I use Die-Hards, they last between 4-6 years. Always pull the caps and keep them filled up with distilled water and charged. When I put them up for the season give them a good charge, put them on wood in a warm place. I really don't know what the difference is in all the name brand batteries, cause I think there are only 2 or 3 manufactures of batteries in the country.
I have rich buddies and typically take their hand-me-downs….but I will say from experience that the AGM's last a bit longer. But if you drain and re-charge the standard high-end lead batteries you should get 3 year's service from them. When something starts to go amiss with your troller…assume it's the batteries and replace!
After replacing walmart batteries every 19 months, and seeing friends/relatives do the same. I bought a couple optimas… I am on year 6 and still going strong. I did have one act up on me a little this summer, but seems to be working fine, I think it was the charger. I also have had good luck with Deka.
I own 8 optimas, three in the pontoon are 8 yrs old after doing six years in the fishing boat those are 850ampers.
I replaced them with 3 d31ms because they were starting to fade a bit.
I also have two in my Jeep for running the winch
I checked them on a digital D-tac snapon loadtester/charger this fall they still tested out an average of 100 amps above their rated load capacity. I also have tested about fifty other marine batteries on the same tester including exides, interstates, dekas and others. Most of them tested at ~65-75% of their original capacity at one to two years old. Other Agms work well also but I will stick with Optimas.
One of the biggest problems with marine batteries is that they get charged improperly. They need to be charged at 2% of their rated load CCA not MCA to charge properly. This means a depleted 900cca battery needs 18 amps of steady charging. The best way to preserve your batteries is a smart charger either on board or remote makes no difference. They also benefit form complete drawdown and full recharging as opposed to running down to 50% and then being re-charged. This can be done once or twice a year and will improve the drop-off rate substantially.
Thats my 45 cents worth!! Hope it helps you.
Kevin
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"Cyberlunge" said:
I own 8 optimas, three in the pontoon are 8 yrs old after doing six years in the fishing boat those are 850ampers.I replaced them with 3 d31ms because they were starting to fade a bit.
I also have two in my Jeep for running the winch
I checked them on a digital D-tac snapon loadtester/charger this fall they still tested out an average of 100 amps above their rated load capacity. I also have tested about fifty other marine batteries on the same tester including exides, interstates, dekas and others. Most of them tested at ~65-75% of their original capacity at one to two years old. Other Agms work well also but I will stick with Optimas.
One of the biggest problems with marine batteries is that they get charged improperly. They need to be charged at 2% of their rated load CCA not MCA to charge properly. This means a depleted 900cca battery needs 18 amps of steady charging. The best way to preserve your batteries is a smart charger either on board or remote makes no difference. They also benefit form complete drawdown and full recharging as opposed to running down to 50% and then being re-charged. This can be done once or twice a year and will improve the drop-off rate substantially.
Thats my 45 cents worth!! Hope it helps you.
Kevin
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Since lead acid and AGM batteries still do get "conditioned" (in the power tool industry they have all but gotten rid of it) one other point is about charging them fully, on a regular basis also. Consistently charging them for a couple hours before you go, and not getting them back to 100% can cause the same issue on the top end. This mostly happens over the winter, as most batteries will expel about 2% of their charge in the first couple hours, then slowly lose charge at a rate of about 2%/week after that… so checking up on them in the winter definitely helps.
Basically taking care of them, cause their not cheap, is a pretty simple thing to do, but seems to be the last thing on peoples mind.
I agree with Pete and Scott on the AGM batteries. Deka batteries were recommended to me by the manufacturer of my Dual Pro Charger. This charging unit has been great for the past 5 years (knock on wood) and the batteries just finished their 4th year although this was a not a frequent fishing year, unfortunaly, for me. Chris Barton also likes the Cabela's AGM batteries. It seems to me the compatability between the brand and type of battery to the charger is very important. I was having poor longevity and reliability of both the deep cycle batteries and charger until I switched to the above system some years ago.
My 2 starting batteries, however, are Optima (blue model I believe) and these have been very dependable for the past 3 or 4 years. They are space saving too. Good luck in getting a dependable set up for next year.
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