Battery Notes

I've cross posted this info from the vintage Aierstream club forum, with permission. Thought this might be of interest to those
replacing batteries this spring. Bill P.
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Thought I'd post a response I got to my "best battery technology"
question on the Yahoo list- with the author's permission of course. I'm
off to search for AGM batteries..

Chris Koehn

Hi Chris,
The AGM technology battery is the best on the market today. It is a
lead /
acid battery, but the acid is impregnated into a fiberglass mat that is
sandwiched in between strips of lead, then the sandwich is rolled into a
"jelly roll" shaped cell. This type of cell can be sealed for vent free
operation, and has very low internal resistance. That gives you very
long
storage life without going flat on its own - which any battery will do.
The
AGM technology is ideal for any RV type of setup of intermittent use and
storage, sense they can be run totally flat, then recharged hundreds of
times without killing them.
There are several brands on the market today that use the AGM
technology. I
have "Lifeline" brand purchased at "Batteries Plus" ( check them out at
WWW.lifelinebatteries.com ) I have used several other brands in my
other
toys. You can find all kinds of info by just plugging "AGM Batteries"
into
your Google search box. I just tried it and came up with 93,700 sites to
look at about them.
I have two Lifeline batteries in my boat that takes the worst
punishment,
because I am always off in the Airstream, while it sets on the storage
rack
for months at a time. I have cranked it after it was setting for as
much as
7 months at a time. I told my neighbor about them, and he put one in his
boat. It set for one year and still cranked the boat with no problem. He
came by the house and told me he had thought I was stretching the
capabilities of the batteries, but he was now a firm believer. They are
still batteries, and you can run them down, and you can kill them
through
enough misuse, but they are tougher than the regular old wet or jelly
cell
batteries. They are also good for the person that needs to put their
battery
inside the trailer, because they are completely sealed. They can be
mounted
upside down or on their side without spilling out any acid, and give
off no
fumes.
Now the down side - they cost about 2 or 3 time as much as the same
sized
wet cell batteries. I am banking on the hope that I can get 2 or 3
times the
life out of mine with no hassle while getting it. I don't own stock in
any
of the battery companies, but often feel like I should after the amount
of
money I spend for batteries.

"Perry Joe Scudder"