What batteries to get?

[ConsiderThis]

Hi,

I wish there were email notices of posts. I have a bit of brain injury and I have a hard time finding my way back, so notices are ideal.

My battery monitor wasn't installed right, and I was going by it... only it wasn't working. So now my batteries hold a fraction of the charge they once did... and I better start thinking about replacements, though at present the money is not to hand.

What kind of batteries do you prefer?

My batteries are in the house, so I think gel or that matt kind are going to be necessary...

and, anything new on the battery front?

.

[healerenergy]

The ones I would recommend are still to new and are out of most peoples price range.  But the price of them will come down to what I will consider an acceptable level for their life expectancy and storage capacities.  The company that make these batteries is  Altairnano so beyond that I cannot recommend any others sorry.

George

[Bruce S]

personally ; I prefer NiCds , they are much more forgiving on the abuse side. Also no H2 venting and now pretty easy to voltage match with SLAs and such. The desnity is much higher than they were even a few years ago while being within a respectable price range.

One other thing I feel duty bound to say: I get them for free.

One the other hand, even though your batteries have lower charge abilities. Is it possible to begin careful deep cycle charges and see if you can recover them?

Cheers

Bruce S

[BigBreaker]

I think nickel iron (or Edison) batteries are worth a look.  They last forever and can take massive abuse.  They are also expensive (the nickel), hard to find, have significant self-discharge and low power density.  I still love them, though because you only buy them once.

[Chagrin]

NiFe cells run around $7 per (12V) amp hour. Yowch. Granted, you'd never need to replace it.