There are a huge range of opinions about batteries. Not so much engine starter batteries, but leisure or domestic batteries. Our first set of batteries when we bought the boat didn't do very well. One failed and was replaced free of charge no problem. When I bought the next set I had been impressed by the sales pitch of "Elecsol" and bought a set which lasted 5 years. Not bad really, so I got a second set, although I had a bit of difficulty finding them. These didn't last long at all. They had probably been sitting on a shelf untended for ages. After all have you ever heard of a battery sales outlet that goes around charging up it store every month or so. The batteries are all in nice presentation boxes. Elecsols by now seemed to have a bad name anyway. The next set were straight forward flooded and lasted around 3 years. All this time I was picking up tips from various sources on the web. So I bought a very neat battery monitor which gave me voltage, amps (charging and discharging) and an amp/hour monitor. Supposedly the amp/hour monitor would set to battery capacity when fully charged and then giving available power as discharge took place, bearing in mind that the batteries should never be run down below half capacity. This didn't work really and still led to poor battery life, but the ammeter did give a better understanding of where power went over the course of a charge discharge cycle. More reading and more understanding. Now I think I understand about sulphation and can see in my mind how discharge and recharging affects the cross section of a battery plate, and why it takes so long to get a full recharge. This last set of flooded wet cell batteries have lasted 7 years with careful management and regular distilled water top ups. My aim has been to never let the voltage fall below 12.3 and when in use and at other times they are on a mains floating voltage charger. The set I have just bought are wet cell sealed batteries "zero maintenance": "fit and forget". I shall continue with the regime above and we will see how it all works out. By next time we should be onto lithium!
Actually changing the batteries is a difficult job for me because they are located on the swim under the counter which gives only a few inches clearance. However, by putting a board across the rear of the engine compartment it is possible to slide them out onto the board to get an easy lift out.
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