"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote in
:

Well, AGMs are batteries not chargers. The batteries in the hybrids
are not deep
cycle batteries. They are 6AH at 201+ volts. They are only good for 6
or 7 miles
if used as the sole drive source and will be severely dammaged.



Hmm....Ni-MH batteries may be run completely dead, over and over....unlike
old lead-acids that eat holes in the plates, even if you wrap the plates
around fiberglass gauze. I deep cycle nearly all my Ni-MH batteries all
the time without destroying them. Some of them are 10 years old.

My disdain, on the other hand, is more about the AGM battery HYPE than the
AGM batteries themselves. They are JUST lead-acid batteries, not some
magic wonder the marketing depts try to make them out to be to justify the
awful price. Look closely at them. They are CHEAPER to make than a proper
wetcell. Thin lead so you can wrap them tightly, the only way they'll get
contact with the electrolyte soaked into the gauze....no need for exotic
plate structures to hold the soft lead in place in a liquid medium. No
fancy separators to keep the plates from shorting out in a liquid medium.
Where's the wonder technology? I don't see any Palladium or Platinum
pieces to justify them selling for triple, do you?

No, it's the HYPE that grinds my skin. There's AGM batteries in my
stepvan, 2 of them to get enough current to crank the V-8 diesel. One
failed, already, getting so hot the case melted. The gauze must have had a
hole in it inside somewhere.

AGM "technology" came from the same capacitors (rolled up plates with
insulators instead of soaked gauze between the plates in a round tube)
we've been making since the 19-teens. It's not "new"....

--
Larry