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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
drdrb wrote:
Please note that while the term "marine battery" is oftened used as a synonym for "deep cycle battery", manufacturers also make marine starting batteries which are not deep cycle. Starting batteries (such as jump start batteries) have high cold cranking amp ratings, but do not tolerate deep discharge without damage. A marine starting battery is just a starting battery built to be resistant to the pounding sometimes experienced in boats, and is no better than any other starting battery for deep cycle use. What you want is a deep cycle battery, marine or otherwise. Wheelchair batteries (available at Sears, etc.) are deep cycle batteries and come in various sizes which would probably meet your portability requirements. A minor note: no need to look specifically for wheelchair batteries at Sears. The conventional Diehard brand marine deep cycle batteries will do the job nicely if you don't mind handling lead-acid models. For all of my power-hungry hardware, a couple of them (Diehard part number 27494) cover my requirements and they usually go for about $60 per pop in the automotive department... --- Mike http://www.concentric.net/~richmann/ |
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Marine Battery? Jump-Start Battery? Power Inverter?
On Fri, 31 Oct 2003 19:04:46 GMT, "Al"
wrote: "Al Hall" wrote in message .. . Any reason not to use a deep cycle marine battery in the car in place of a regular auto battery? Seems like a very good question to me. I asked this very question when I was buying some batteries for astronomy use and I'll paraphrase what I was told... A boat and a car place different requirements on a battery and it's a good idea to buy a battery that's made for those requirements. As an example, it's very important for a car to have a big reserve of cold cranking power, while this is not too important in a boat that is used during the warm weather months. On the other hand, it's common to draw small amounts of power from a boat battery while the engine is shut down and the system is not charging. Of course, when you're ready to go home, it's important that the battery has enough power to get you home. In spite of the superior marine batteries available today, you should see some of the batteries going into boats these days. I have a huge 75 pound battery for each of the engines, plus a bank of 3 deep cycle batteries to operate accessories. Not too many gas stations out there. These days, boatmen pray that they never need a tow, as a tow could cost you a thousand dollars or more. Al Hi Al, Makes sense. OTOH, if you were planning on using the car battery to power a scope through the cigarette lighter outlet maybe a deep cycle battery would be better as long as it would start the car too. A few years ago I had a small camper van that I set up with a second deep cycle battery to run accessories when the engine was turned off. It was isolated from the starter battery with a diode based battery isolator that I got from a camper outlet. When the primary [starting] battery went bad one time, I switched it with the deep cycle and ran the van for weeks with no problem until I got around to buying a new primary battery when they went on sale. Since then I've always wondered if the deep cycle battery wouldn't be a better choice for those amateurs who use their car battery to power their scopes. [the other] Al |
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