Please talk to me about AGM leisure batteries?

The PO of my Bus worked for a well known break down company, my branded leisure batteries came off his work van, I assume. They are two 64AmpH starter batteries that are now we'll well past their use by date, they need replacing.

The wiring for twin batteries seems sound and I prefer more batteries to solar as I don't want to drill my roof, I have a gas fridge but often run a second compressor fridge.

Are AGM batteries worth it?

Should I go for genuine deep cycle batteries, like Titan, or try and fit two low profile leisure 110AmpH batteries as per recommendations on here? Or stick with two smaller 70AmpH low profile batteries of similar size to the one's I have to keep the weight down?

I'd like to be able to do about 3 to 4 days no hookup running the compressor fridge, lights, stereo. I think the fridge is the biggest drain, I'll have to lookup it's consumption up.

 

You need to look at drain on your fridge, my old fridge drained the battery in about 4-6 hours. My new fridge I could go for around 2-3 days, but depends on weather.

I’d go to halfords and get a battery that’s got at least 2 year warranty but better to go for 5 as they don’t seem to last very long.

 

Hi
Just out of curiousity do you have a photo of your twin battery configuration? I'm also in need of a new leisure battery and had not considered twin batteries.
If you are at the Swinbrook event this weekend it would be good to catch up.
Ta

 

Sorry,I'm not at Swimbrook I'll get a photo. I have one under the back seat on a universal battery clamp, the second is under the wheel spare wheel arch in the usual spot.

 

The Dometic fridge is 3 amps @12v, it drained two old 64AmpH batteries in about 24 hours when operating as a freezer. If it was on 50% duty cycle that means my batteries are well dead. Even at 100% cycle of should have run for 24 hours before they were down to 50% and there's no way it was running 100% of the time.

 

I tried my leisure battery and CRX fridge before fitting and easily got Friday night to Sunday afternoon on setting #2 in the workshoppe .
After using the fridge for camping I found position #1 was more than adequate to cool the beers and keep food fresh but since getting solar I don't even think about it now ...
As for the battery , I replaced mine about January and had the same worries but went for a basic 110ah Varta from eBay as I had some PayPal credit burning a hole in my pocket . It was £80-ish with a 3 year warranty but most leisure batteries are killed through neglect and I plan to give this one an easy time . At 80 quid I wouldn't bother with the warranty after a year or so although some like that sort of thing I really can't be arsed

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Just did 5 days on a 115a/h battery and 80w solar panel running a compressor fridge, lights, water pump and a bit of radio.
I went for a old school wet battery with removable caps for topping up.

 

I also have the theory that twin batteries will handle the lumpy fridge load better than one single battery, albeit, at more expense. The so called amp hour rating isn't the whole story, you have to look at the C ratings.

 

Going back to your original question, I understand from the reading I've done that specific leisure batteries are the deep cycle calcium types. I think that the AGM technology is more about starter batteries but I may be wrong about this.

 

You can definitely get AGM leisure batteries, but interestingly none of the standard batteries being offered are truly deep cycle, you need to spend much more to get one of those. One of the stack em high sell em cheap companies recommends Titan.

 

I did online but it was a pita. Halfords was reasonable and they don’t have a clue, so just before warranty is up you ‘could’ exchange it.

 

Sorry yes you are right, my mistake. I was reading this yesterday and wrote the above without engaging brain cell....
https://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/caravans/articles/general/all-about-leisure-batteries

 

As you have one inside your sleeping area I would go with AGM as they are sealed and don't off gas like a FLA battery

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That's a good point, thanks Matt.


PS how's the Lithium performing?

 

If you go AGM you are into needing a matched pair, and telling all your chargers about the slightly different charge characteristics.
The issue is the deep cycle style batteries are less able to produce engine CCA , although I will go and check the actual CCA of my about 10 year old 120AH AGM I have left on float charge for years, in a while . Another modern and not cheap route would be to use a supercap bank to start the engine with deep cycle AGM batteries that top it up for another go.

I reckon my fridge here uses about 1 amp average to stay cool. My coolbox takes 4 amps all the time.

 

I already have a separate starter, Mike, so three batteries in total. My CTEK is connected to the leisure pair, so they need to be matched.

 

So you dont have a split charge setup . In that case you can happily use AGM but NEVER run them flat on a trip and wait to charge them up. That will be expensive. Doing the same with wet cell batteries is also not good but not as rapidly fatal.

 

I have two 120ah AGM's been in a week so the test will be this weekend waco crx50 fridge freezer.
So cold beers i hope.

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Speaking of batteries... Both my main and leisure batteries have managed to run dead, despite the solar panel on my roof. Have not really driven at all during covid lockdown, so I assume that's why.

I took my main battery out, charged it fully and put it back in.

As soon as it was connected, I could hear fizzing from my leisure battery. I assume that the main battery gave the solar charger enough to start working again. So I very quickly whipped out the leisure battery.

When I put it on charge, the charger blew. I think it is broken now.

Is my battery knackered?

For reference, it is a Halfords Leisure Battery HLB678

Thanks!

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I do have a split charge, but it's easy to remove the fuse so I can buy two AGM leisure batteries first, then get an AGM starter later on. The CTEK will be plugged in after a trip anyways.