Looking for experience of specific AGM Batteries

SeanF1

SeanF1

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6m Campervan
Hi All,
I am new to motor homing having purchased my 2017 Sunlight T60 in October. I'm looking to add a second battery which in reality means buying two new as the current Varta LA95 has been in the van since new (I believe). Desired size is 100 to 120Ah. I would love to go LiFEPO4 but unless I come up in the Ballot on the 7th January, the cost is putting me off, so I am considering going with two middle of the road AGMs for now with an objective to re-look at Lithium in a year or two when hopefully prices may have become keener.
The four I am currently shortlisting are, Leoch, Platinum, Energy Expedition Plus and Powerplus. I have put links to the specific batteries I am considering below and I would welcome any comments from people who either use these specific batteries (or brands) or know of people who do and what their experience is/has been or even better could point out which stand out and which to avoid.
The price variance is significant and apart from number of cycles which is important I am unsure if there are other factors which contribute to for example the Energy Expedition plus costing £120 and the Platinum costing £145... and both being significantly cheaper than the Varta LA95 which looks similar on paper
https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/12v-platinum-100ah-agm-leisure-battery-agmlb6110l-ncc-class-a/
https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/12v-xtreme-110ah-agm-leisure-battery-xr1750/
https://www.alpha-batteries.co.uk/110-ah-xplorer-agm-leisure-battery/
https://advancedbatterysupplies.co....anced-agm-lpx110-leisure-batteries-110ah-12v/

I should add that I need 190mm height to go under the seat, hence this listing. Also any I should consider which are not on the list?

Many thanks in advance for any wisdom you can share :xThumb:.

Sean
 
Mixed reviews for agm batteries some swear by them others have a poor view of them Lenny HB had some fail very early and he has said that hymer have ditched them and gone back to gels
Price wise gels are half way between the agms and lithium
 
mitzimad said:
Mixed reviews for agm batteries some swear by them others have a poor view of them Lenny HB had some fail very early and he has said that hymer have ditched them and gone back to gels
Price wise gels are half way between the agms and lithium
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply. I have ordered a pair of the PowerPoint Advanced AGMs. I will update on how they do once U have them fitted
 
mitzimad said:
Mixed reviews for agm batteries some swear by them others have a poor view of them Lenny HB had some fail very early and he has said that hymer have ditched them and gone back to gels
Price wise gels are half way between the agms and lithium
Click to expand...
To be fair lenny does most of his touring off grid and that puts a lot of pressure on leisure batteries, we have 2 x Varta LA leisure batteries in our 2018 B678 DL and up to this day are still performing very well we had same set up in our 2015 Exsis I 698 and after three years parted company with it and the batteries were still going fine on that we had one 100w solar panel on that and two on the B678DL.😊
we don’t do as much off grid as Lenny but do our fair share without any hassle😊👍
 
I had AGM pro-fitted with a dedicated charger in a Hymer. They failed in 12 months. No idea why.

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SeanF1 said:
Thank you for the reply. I have ordered a pair of the PowerPoint Advanced AGMs. I will update on how they do once U have them fitted
Click to expand...
I have just come cross your thread and was going to recommend these but the height would be an issue for you. I did try and google the battery you have chosen but unable to find it. Do you have a link ?

www.alpha-batteries.co.uk

12v 100AH Leoch Pure AGM Lead Carbon PLH+ C100 Deep Cycle Leisure Battery NCC Class A - Alpha Batteries

12V 100Ah Ultra Deep Cycle battery for multiple applications – from Leoch’s Pure Lead Carbon series. Features • Pure Lead […]
www.alpha-batteries.co.uk www.alpha-batteries.co.uk
 
Jim said:
I had AGM pro-fitted with a dedicated charger in a Hymer. They failed in 12 months. No idea why.
Click to expand...
It’s the way we use em Jim?😂
 
PhilandMena said:
I have just come cross your thread and was going to recommend these but the height would be an issue for you. I did try and google the battery you have chosen but unable to find it. Do you have a link ?

www.alpha-batteries.co.uk

12v 100AH Leoch Pure AGM Lead Carbon PLH+ C100 Deep Cycle Leisure Battery NCC Class A - Alpha Batteries

12V 100Ah Ultra Deep Cycle battery for multiple applications – from Leoch’s Pure Lead Carbon series. Features • Pure Lead […]
www.alpha-batteries.co.uk www.alpha-batteries.co.uk
Click to expand...
Hi PhilandMena. Thanks for your reply. Its the bottom link in my original post above. Bought from Advanced Battery Supplies. I went for them because Gadget John installed them at the time when he removed his first lithium and before he went back to lithium and seemed to like them. I also spoke to ABS and liked the service. Good data for cycles etc at a reasonable price. They also have a 5% discount code which he gave me on the phone. Great service. Ordered at about 5pm last night and have already been delivered this lunchtime.

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SeanF1 said:
Hi PhilandMena. Thanks for your reply. Its the bottom link in my original post above. Bought from Advanced Battery Supplies. I went for them because Gadget John installed them at the time when he removed his first lithium and before he went back to lithium and seemed to like them. I also spoke to ABS and liked the service. Good data for cycles etc at a reasonable price. They also have a 5% discount code which he gave me on the phone. Great service. Ordered at about 5pm last night and have already been delivered this lunchtime.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that ! I note it weighs 26Kg and is rated at 500 cycle's. Does not say at what D.O.D, then goes on to say it can be safety discharged to 80%. I.M.O. 500 cycles for an advanced AGM battery is low, especially when you compare it to the Pure lead carbon AGM batteries which run into thousands of cycles but then again you are restricted by height so your choice is limited and this may well suit your style of motorhoming.

