| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 2136.1 | cheap works for me | WRKSYS::SCHUMANN | UHF computers | Mon Jun 13 1994 14:14 | 11 |
| You can buy several Interstate batteries for the price of 1 Surette. But you
can't buy them in mid-ocean. Personally, I stay close to shore, so I'll settle
for Interstate or DieHard or whatever. I've had reasonably good experiences with
cheap batteries and cheap charging systems. There are important construction
differences between marine batteries and automotive batteries and between
deep-cycle batteries and starting batteries, so buy the right kind.
If you buy Surette batteries, buy a fancy charging system for them also.
Many battery failures are caused by lousy charging systems.
--RS
|
| 2136.2 | | UNIFIX::BERENS | Alan Berens | Mon Jun 13 1994 18:11 | 9 |
| Basically, any battery will live longer if properly charged (see the
many other notes about this) and any battery can be quickly killed by
mistreatment. Surrette and Rolls have the reputation of being top
quality conventional wet cell batteries. Prevailers are perhaps the best
gel cell batteries (West Marine says that Prevailer makes their gel
celll batteries). If you have an upgraded charging system, a high
quality battery makes sense. Otherwise, it probably doesn't.
Alan
|
| 2136.3 | I know where to get 'em cheap | MILKWY::HEADSL::SAMPSON | Driven by the wind | Tue Jun 14 1994 09:34 | 16 |
| I had decent luck with the interstate batteries I used. I only stay near shore,
maybe 15 miles, and don't often need my lights, the biggest current drain on my
boat. I would take the battery off the boat and charge it at home. I actually
had two batteries and would rotate them so I always had one on the boat. I went
to the distributer just outside of Worcester and picked up two blems for $25
each. I had two until my trucks battery died and I rescued it with one of the
boat batteries. It was in the winter and I never changed it again. The second
one I killed last season by over charging it a few times. But 4 years out of a
30 month battery that cost me 25 bucks, I really can't complain.
The blem quality was some charred discoloration from being in a bank of
batteries which where being charged when one flashed. The uglier of the two was
actually the better battery.
That's my experience with Interstate.
Geoff
|
| 2136.4 | Surrette | SALEM::GILMAN | | Mon Aug 01 1994 08:38 | 4 |
| Does INTERSTATE make deep cycle marine batteries? I have used
Surrette Batteries for years, and, they perform flawlessly.
Jeff
|
| 2136.5 | Yup | MILKWY::HEADSL::SAMPSON | Driven by the wind | Mon Aug 01 1994 09:17 | 12 |
| Yes, the interstate batteries I used were deep cycle "marine/RV". I
know Surrette is the name in battery and maybe if in time I'll try and find
them superior. But for the price and the amount of use I got I really can't
complain.
With only a 4 amp output from my outboard I really had no charging on
board to speak of. I would rotate the batteries every couple or few weeks and
bring the discharged one home for recharging. This seems like a very extreme of
deep cycle and they held up longer than they were rated.
Geoff
|