AGM's maybe not so great???

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Oops that came out wrong.

Your comment is equally correct in both the general case and the specific one I mentioned. My first clue to the abuse was when I asked if he'd checked the water level recently; He pulled out a large funnel and a 2.5 gallon container of distilled water and was pouring for a very long time.

Hi ex-wife now owns the boat and I've been much more successful at getting her trained to regularly check all fluid levels on board, especially since she had to pay the big $ to replace the eight L-16s. Chris and I periodically stop by to check on things and I usually pull the caps off the batteries just to confirm things are OK.
 
Gary

5 years on 3-8D's from Llifeline....still working good.

I have never heard of the Deka brand, everyone I know have Lifeline's
 
Terry A. Brewer said:
Gary

5 years on 3-8D's from Llifeline....still working good.

I have never heard of the Deka brand, everyone I know have Lifeline's
Click to expand...


Just so you know Terry... I have MK batteries. which I'm told are Deka under a different sticker.

And that is all I can tell you about them brand wise
 
If they're Lifelines, they're certainly AGMs.  Lifeline doesn't make any other type of battery.
 
My local supplier to golf courses used to own his own battery manufacturing company here in the Bay Area until OSHA (or maybe Cal OSHA) made it too difficult to operate. Some years ago he told me that, when he used to belong to a battery manufacturers' group, they mutually agreed to quit trying to each make all shapes and sizes of batteries. Instead, they agreed that each manufacturer would build one or more battery style and all the others would sell that battery under their own brand name.

Bottom line - you have no idea where your battery was made.
 
Deka is the house brand name for East Penn Batteries. East Penn is the largest independent battery manufacturer in the USA. And I really do mean "manufacturer", not just a marketer of batteries made by someone else. Whether the Deka brand is sold as a premium battery or a bargain basement line (or somewhere in between) I do not know.

Lifelines are made by Concorde Battery Corp and my limited experience with them has been excellent.  I have a three year old Lifeline AGM 27 that I was using in the previous coach as an secondary battery bank. Pulled it out, along with a small pure sine inverter when we sold the coach last fall. It's the same age and capacity as the AGMs in the tradition, so I slipped in the old Lifeline to replace one of the bad batteries.  I load tested it before re-using and it tested in very good condition. By the way, that Lifeline spent its entire life being charged via a wet cell charging profile rather than AGM rates and was also wired in parallel with golf cart wet cells for charging purposes.
 
Ned  if you are interested this link Yuasa Tech Manual on page 28 shows the gadget used to fill those new AGM batteries. There is also a lot of good general battery info in it.
I have a friend that owns an auto parts store that sells Deka batteries, he swears by them. But he sells them!!! I can't give much history on them as we only get them when we need an odd size we don't have, but I don't have any complaints. I've got an Interstate AGM deep cycle on my pontoon boat that is 5 years old and still going strong. The point of that story I told above was that we were killing those AGM's at first just like Ned says. They are very good for snowmobiles, ATV's & PWC's as they stand the vibration much better. BUT they do seem to be a lot touchier when it comes to prep & care.
All this doesn't help Gary's dilemma much though.
 
My Deka AGMs have the common "Marine/RV" labeling, which always makes me leery.  The "marine" word always means it's a compromise design, intended for starting as well as deep cycle application - the battery's label even says "can be used for starting". Any starting battery will have more & thinner plates than a deep cycle only (e.g. golf cart type) to supply the high amps needed for starting current.

But Lifeline is no better in this regard.  Lifeline has separate application categories for Marine and RV batteries, but both end up with the same part numbers and specs for the actual battery, whether you select Marine or RV as the application. If you pick a 12V type of battery, it will have a CCA cranking rating, just like the other brands.  For that reason, I think it may be wiser to choose GC2 (golf cart) type 6V batteries, which generally are designed for a lower max amp draw and can have thicker plates, whether AGM or wet cell.  Lifeline has only one battery that does not have a cranking rating, though - the GPL-6CT.

Lifeline battery specs

The heavily advertised Optima AGMs are the same - their Yellowtop and Bluetop deep cycles are rated as starting batteries as well as deep cycles.
 
Dick, thanks for the reference.  the Yuasa batteries are all special purpose, starting and not deep cycle batteries.
 
The more I have learned here about AGM batteries the less likely we will get AGM when replacement time comes.  We surely will not get marine/deep cycle batteries for all the reasons stated and if that is the only choice in AGM batteries then Tojans will replace the Trojans whne the time comes.
 
Lifeline AGM batteries are NOT marine/deep cycle batteries, they are a true deep cycle battery and are used extensively in alternative energy systems.  AGM batteries will last at least as long as flooded cell batteries, if not longer, with a minimum of care.  But for most people, if they are willing to put up with periodic checks and filling of flooded cell batteries, AGMs may not be worth the extra expense.  For us, the advantages outweigh the extra cost so we will stick with AGMs.
 
I was originally planning on AGM batteries when replacement time comes.  However, since Ned has had to replace some of his AGM/s after what I consider a short time in service and other reports I have seen on AGM batteries requiring replacement after three years or less I am having second thoughts.  The Trojan batteries we have are the originals and as far as maintenance I check them approximately twice a year and found adding very little water was needed.  I can't complain on the service I have experienced with Trojan Batteries on this or previous coaches.   If I needed to replace batteries in the near future it would be with another set of Trojans but maybe by replacement time I will have seen enough reports of just as good service from AGM batteries then I might just try them.

The big advantage of AGM batteries is they require no maintenance which is good.  However if replacement of one or more of the AGM batteries is required every two or three years then this advantage has gone down the tube IMHO.

Like I said Jury is still out.
 
Ned  That manual has a lot of good general info, but like you say they are for special purposes. I'd been familiar with the AGM problem from working with them though. When we needed something really heavy duty for Sea-Doo's etc we got some Optima's. They seemed indestructible, but they cost a bundle.
The other thing I liked about AGM's was there was no gas or corrosion around them.
When I have my trailer parked I use this Battery Tender instead of plugging it in and using the house charger. Mine doesn't have the good charger. Deltran has a lot of good general info about batteries also.
You can read forever on this subject.
 
Lifeline AGM batteries are NOT marine/deep cycle batteries, they are a true deep cycle battery and are used extensively in alternative energy systems.
Click to expand...

READ THE  LIFELINE RV BATTERY SPEC PAGE, Ned. Notice the CCA rating on every single RV deep cycle except the GPL-6CT. The go to the Lifeline Marine battery page and check the part numbers of the batteries for marine starting & deep cycle. Yeap, same part numbers as the RV batteries.

I'm not knocking the quality of Lifeline batteries, but they are combination start & deep cycle.
 
Every battery has a CCA rating but that doesn't mean they're designed for starting service.  They all have a rated AH capacity at a 20hr discharge rate too.  It's possible to use a deep cycle battery in a starting service, but that doesn't mean it's a good solution.  And the reverse is just as true.
 
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