e891cc647e2e1e2a.png

That is a very, very basic battery monitor.  It does not give you state of charge, which most people here (including me) think is the most important information to have.  This one isn't much better than a basic voltage reading.  It does have a couple of additional readings, but it is not doing much overall to help you know the true state of your batteries.

I have personal experience with the Magnum BMK and Bogart Engineering Trimetric battery monitors.  If you have other Magnum products, I always recommend the BMK because of its integration with Magnum stuff.  If you don't have other Magnum products, I used to recommend the Trimetric because it is built as a stand alone unit (although it will integrate with some other Bogart products).  Now though, I prefer the Victron BMV battery monitor as a stand alone unit (as well as intergrated with other Victron products if you have them).  The BMV has much better technology available than the Bogart or even Magnum monitors (including blue tooth capabilities so you can get your battery information right to your phone without a remote display). 

The links I provided are just one source to purchase them.  With a little hunting around you can probably find better pricing.  These monitors are more expensive than the one you linked, but they also do so much more.  In the grand scheme of things, a good battery monitor is a relatively small investment in the overall health and well being of your (usually) expensive battery bank.

2000 Kenworth T2000 w/ Cummins N14 and autoshift
2017 DRV Mobile Suite 40KSSB4 with factory mods, dealer mods and personal mods - now in the RV graveyard
2022 DRV Full House MX450 with customized floor plan
2018 Polaris RZR Turbo S (fits in the garage)
2016 Smart Car (fits in the garage or gets flat towed behind the DRV when the RZR is in the garage)
My First Solar Install Thread
My Second Solar Install Thread & Photos and Documents Related to the build
My MX450's solar, battery and inverter system - my biggest system yet!

chadheiser.com      West Coast HDT Rally Website

event.png    

AZCACOIDIAKSMNMOMTNENVNMNDOKSDTNTXUTWYxlg.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


RVers Online University

campgroundviews.com

RV Destinations

Find out more or sign up for Escapees RV'ers Bootcamp.

Advertise your product or service here.

The Rvers- Now Streaming

RVTravel.com Logo



×
×
  • Create New...