GALAX-E Leisure Batteries (1 Viewer)

Feb 27, 2011
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@Torchy88

I am about to buy a replacement for my 500AH battery bank. I have a high end Sterling 50Amp battery charger so I am interested in these batteries.
However a search online for a supplier of the 200Ah model has come to nothing so far.

If they are not ridiculously over priced in comparison to the VRLA AGM's I was looking at I would be interested.

I am a fulltimer and like to be off hookup as much as possible so I do give batteries a good workout. My last set lasted me 8 years. I bought them in 2007 and they finally failed last year in June 2015 at the Stafford Rally. Those batteries however cost me almost £2,000 as I had 4 x 250AH .
 
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To be honest I'm not seeing this.

80% discharge and a longer life IF you use their specific charger which none of us have. Using our existing chargers will at best mean a longer charging cycle which I'd struggle to see as a benefit.

I don't imagine they have the data to be able to say with any degree of certainty whether using an "incorrect" charger has any negative impact on the life of the battery or whether there is any risk of damaging the charger itself.

The video seems to demonstrate interesting results from a bench test but that's very different to a real world test in a specific (in this case motorhome) application.

Or have I missed something?
 
D

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@Torchy88

I am about to buy a replacement for my 500AH battery bank. I have a high end Sterling 50Amp battery charger so I am interested in these batteries.
However a search online for a supplier of the 200Ah model has come to nothing so far.

If they are not ridiculously over priced in comparison to the VRLA AGM's I was looking at I would be interested.

I am a fulltimer and like to be off hookup as much as possible so I do give batteries a good workout. My last set lasted me 8 years. I bought them in 2007 and they finally failed last year in June 2015 at the Stafford Rally. Those batteries however cost me almost £2,000 as I had 4 x 250AH .

Found a link to them on sale in Switzerland.

200Ah - CHF1078.92 That's approx £755 each on current exchange rates.

http://contrel.com/en/rechargeable-...argeable-batteries-for-leisurehobby/690/glx-a

How does that compare to the ones you were looking at?
 

Techno

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Casing is identical to the elecsols AGM and a similar price but they had a 7 year warranty before they went tits up
 

Techno

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Front%20battery%20bank%20%2C%20BtoB%20charger%20and%20NASA%20monitor%20all%20rewired-XL.jpg
 

maxi77

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Having tried the web site again I find it surprising there is no price list or purchase system, just and enquiry system. Is this a way to try and avoid the distance selling regulations? Secondly this is a revolutionary technology, one would expect there to be peer reviewed scientific papers to be available to substantiate the claims, and equally there is no mention of patent protection for the technology.

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Feb 9, 2008
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I suspect your looking at the manufacturer's website and they sell onto dealers hence no up front price.
It will all come out in the wash as they say. If these are really revolutionary and the dogs b*ll*cks we will all know about it in good time.
 

maxi77

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I suspect your looking at the manufacturer's website and they sell onto dealers hence no up front price.
It will all come out in the wash as they say. If these are really revolutionary and the dogs b*ll*cks we will all know about it in good time.


Even so if I was selling the greatest thing since sliced bread I would be publishing all the scientific data I had and making a big point of patents and other intellectual property
 

Techno

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I'll stick with mine which at least have user friendly terminals for easy connection of multiple batteries.
I could throw mine away every 3 years and fit new three times over for less money.

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Jul 29, 2007
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That's the problem for all these new batteries, if weight isn't an issue, lead acid take some beating over price versus performance.

Ian
 

pappajohn

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I agree about the charging observation Martin. According to the data sheet for the 100Ah model it needs an initial charging current of 30 amps - not many on-board motorhome chargers are capable of that (if any) - leaving aside B2B chargers.
Also, despite the CC Shop / Powalite statement, it appears they are a form of AGM battery and there have been several posts regarding problems with AGM batteries and standard / older charging systems that do not have an AGM program.
That's half the problem....

Hard enough to find the initial 30a charge current, where will you find 60a for a pair....or maybe the 120a for 4 batteries on an American RV.

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Techno

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Also, despite the CC Shop / Powalite statement, it appears they are a form of AGM battery and there have been several posts regarding problems with AGM batteries and standard / older charging systems that do not have an AGM program.
As I said (apart from the change of case colour) the battery is IDENTICAL to my old Elecsols (which are still fine BTW) and for sale due to incompatibility with my larger banks (in the for sale section)
 

Techno

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I would trial 4 if suitable interconnects were supplied too so my existing wiring can be utilised.
The dimensions are compatible so they could go in as the solar bank that gets a hammering from the inverter or for the hab 12 volt only but that would not put them to test.
Two weeks trip just finished didn't even slightly dent my front bank due to 60 amp B2B topping them up effortlessly.

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Techno

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As for charging I have 300 watt mppt solar
16 amp CBE charger and..
25 amp CTEK conditioning charger
I've used all three together and if the 500ah bank is hungry they all help until the panic dies (not long) and the CTEK completes a full cycle at a higher voltage (14.5)
Note for @GAVLAD
 

Alkers

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Anyone have any further experience with this company?
I see they have now achieved NCC Class A accreditation.

I'm interested in one as the claimed performance seems fine but I'm worried about damaging the battery with my split charge setup. I have an AGM compatible charger once on EHU which would be fine but my alternator won't reduce the float charge and it's not clear whether this would affect these batteries as it does for an AGM battery.
 
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Lenny HB

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I see they have now achieved NCC Class A accreditation.
Not worth the paper it's written on. To achieve accreditation the manufacturer only has to submit their own test results, to claim a 200 cycle life they only have to test for 2 cycles.

As Andy says looks like the same case as Elecsols, they came from Holland as well that gets my alarm bells ringing. If the technology is so wonderful why aren't all the major manufacturers using it.
You could get a decent Gel battery for 100 quid less that you know will last 6 - 10 years.
 
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NCC "accreditation" means little or nothing. They do not do any independent tests themselves and just accept what the manufacturers tell them.

I suspect @PhilandMena and @Lenny HB will be along soon to give you more details.
I was a great supporter of the NCC verified battery scheme and promoted them on here on more than one occasion. At last, I thought a professional body who understood the needs of motorhome users who went out and selected leisure batteries at random then tested and verified them at independent test houses and categorised the results into 3 classes so end user's would know which was the most suitable for their needs. Great! then the whole scheme was shown to be one of the the biggest con's going and was all about supporting the manufacturer and not the end user. A guy from AandNcaravans started asking the NCC questions on how some of the results were arrived at and who was doing the testing, and could he see the results. All refused! After further investigation and taking some of the NCC verified batteries to one of the two recognised independent test houses in the UK it all started to unfold. He also obtained documents from the NCC informing battery manufacturers they would accept the manufacturers test results based on 6 cycles of testing (Yes! Only 6 cycles). At the test house engineers laughed at the NCC test results saying they had tested some of these batteries and they were no where near what was being published in the verification list. They even had a very good Gel battery listed as only a Class C.

There are a few battery manufacturers who produce their own batteries. Exide, Banner, Varta and I think Yuasa. Sticking with these should give you some confidence your getting a decent battery. Apparently AGM is now a dead duck and no longer being put in new cars by VW, Merc's and possibly others and being identified as the main cause of charger failures. So, in essence there you have it. More details here.
http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/campaign-for-battery-change.php

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