A little off topic, but..

I'd like to brag about my Gell-cell batteries. The prior owner of the boat
bought them about 14/15 years ago. I tested them again this year, they hold
charge when rested, and supply good power under load, close to new
specifications!

These are 8D Sonnenschein 8D Prevailer Dry-Fit, Gel-Cell.
I'm sure they cost a lot of money 14 years ago, talk about return on
investment!


Larry wrote in
:


Like most boaters who've been sold amazingly overpriced AGM batteries,
you've been duped into thinking they are some amazingly different
technology than the cheap $89 golf cart batteries from Sam's Club.

The AGM battery is not. It's simply a cheaper way of rolling up thin
lead plates with glass mats soaked in the same electrolyte used in all
the other lead-acid batteries. These plates cannot be as thick as the
ones in the golf cart batteries because the big thick plates are very
hard to bend. With so limited an amount of electrolyte, that cannot
flow in the gauze and cool the cell while moving fresh acid in contact
with the plates as the solution of lead sulphate moves away, it
matters little how thin the plates are. To get capacity, the plates
rolled up are huge!

BOTH these archaic lead-acid batteries are charged just fine with any
standard alternator with a voltage regulator. They've been working
fine since way before the Model T was produced....(c;