I have watched quite a few Gadget John videos and found them to be of great entertainment. He must have changed his motorhome at least 3 times by now and as for the amount of times he has changed his motorhome configuration with gadgets I'm amazed and he is still changing and adding more. No doubt, getting some payment of some sort for promoting gadgets on U-Tube. You would be well to seek advice from the veterans on here who have years and years of experience and can give sound advice on items that have been used over a number of years as opposed to brand new, untried and untested. Safe Travels.
 
The AGM's in my last van failed after 18 months. They are really not suitable for leisure use they were designed as stop start starter batteries the only exception being the professional ones that cost hundreds of pounds.
Best place for an AGM battery is the bin.

If your charger supports Gel they would be your best option, often last excess of 10 years. I ditched the AGM that came with my van and fitted 3 Gels, 2 are 5½ years old (from last van) and one 4½ years old all performing as new.

As for Gadget John anything he reckomends its best to run a mile from, he hasn't got a clue with electrics.
 
PhilandMena said:
You would be well to seek advice from the veterans on here who have years and years of experience and can give sound advice on items that have been used over a number of years as opposed to brand new, untried and untested. Safe Travels.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I did try to do this in my original post, but nobody replied :xblush:

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Lenny HB said:
The AGM's in my last van failed after 18 months. They are really not suitable for leisure use they were designed as stop start starter batteries the only exception being the professional ones that cost hundreds of pounds.
Best place for an AGM battery is the bin.

If your charger supports Gel they would be your best option, often last excess of 10 years. I ditched the AGM that came with my van and fitted 3 Gels, 2 are 5½ years old (from last van) and one 4½ years old all performing as new.

As for Gadget John anything he reckomends its best to run a mile from, he hasn't got a clue with electrics.
Click to expand...
Thanks Lenny
 
sonar said:
I bought two as well from the same company.
mine were 95 ah. Because on the length they had to fit under the seats.
Click to expand...
Hi Sonar. Thanks for this. How long ago did you buy them and how are they performing? The 110s I have bought are the same dimensions as the 95. Mine are going under the seat also. Just unbowed them. Theyre a bit cold but one is at 12.65v and the other at 12.61. Letting them warm up and will test again.

Many thanks all for your replies and help.
Happy New Year.
Sean
 
SeanF1 said:
https://advancedbatterysupplies.co.uk/product/advanced-agm-lpx110-leisure-battery-120ah-12v-copy/

This is the one I have bought (pair)
Click to expand...
When I posted I missed that you had already bought them.
At that price point I can't see them lasting very long.

As for the 5 year warranty, battery warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on. When the ones I had fail they wouldn't replace them under warranty because they passed a CCA test which is a test for a starter battery. Their test result was 80% but they were only good for 10ah at the C20 discharge rate.
 
Edit unboxed

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Lenny HB said:
When I posted I missed that you had already bought them.
At that price point I can't see them lasting very long.

As for the 5 year warranty, battery warranties aren't worth the paper they are written on. When the ones I had fail they wouldn't replace them under warranty because they passed a CCA test which is a test for a starter battery. There test result was 80% but they were only good for 10ah at the C20 discharge rate.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this Lenny. As I am new to all this, don't really know how we will end up using the van most, and had to change anyway I thought I'd give the middle price range ones a go. The Varta LA95 AGM that's in the van seems to be going reasonably strongly but I don't really know how the previous owner treated it. Suspect he didn't go off grid much. As I said in the OP, I would like to upgrade to lithium in a couple of years so hopefully these will serve until then. Also changing to MPPT from PWM, adding a B2B and increasing the PV from 100w to 300w.
Looking forward to testing how long this lot will give me without hookup.
Cheers,
Sean
 
As you are going to change to Lithium in a couple of years you would have done better to fit a couple of decent standard flooded batteries. You could have done that for under 200 quid and they would be more reliable.
 
PhilandMena said:
It might be wort checking the voltage upon receipt. I have returned brand new batteries to Tanya in the past as they never maintained them whilst held in storage. It would not surprise me if a lot of battery distributers do this in order to keep there energy consumption low.
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See post #18, a bit on the low side.
 
Lenny HB said:
See post #18, a bit on the low side.
Click to expand...
I would not be too concerned at 12.65 V. Mine were down to 12.4 Tanya said before I told them about the battery state that batteries should not be delivered under 12.5 V so were a bit pissed when I sent the pictures of their new delivery showing 12.4.V. They reluctantly accepted a return. They only allow good reviews on their website and 99.9% of them are about their delivery service.

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Lenny HB said:
See post #18, a bit on the low side.
Click to expand...
Lenny, do you think I should connect them to the EBL119 individually to fully charge each before connecting them up in parallel?
Many thanks for your help
 
SeanF1 said:
Lenny, do you think I should connect them to the EBL119 individually to fully charge each before connecting them up in parallel?
Many thanks for your help
Click to expand...
Won't make a lot of odds but if you have time do them individually.
 
Lenny HB said:
Won't make a lot of odds but if you have time do them individually.
Click to expand...
Thanks again Lenny. This may be an incredibly silly question but can I top them up using a car trickle charger?
 
SeanF1 said:
Thanks again Lenny. This may be an incredibly silly question but can I top them up using a car trickle charger?
Click to expand...
Not if you want to give them a full charge, AGM's are very fussy on charging profiles assuming your EBL has an AGM setting best to use that.
 
Lenny HB said:
Not if you want to give them a full charge, AGM's are very fussy on charging profiles assuming your EBL has an AGM setting best to use that.
Click to expand...
Thanks, it does so I'll use that. Cheers.

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