Replacing my hab battery!

[Gingernuts]

Need to replace my single hab battery with two batteries. Which batteries are best don’t want the expense of Lithium and all that entails.
At the moment I have a banner leisure battery but is there any advantage to getting lead calcium /lead carbon or should I just go with Varta lfd90 or their current replacement?

 

[Stealaway]

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[Jev88]

It depends how often and hard you work your leisure batteries?

 

[Al n Val]

On my last moho I fitted a pair of Leoch Lead Carbon 100ah batteries, I honestly thought they were superb, similar qualities to Lithium, very fast recharge time and at the time about a 3rd of the price of a good lithium.

 

[Hoovie]

I'd go Lead-Carbon.

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[Gingernuts]

I'd go Lead-Carbon.

Why?

 

[Hoovie]

Why?

Quite a few reasons ....
compared to standard Lead:

• Recharge time is superior.
• Discharge ability is far better - you can take Lead Carbon down to dead if you want without causing any damage to the battery (the charge cycle count reduces if you do that often, but that is true of all batteries including Lithium). So the oft-touted "never go below 50% discharge" can be ignored and you get more usuable capacity from a 100Ah Lead-Carbon than you would from a 100Ah Lead-Acid.
• Charge Cycles are invariably far greater, so you get a longer service life and much more overall energy over the life of the battery.
• Battery can stay at a PSOC (Partial State of Charge) with no deteriment to the battery, unlike regular Lead-Acid which should be recharged fully as soon as possible for optimum service life.
• Warranty Periods are usually longer (the Lead Carbons I buy (3 this week for example) have 5 year warranties).

And you can get all these Lead-Carbon benefits for only a small cost uplift over the standard Lead Acid battery.

 

[Gingernuts]

Thank you for a most comprehensive answer

 

[Cush]

I'd go Lead-Carbon.

Hoovie Your posts inspired me to go do some online research. What I couldn’t find though is if they have a different charge profile that requires a different setting to lead acid? My mppt can be customised but my poor old Sargent only has a LA profile. Any thoughts?
Cush

 

[Hoovie]

Hoovie Your posts inspired me to go do some online research. What I couldn’t find though is if they have a different charge profile that requires a different setting to lead acid? My mppt can be customised but my poor old Sargent only has a LA profile. Any thoughts?
Cush

It is the same profile - Bulk, Absorption, Float.

The charge voltage range tends be a bit lower than Lead Acid, but the upper level should pretty well match a standard Lead Acid charger.
What Sargent unit do you have? Many of them don't have any charge profiles are all but put out a set voltage. Might be worth considering that the level of charge the typical sargent puts out, you could get a similar output proper standalone charger for not much money.

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[Cush]

Many of them don't have any charge profiles

. I’m off to try and find out.

 

[Cush]

What Sargent unit do you have?

EC200 / PSU 2007. Reading the manual now

found this, so I’m guessing it just has a constant 13.5 v output

Integrated CHARGER
Input 110-240 Volts AC +/- 10%, Frequency 50 Hz +/- 6%, Current 3.15A max.
DC Output 13.5 Volts nominal, Current 16 Amps max (200 Watts).

 

[Sue and Rick]

Any recommendations for lead carbon batteries?

 

[Hoovie]

Any recommendations for lead carbon batteries?

I am going to say that the battery I am recommending below is available from different sources so there is a choice of suppliers, but this is my favourite Lead-Carbon battery in the popular 100/100Ah size with a great price and warranty for the features.

It is a link to my own site, but provided as an answer to the direct question.

110Ah Gel Lead Carbon Ultra Deep Cycle Battery – Wildebus

www.wildebus.com

 

[Al n Val]

Any recommendations for lead carbon batteries?

I got my Leoch ones from Alpha batteries, no one could beat them at the time and I got batteries posts, and a spare couple, thrown in. Next day delivery included

Al

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[IRHP]

Any recommendations for lead carbon batteries?

I've just bought a Leoch lead carbon 150ah from the batterystore.co.uk great price, free delivery arrived next day and they threw in a couple of round post terminals for free. It doesn't have the weight advantage of Lithium but 600 cycles at 80%DOD is getting very close to the performance of Lithium.

 

[ChrisL]

Any recommendations for lead carbon batteries?

I have three of the lead carbon gel batteries that Hoovie linked too except I bought mine from Alpha batteries who gave me a bit of discount for buying three, they've been in a year so far and no issues at all, the charge profile I've used is the victron gel type 2 which matches the charge voltages on the data sheet. There are also lead carbon agm batteries available which appear to charge a bit quicker but the data sheet says charge from 0c whereas the gels can be charged from -20c, the agm's would need an agm charge profile ideally. If you don't wish to go for lithium then I think lead carbon is the best of lead acid technology, but ofcourse they are relatively new so only time will tell.