Took the Solar Plunge

chpalmer

If your batteries are going bad you are probably floating them at too high a voltage or running a desulphure cycle thats too aggressive for that type a battery.

Wet cell batteries are far more tolerant of crap controllers and people who do crazy things. You can go that route if you have doubts but they do need maintaining.

That said, Deka is well known and reliable. I personally won't touch gel-cells and only recommend AGM.

If Optima has started making crap batteries I wouldn't know… Seeing as how all mine are a couple decades old at least and have never failed, thus no need to buy new ones lately.

Like I mentioned.. My Deka battery banks last forever under the same conditions. We are a site maintenance company and would never use a car battery on a site but have inherited a few already supplied with the optimas. But we did run them in vehicles with the same results. They just didn't last.. Maybe they are better now that Johnson Controls makes them but Im not willing to test that theory. ;) Optima bought out Optimus (another AGM battery supplier) which we did have good luck with. That's about the time they moved production down to Mexico about 15 years ago.

Our last business owner was a battery tech on submarines in the Navy. Our battery knowledge base here if pretty fair. 8)

silverJ

By the way guys I'm leaning of buying another Optima blue marine from http://4wheelonline.com as my back up battery would you think $204.35 is a fair price with free shipping?

kejianshi

Whats the size of the battery? D31M?

It would have to be a massive pfsense to need two of those!

Also, morbid curiosity. Are you planning to run it in parallel with the one you already have?

I don't recommend running new batteries with ones that have age on them on the same charge controller.

Jailer

@kejianshi:

I don't recommend running new batteries with ones that have age on them on the same charge controller.

This is good advice. Batteries of differing ages will discharge at different rates. You'll always have one (or more) pulling the good ones down.

silverJ

@Jailer:

@kejianshi:

I don't recommend running new batteries with ones that have age on them on the same charge controller.

This is good advice. Batteries of differing ages will discharge at different rates. You'll always have one (or more) pulling the good ones down.

He surely has a good point in this post.

prattjm

@kejianshi said in Took the Solar Plunge:

I didn't even look those batteries up - They came from walmart which is pretty much all I needed to know…

http://upsinverterinfo.com/exide-inva-tubular-battery-models-available-in-market.html

These also work well if you need something you can easily order from napa or auto zone:

http://www.carid.com/optima/optima-bluetop-marine-battery-4309821.html

http://www.marine.hr/webshop/eng/products/battery-exide-dual-agm-50ah-orbital-deep-cycle-18.html

But having an actual solar battery is even better:

http://www.wholesalesolar.com/products.folder/battery-folder/rolls-s550.html

Any of the batteries listed above and especially the last one will allow serious daily cycling for years. here's how a homemade solar panel works.. https://batteryforinverter.com/how-does-a-homemade-solar-panel-work/

Or... You can buy a new bank of batteries from walmart every 6 months.

I strongly agree with kejianshi! Solar is one of the most affordable and sustainable forms of energy today! #SaveEarth

david056

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david056

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