Aaron,
I think the AH rating in the WM catalogue is also the 20 hr rate used by Trojan, Rolls & others. I couldn't find the AGM batteries in the WM online catalogue, but the flooded 4Ds are rated at 120 ah, compared with the 165 ah rating for the Trojan 4D AGMs. The WM AGMs, which I think are made by Lifeline, might be somewhat larger than the Trojan AGM.
BTW I purchased WM AGMs back in 2000, shortly after I purchased Sarah. Every year for the next 3 years one of the AGMs failed (probably because my alternator had a standard automotive regulator). I guess I could have gone on for years having WM replace one battery each year under the warrantly, but I got tired of periodically living on one battery so I went back to flooded batteries. I went high-end before leaving for Europe and bought a pair of Rolls 4Ds. Under sail I use the generator and battery charger to re-charge the batteries. On the crossing I set the Xantrex charger to the cold battery setting to increase the charge rate. That worked fine, except when I got to Portugal and put Sarah in the Marina de Cascais I forgot about that charger setting. After 5 months on shore power I managed to kill those expensive Rolls. They were still under warranty, but the closest Rolls dealer was in the UK. It would have cost over $300 to ship new batteries to me, and of course they wanted to inspect the failed batteries. So I wrote off the Rolls batteries and purchased a local brand, Tudor. They've worked fine for nearly 3 years. I may decide to upgrade these batteries before heading to the Bahamas in the fall, but I don't think I'll go high-end again, and definitely not AGMs.
John
On Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 12:30 AM, Aaron Lynch < ([email][/email])> wrote:
OK, so I was reading the new Cruising world, and there’s an article that give an electrical ‘guide’ stating that a ‘moderate’ load would be about 256 AH per day.
Then they later say that you need 1000 AH battery bank for that size load.
Ra currently has 2 West marine 4d AGMs, which according to their site are 200AH ea.
I find them to be somewhat lacking when on the hook. And One of the batteries is definitely dying (confirmed by a marine electrician whom I can’t afford to actually hire 🙂I’m slowly converting to LED Lighting, I don’t really think I use all that much power, however I do like cold beer and am a computer nerd.
In trying to decide if I should replace the west batteries I tried to compare them to others, for example trojan, however they give totally different specs for their batteries: 20hr rate AH =165
I can get the west 4d’s at a deep discount, but even still they are about $300ea And I’m wondering if I’ll be needing more power anyway. IS there a cheaper or better alternative? Can somebody explain to me how to compare the trojan to the west battery using different criteria?
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Regards,
John Stevenson
http://www.svsarah.com
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