New battery help

H

haliman

New member
Hello all,
Looking at adding a second battery to my 19’ angler (90HP Honda 4 stroke) and looking at the Optima AGM Blue tops. For those of you who have used these batteries what recommendations for the starting motor and the house battery. Confused on what group of battery and if I should get just a starting battery for starting the motor or go with two dual purpose deep cyles. Hope I am making sense here, this is all new to me. Still need to figure out what I need to add the second battery and wire it all up but that's another day.

Thanks
 
You might look at the Sears Platinum marine battery over the Optimas. Lots of discussion about them on the The Hull truth
Eric
 
Had a bad experience with Optima. Seems that others have also.
Gone with more traditional Interstate AGM's for start now.

Gone with Fullriver for house AGMs they seem to give you a few more AH.

M
 
I started off with Optimas, the first ones that came with the boat worked well and lasted about 4 1/2 years. But, when I replaced them with new blue top Optimas they failed, twice! No more Optimas for me. Les told me that the original company had been bought out and the new owners don't produce the same quality product. I replaced the house batteries, (I have two), with Costco Group 27 deep cycle RV batteries, not AGM. No problems thus far with one season on them under our belt. Since I have twin 40hp Hondas, at Les's suggestion, I replaced their group 27 start batteries with interstate AGM motorcycle batteries since one doesn't need the bigger batteries to start those little engines. They do the job just fine. A side benefit is that I was able to fit both motorcycle batteries into a single group 29 battery box and that is what let me wire two group 27's in parallel for house use thus about doubling my available amp hours when at anchor. I would not buy an Optima.
 
Gentleman
I used optimas for a long time and they were good. When I bought the Tomcat in 05 I put 3 of them in it. During the time with these new optimas
3 failed all of them. On my 22 cruiser I am using cheap battereys from Acadamy and they have worked fine. Like the no acid fumes from the optimas but they are crap now. And Acadamy batteries only cost like 40 bucks each verses 150. to 175. for optimas.
Joe
 
My Advice: Go to Costco, Wally World (ugh!), or wherever else yu can get 'em cheap, with a good, no problem warranty/return policy, and buy the biggest group size battery you can use in a Deep Cycle Marine type battery. Load up as many as you can in your boat. Keep It Simple (KISS) and Cheap! amp-hours is amp-hours, and expensive batteries are just that, and you get nothing else. The boat is a big enough monetary sinkhole without inventing ways to squander dollars on imaginary issues. Basic lead-acid batteries are both sufficient and efficient, unless you plan on flying upside down in a hermetically sealed cabin within your C-Dory, in which case we'll send a film crew over if you'll name the time and place! How about a performance for the Boat Show Contingent? :lol:

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Sea Wolf":31iknd6f said:
My Advice: Go to Costco, Wally World (ugh!), or wherever else yu can get 'em cheap, with a good, no problem warranty/return policy, and buy the biggest group size battery you can use in a Deep Cycle Marine type battery. Load up as many as you can in your boat. Keep It Simple (KISS) and Cheap! amp-hours is amp-hours, and expensive batteries are just that, and you get nothing else. The boat is a big enough monetary sinkhole without inventing ways to squander dollars on imaginary issues. Basic lead-acid batteries are both sufficient and efficient, unless you plan on flying upside down in a hermetically sealed cabin within your C-Dory, in which case we'll send a film crew over if you'll name the time and place! How about a performance for the Boat Show Contingent? :lol:

Joe. :teeth :thup
Click to expand...

Yep....Totally agree.....KISS
 
I got away with using RV batteries in boats for over 25 years and know many others that have as well. It was not until my battery exploded last year that I found out that this is not a good idea. It seems marine batteries are built to take more vibration than RV batteries and if a plate comes loose you get an arc, if conditions are right you get a boom. Google it and you will read many horror stories.
 
2 ea freebie comments.

First, I used to do the costco route, with reasonable results. However, the last round I noticed that the battery was lighter than the one I took out. I assume that when they switched production to Mexico, they removed some of the lead or padding. I'd rather go with Interstate/etc, that is, some recognizable brand.

Second, one can buy batteries that are marked "marine" only, but those are only available through places like West Marine or Defender. They sell their own personal brand, and I don't think they'll label them "RV." The rest of the world uses the "RV/Marine" label. For example, here's a link to Interstate's "marine" batteries: Interstate Marine Batteries. Note that the only battery listed as marine is 8 volts, and I'm not sure for what that is used. The rest of the batteries listed are just labeled "deep cycle" with no RV or Marine subdivision. So I'm not sure what a marine battery consists of.

Surette/Rolls makes marine batteries, and they are of excellent quality, with a 7 year guarantee, but they're even more that West Marine batteries.

So the purpose of this dissertation is to encourage C-Brats to buy quality RV/Marine batteries and take good care of them. In a battery you get what you pay for.

Journey On was delivered with an Interstate battery 6 years ago, and it's still going strong, though it's never been the primary battery. It still starts the motor, though.

Boris
 
This is an interesting discussion as Still Crazy needs new batteries when I de-winterize in a couple of months.

The discussion about the smaller motorcycle type batteries has me thinking about why I need two car size batteries, one for each engine AND a big ol' house battery. I don't like all the weight in the stern that Still Crazy came with. What with full fuel, two car type batteries in the lazeretts, one house battery in the Port lazerette, and another house battery in parallel on the floor between the fuel tanks.

Seems to me that one deep cycle house battery in the port lazarette, along with one motorcycle battery would be nice. And one motorcycle battery in the starboard lazarette would work just fine. It would open up the space between the tanks for lighter storage or maybe an extra bilge pump. and I'd probably save half the weight with two motorcycle batteries compared to the two car size batteries in there now. I had an airplane with a gel cell starting battery that was about the size of half a box of crackers, and it turned over the 65 HP engine very easily And ran the communications and transponder system as well as clearance lights, of course, while the engine was running.

Does anyone have a good reason why the much smaller battery is not a good idea?

So, I'm wondering if we aren't "over battery-ing" the smaller c-dory's.
 
My setup is as follows: one gp27 house battery in starboard lazarette wired in parallel to another in the aftmost part of the port lazarette, two agm motorcycle batteries in a group 29 battery box in the port lazarette. I'm very comfortable with the smaller batteries for my 40hp motors. Not sure how much bigger motors they would be good for. It's a very tight fit but doable.
 
There are truisms one should heed...
In the early 1800's it was, "54 - 40 or fight." (we should have fought)
After the Civil War it was, "Go West young man."
Today it is, "THINK Golf Cart batteries."

Most bang for the buck... Vibration tolerant... What's not to like?
I have added a secondary bank of GC batteries formy house set... And when the Group 27 OEM batteries need replacing, it will be with GC batteries..

denny-o
 
I looked at the Sears Marine Deep Cycle batteries Helm recommended and I think for 99 dollars I would give a pair of their group 27's a try. As was previously mentioned by the site Hull Truth they are reported them to be an excellent choice.
D.D.
 
Is there an advantage to having two starting batteries with small (40 hp ish)twin engines?
Our 22' with twin 40s came with two group 27s, one for starting the other for the house. These are then swapped from time to time in order to balance the work each one does.
 
Les changed out my two 27's last year and put in the Blue Seas relays and two U-1's for starting. Kept one 27 for the house. The system works great with my two honda 35's.
 
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