Batteries died after 28 years of service.

[SVPP]

1 bought 8 225Ah 6v lifelines for $350 AUD. They were 4 years old. That was 3 years ago and they are holding up great. If I get another 3 year out of them I will be happy. The way I bought them was to ask a marine electrician mate if he was changing out any lifeline or rolls batteries on any boats and offer help him lift them and then sling him $350 for the batteries

Best way to buy batteries

[MJH]

Originally Posted by Tayana42

MJH, I’d love to see your solar installation. Where do you mount 560W on the pointy stern of Tayana42? This has stopped me from adding solar to my Tayana V 42 aft cockpit.

I installed 4 x 140 (560W) Kyocera panels in 2015. Two are above the renewed dodger and two on a new s.s. stern arch; that's the largest size that would fit at the time. They are 59.1"L x 26.3"W x 1.8"D. The install was relatively straightforward and easy. Hardest part was finding a welder that would build the s.s. arch at a reasonable price which he did at the boat when it was hauled.

Go to my account to see a photo.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

[Tayana42]

Originally Posted by MJH

I installed 4 x 140 (560W) Kyocera panels in 2015. Two are above the renewed dodger and two on a new s.s. stern arch; that's the largest size that would fit at the time. They are 59.1"L x 26.3"W x 1.8"D. The install was relatively straightforward and easy. Hardest part was finding a welder that would build the s.s. arch at a reasonable price which he did at the boat when it was hauled.

Go to my account to see a photo.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

MJH, Thanks. I’ll take a look at your photos.

[Compass790]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Maybe not by much though, I believe that the majority to the reports of excessive battery life are due largely to the likelihood that they met the definition of dead many years before, but due to the fact that they are only very shallowly cycled it wasn’t noticed, meaning I guess that if you only use 50 AH a night and you have a 500 AH bank, that you may not notice that the batteries are losing capacity until they lose a huge amount of capacity, maybe down to almost 50 AH or only 10% of rated capacity.

However if you have a 500 AH bank and use 200AH per night, you bank will “die” many years sooner, somewhat due to deeper cycling of course but also because you can’t lose near as much capacity before it becomes critical.


My belief is that the average cruisers bank meets the definition of “dead” but since one hasn’t shorted people soldier on and adapt to the lost capacity.

I mean who really does an actual capacity check?

I know I never will. I won’t have the equipment or the desire.

Yes this is a good point. We smugly use our batteries that were someonelses throwaways ( 2 Crown 225 amp 6v ) & are happy with them as they start the engine & run our Engel & lights all nite but we have no idea of the actual capacity. We probably only use 30-40 AH between solar/alternator charges
They are probably clinically dead but we don't care in our application.

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by Hermia II

I have a bank of Victron gel batteries, 7 yrs so far, but still fine. I have added a 24v DC Panda generator. What bugs me is that while the batteries are charging closer to 90% they don't take a lot of amps (say 20 of the 110 available) which lengthen the time running the generator. Although hideously expensive, what would be the situation with LiFePO4 batteries?

The last 20% is what solar is for.

[JmanC]

lol, they were most likely dead by the age of 12. I have a drill li battery pack 14yrs + that still going well but probabaly 20% capacity left. Seen cheap car starters get 12yrs because they cycle 5% only and are well looked after.

[MJH]

Originally Posted by Compass790

Yes this is a good point. We smugly use our batteries that were someonelses throwaways ( 2 Crown 225 amp 6v ) & are happy with them as they start the engine & run our Engel & lights all nite but we have no idea of the actual capacity. We probably only use 30-40 AH between solar/alternator charges
They are probably clinically dead but we don't care in our application.

I would agree that the level of use (Ah consumed) can have an effect on longevity. However, there are so many variables to consider coming from forum inputs it is impossible to come to any definitive conclusion.

It is fair to say that deep battery draining has an affect on battery life and owners should take measures to minimize it for their cruising style. Some sailors have with larger banks, proper battery placement, temperature sensing, alternator sizing, tempered use, supplemental charging (i.e. solar), etc. while other have not.

~ ~ _/ ~ ~ MJH

[mdenize]

Originally Posted by sokkum

Yes, these batteries were installed early 1992 and delivered electricity until now.
These batteries are the GEL type from Prevailer-Sonnenschen and we had installed 4 pcs of 110Amp. All the time these batteries were never under 12.8V and we use solarpanels and windgenerator as well.
Is this a worldrecord for lifetime of batteries? I don't know.
Location of the batteries: engineroom, not the best place because of the warm temp. when the engine was running.
Maintenance? - just some vaseline that's all.

Now I have to pull out these have ones and remplace them - but first practizing some powerlifting.

28 Years is just awesome well done. Our own 1000Ah C20 48v FLA house bank has done just under 20years and still happily allows me to to do 5kW welding although I am happy to admit it is at anything from brand new capacity. The main take aways I can offer is to charge them every day and size the pack large enough/manage the loads so that each cycle is very small if at all (which is hard to do on solar alone - as well as solar we have micro hydro which enables us to avoid cycling at all for much of the year as the bank is floating most of the time enabling us to use it more like a giant capacitor).

These GNB cells came with an expected cycle life graph that went from something like 1000 cycles to 90% DOD and 20,000 cycles to 10% DOD which shows the life difference (with FLA) between shallow and deep cycling. The problem most people do not realise is that a cheap low capacity bank will generally be subject to much deeper cycling each cycle than an expensive larger bank and because of this curve they get exponentially less life out of them than someone like you who looks after them.

[skenn_ie]

Originally Posted by Hermia II

I have a bank of Victron gel batteries, 7 yrs so far, but still fine. I have added a 24v DC Panda generator. What bugs me is that while the batteries are charging closer to 90% they don't take a lot of amps (say 20 of the 110 available) which lengthen the time running the generator. Although hideously expensive, what would be the situation with LiFePO4 batteries?

An intelligent charger might work better, but you might need to crank the generator speed up a little to provide 30 - 32V o/c. Alternatively, you may be able to bypass the built-in regulator, if there is one. You will need a few volts over and above the fully charged voltage in order to keep the current flowing at a decent rate.

[Dennis.G]

Last year replace my 4 west marine 8D gel cell batteries. They were 13 years old. They still held a charge, and if I only discharged them to 12.8v I would still be using them for many more years I guess. But I can use 200 AH with all my loads in 24 hr and the old batteries were too slow to recharge (charge acceptance was getting lower and lower each year). Replace with 3 new 8D AGMs and can charge at 100 amp till about 85% of capacity and then tapers off from there. Full charge from 70% in less than half the time of the old batteries.

[Compass790]

Originally Posted by Dennis.G

Last year replace my 4 west marine 8D gel cell batteries. They were 13 years old. They still held a charge, and if I only discharged them to 12.8v I would still be using them for many more years I guess. But I can use 200 AH with all my loads in 24 hr and the old batteries were too slow to recharge (charge acceptance was getting lower and lower each year). Replace with 3 new 8D AGMs and can charge at 100 amp till about 85% of capacity and then tapers off from there. Full charge from 70% in less than half the time of the old batteries.

Thanks for posting this info. Cant recall reading about the charger acceptance point being lower thought it stands to reason. Good point to consider if speed of charge is important.
Not an issue in my case but glad you've added to my knowledge