New battery or two batteries?

[Stevie K]

Hi all,
I have a 110ah leisure battery fitted. Fairly cheap from Amazon - Travelbatt, two year old. Does a decent job, but I need more juice.

My question is: do I buy another battery and parallel them together - would my old one drag down the new one? Or just spend money on a good new one?

I have read into this in the past (and will again before I start fitting) and seem to remember that you have to ‘match’ batteries running together, so I presume I can’t put a good new one in parallel w my old one.
It charges dc/dc, I don’t have solar and don’t plan on fitting it at this point.

You may guess from the 4am post I’m in the van, have just ran out of power after a couple of days and still have a day to go. I’m sure we’ve all been there…

Cheers.

 

[Pete C]

If you have a DC-DC charger (not a simple VS relay), then you don’t have to match battery types, but you do need an intelligent charger that can use the right charging profile for the leisure battery.
A Lithium battery could be your answer - search for that on this forum.

So a few questions- what sort of charger do you have now, and what sort of things are you running from it ?

Pete

 

[Stevie K]

Hi mate,
Yeah I’ve looked at lithium. They’re just expensive and I wondered if I was ‘half way there’ so to speak with already having a usable battery.
I’ve got a Victron smart 30-12-12 and I run diesel heater, compressor fridge, lights and charging phones etc.
I’ve had 5 days out of it without the heater on, but running the heater overnight for two days seems to kill it.

Probably just a case of spend some money and get a decent battery.

 

[Pete C]

Yes, for that sort of usage over that period you need Lithium.
You could just run the engine to wack some charge in.

Pete

 

[Dellmassive]

Good advice from Pete.

Either swap out for two new matching AGM batteries. For the cheap initial outlay option.

Or

Fit one lithium, which will give you the same power as two AGMs, and run for way longer (8 plus years)..... So higher initial outlay, but cheaper over total ownership.

Remember lithiums will outlast AGMs for 2-4 times according to the stats.....only time will tell as I've my olderest is 4 years.

 

[Dellmassive]

More info.

Dellmassive’s "How I Done It" blogs.

-- Dellmassive`s -- "How I Done It" -- thread -- ************************************************** Dellmassive`s -- "how I Done It" -- Thread ************************************************** Kit List And Stuff -- How I Done It & What I Use --...

www.t6forum.com

.

 

[Dellmassive]

Come join the VIP club.

VIP Membership

VIP Membership Information

www.t6forum.com

.

 

[Ayjay]

I really want to change my current 110Ah AGM leisure battery to Lithium but I'll also have to replace my Ctek 250SA as it's not lithium compatible and that's adds another large lump to the bill. At some point I suppose I'll just bite the bullet but if I tell the Mrs that I'm going to spend another grand (or whatever) on the van now.......

 

[Dellmassive]

I really want to change my current 110Ah AGM leisure battery to Lithium but I'll also have to replace my Ctek 250SA as it's not lithium compatible and that's adds another large lump to the bill. At some point I suppose I'll just bite the bullet but if I tell the Mrs that I'm going to spend another grand (or whatever) on the van now.......

You will be able to sell the d250Sa and battery as a combo kit.... There are many new van owners that will take it.

Then swap them out for a D250se and lifepo4.

 

[Bigsidavies]

And don’t forget the weight.
2 x 110ah AGM will be circa 60kg whereas one 110ah lithium will be maybe 12kg.

 

[Sim60]

Hi all,
I have a 110ah leisure battery fitted. Fairly cheap from Amazon - Travelbatt, two year old. Does a decent job, but I need more juice.

My question is: do I buy another battery and parallel them together - would my old one drag down the new one? Or just spend money on a good new one?

I have read into this in the past (and will again before I start fitting) and seem to remember that you have to ‘match’ batteries running together, so I presume I can’t put a good new one in parallel w my old one.
It charges dc/dc, I don’t have solar and don’t plan on fitting it at this point.

You may guess from the 4am post I’m in the van, have just ran out of power after a couple of days and still have a day to go. I’m sure we’ve all been there…

Cheers.

Don’t forget - you don’t have to fit solar to the van - you can have freestanding panels which you can connect into the van via Anderson connectors or equivalent as required if you want to extend the charge of your existing battery.


Simon

 

[Stevie K]

Come join the VIP club.

VIP Membership

VIP Membership Information

www.t6forum.com

.

Been a member for mate.