Time for new batteries

Four and a half years ago when we were in Roatan, Honduras David and bought new Trojan T105 batteries. These batteries are the source of our electricity on Bruadair. It provides the electricity to run the water pump, the refrigerator, lights, fans, electronics and so much more. With out the batteries we would, well, be reading by candles and eating out of cans.

Our battery bank consists of six of these Trojan T105 batteries, each are six volts but wired so that we have a 12 volt system. And the batteries are flooded (wet) lead acid batteries. That means we have to take the caps off monthly to check the water level and top off as needed. There are other batteries that are sealed, AGM (absorbed glass mat) and Gel batteries. Even though they are sealed they are still lead acid batteries. The Trojan batteries are the most common six volt batteries and are rated to have 300 to 500 life cycles. A cycle is the discharge (to 50%) and recharge of the battery. 100 life cycles per year is a good average so we feel good about having gotten four and a half years out of the batteries.

Now that we need replacements one would think that its an easy decision, but it really isn't. First we need to decide what type of battery we want. The sealed and maintenance free batteries sound convenient but AGM batteries of the same size are rated at 300 life cycles and the Gel batteries at 500. But Gel batteries are extremely sensitive to under or over charging so they can be easy to ruin. The best bang for the buck still seems to be flooded or wet batteries.

Then we needed to decide on which brand. Cheap batteries may only last a year or two so we knew we needed to stay with a name brand. Trojan T105s are available here in Panama but are very costly, twice the price than in the US. But they are here and readily available. But after some research we decided to go with Rolls EHW220 six volt batteries. Rolls is well known as producing the best flooded batteries on the market, they can also be very expensive. Which is usually enough to go back to the Trojans. But going through Marine Warehouse in Panama City we were able to buy the Rolls, imported with shipping and duties, for the same price as the Trojans would have cost us here. The Rolls six volt batteries are also rated for 1350 life cycles, so about three times more than the Trojans for the same price. And of course the 7 year warranty is nice to have too.

Right now David and I are running on four batteries, 2/3 of our original capacity, because two of the six batteries had shorted and needed to be taken out of the system. And with the remaining batteries a bit weak we hope that the new ones arrive sooner than the estimated three weeks.

Rolls batteries are very stout and should provide us with seven to 10 years of trouble free service. However Rolls do have specific charging needs so considering the cost of the new batteries we felt that upgrading our charging system would be a smart thing to do to ensure we get take the best care of the new batteries to ensure the longest life possible.

We sold our old Xantrex charging system and purchased a Magnum Energy system that will allow us have better control in charging the batteries. We'll have more flexibility in controlling charge voltages and the Magnum remote panel will offer more informatoin on the status of our batteries and charger than the Xantrex remote currently does. We purchased our Magnum Energy items from PASS S.A. in Panama City and while we had paid for same day delivery it finally showed up three days later.

So coming up in the near future will be posts on the installation of the Magnum Energy charging and monitoring system and then the new batteries. We'll also report on the programming and usage the the Magnum equipment. So stay tuned.

Here's the schematic of how our new electrical system will look. For the most part it looks like what we have now, just a few little changes but nothing too noticeable.