"Roger Long" wrote:

wrote

Now that I see all of this, I wonder if perhaps in the long term, AGM
batteries are really about the same cost as the more dangerous and
unreliable flooded batteries.

You may disagree.

The electrical system specialists who did the final design and engineering
for my 81 foot research vessel do agree and said pretty much just what you
did. They do both land based emergency power systems for things like phone
company switching centers and sophisticated vessel systems. Pretty
knowledgeable guys.

According to them, you didn't even need to factor in the safety of AGM's to
justify their use.

Bob converted a car to run on batteries. He had 18 of them. AGMs
were significantly more expensive and didn't last any longer Same
with the boat - I think we have two battery banks - 96 amp hours or
something like that. And the AGM batteries (I have heard) have much
more tricky charging requirements. Now maybe that has changed in the
past 10 years - probably so. And if we were setting up the system
now, we might do it with AGM batteries. But we are not, so we won't.