1joester2
Well-known member
OK, I'll put this up to discussion and see what happens...
Several years ago (I do mean several) we were travelling in FL (home is NY) when the coach battery coughed it's last bit and refused to provide the power required to start the generator, so we stopped into a Walmart, and bought a group size 29 deep cycle battery. The rest of the trip went great and we got home with no more troubles. Just short of a year later, the battery (12 month free replacement) was failing. Took it to our local WM and they replaced it, honoring the warranty without question (note: this was before the "test it first" policy they now have...). Traveled without care, and low and behold, just short of a year later, same thing. We took it in, they replaced it, and we went on our merry way. I installed a trickle charger for storage maintenance, and we're good. Right? No.
Just short of a year later, we were back to WM with a flat battery. The guy behinds the counter said that RV's by nature are extremely hard on batteries because of the chargers they have. I argued with him that some chargers are multiple stage, and extremely nice to the batteries by only providing the power needed to maintain the voltage even by only supplying a couple hundred MW. Argue, argue.... Just tell me what you're doing with my battery. He put in on their brand new tester, and sure enough..shorted cell.
They replaced it. Following year... same thing. Shorted cell, replaced it. Last year, same thing. This year, once again, replaced it.
If they offer a free replacement warranty, how long should this ride go on?
I did buy a new battery minder this year since there is apparently something strange going on with the old one. I have shorted cells annually but with a max of 500MW and never seeing more than 13.2V (with the minder on) I wouldn't think that would be enough to cause a cell to go bad. So is it just poor design/manufacturing and is it right to just keep on keeping on as we've been?
NOTE
I do not store the battery on cement or even near a cement wall. I've even gone as far as to install a timer to cycle the power on and off (only 4 hours/night) to try to get more than a year from the WM battery to no avail.
Several years ago (I do mean several) we were travelling in FL (home is NY) when the coach battery coughed it's last bit and refused to provide the power required to start the generator, so we stopped into a Walmart, and bought a group size 29 deep cycle battery. The rest of the trip went great and we got home with no more troubles. Just short of a year later, the battery (12 month free replacement) was failing. Took it to our local WM and they replaced it, honoring the warranty without question (note: this was before the "test it first" policy they now have...). Traveled without care, and low and behold, just short of a year later, same thing. We took it in, they replaced it, and we went on our merry way. I installed a trickle charger for storage maintenance, and we're good. Right? No.
Just short of a year later, we were back to WM with a flat battery. The guy behinds the counter said that RV's by nature are extremely hard on batteries because of the chargers they have. I argued with him that some chargers are multiple stage, and extremely nice to the batteries by only providing the power needed to maintain the voltage even by only supplying a couple hundred MW. Argue, argue.... Just tell me what you're doing with my battery. He put in on their brand new tester, and sure enough..shorted cell.
They replaced it. Following year... same thing. Shorted cell, replaced it. Last year, same thing. This year, once again, replaced it.
If they offer a free replacement warranty, how long should this ride go on?
I did buy a new battery minder this year since there is apparently something strange going on with the old one. I have shorted cells annually but with a max of 500MW and never seeing more than 13.2V (with the minder on) I wouldn't think that would be enough to cause a cell to go bad. So is it just poor design/manufacturing and is it right to just keep on keeping on as we've been?
NOTE
I do not store the battery on cement or even near a cement wall. I've even gone as far as to install a timer to cycle the power on and off (only 4 hours/night) to try to get more than a year from the WM battery to no avail.