Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Of batteries and other things

Snuggled in the house battery tray are four 12VDC wet cell batteries and all were discharged to 5VDC± when I arrived at the boat.  So I tried to charge to charge them one at a time and all responded the same way: the voltage from the charger slowly ramped up and a pretty much steady charge current resulted that was around 7.5A.  There was water on the plates of the battery I checked. This tells me that one or more cells are dead based on past experience. The same thing happened to the start battery but it is an AGM so it must be shot too.

Now comes the big question.  Should I buy 4 12VDC batteries or should I buy 4 6VDC batteries? The 12 VDC batteries are rated for 75AH which gives me 300 AH capacity in a parallel mode.  The 6VDC golf cart batteries would be rated at 450AH in a series 6+6 mode at 225AH and with two of these in parallel it gives the 450AH.

The 6VDC golf cart batteries are about the same length but the width is about 0.25" wider.  The big difference is the height of approximately 11.25".  After careful measurement I believe it is possible to fit the four T-105 golf cart batteries into the battery box.  I think I like the idea of the golf cart batteries

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