wrote:
I have 2 4D Lifeline batteries. I bought them new last Augaust before
we left for Mexico. We have been having a great time but the batteries
are not doing nearly as well as advertised. They are in one bank of 420
amps for the house bank and I use it for everything including starting
the engine and leave another battery charged for emergency starting. We
use about 60 amps a day. I have been discharging to between 80 and 100
amps then charge back to between 20 to 40, depending on how long we
want to hear the motor running. I had thought this was a good way to
maintain the batteries.

What kind of charge regulator do you have on your alternator? AGM's are
more sensitive to chronic over- and/or under-charging. It may be that
running your engine to charge them has destroyed your batteries.


Velvet Paws wrote:
Steve D'Antonio wrote a neat article on just this question in the
Nov/Dec issue of Ocean Navigator. And ON has made the article
available freely on its website at
http://www.oceannavigator.com/site/c...id=8685&page=1


Excellent link, thanks for posting.

One reason why I am sticking with the old fashioned flooded batteries is
that any malfunction in the electrical system gets very expensive. I can
replace flooded type Gr-31s for $65 each if something goes wrong and I
can add water to them if they get a bit overcharged from time to time.
For the price of a set of AGM batteries I can replace my battery bank 3
or 4 times over.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King