I am really interested in a AGM but am disappointed that the ones I've seen only come with a 1 year warranty. Is anybody using an AGM battery and if so have you had good luck with it?thanks
Anybody tried AGM batteries, If so whats the verdict?
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Anybody tried AGM batteries, If so whats the verdict?
I will soon be purchasing a starting battery and am trying to decide if I should go the cheap route and but a regular battery form Wal-mart or somewhere or get a good AGM battery. I am tired of buying batteries what seems like every other year. The regular ones just seem to die on me after sitting up all winter. I am really interested in a AGM but am disappointed that the ones I've seen only come with a 1 year warranty. Is anybody using an AGM battery and if so have you had good luck with it?
thanks
I am really interested in a AGM but am disappointed that the ones I've seen only come with a 1 year warranty. Is anybody using an AGM battery and if so have you had good luck with it?thanks
Limited experience so far is quite favorable. I got one from
Cabelas to use as an auxiliary/spare for both cranking and electric motor and for plugging in spotlight, etc when night fishing. I keep it in one
of those fancy storage cases so I move it around in the boat as needed. It sure holds a charge well and appears quite reliable based on limited use. It is quite heavy!
Hope that helps!
Cabelas to use as an auxiliary/spare for both cranking and electric motor and for plugging in spotlight, etc when night fishing. I keep it in one
of those fancy storage cases so I move it around in the boat as needed. It sure holds a charge well and appears quite reliable based on limited use. It is quite heavy!
Hope that helps!
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
Yea, probably my problem is I don't use them much in the winter and need to periodically charge them anyways. I've been doing some research and the saying seems to be that "Batteries don't die, their owners kill them" 
So I probably ask for it by not maintaining them when I don't fish for a month or two. I just hate cold and Saturday football games take up alot of days. I do plan on finding some sheepshead this winter though. It seems from what I have found that the charging is the most important thing. You don't want the battery to go down to a certain low level of charge and you don't want to over charge it. I will probably go with a regular lead acid battery and try a good charger. I've always used one of my dads cheap old Sears chargers and it tends to overcharge. So I am going to get a Guest on board charger and see if that works. It seems most new chargers are three stage and automatically shut off. So for now I am going to go with the theory that the batteries were ok but I wasn't charging them correctly or often enough. The new on board charger should help that. I like the plug ins you can install so you just plug the chord into your boat and it's all automatic. That's better than the growing up when I had to get in and out of Dads boat to charge the battery. If that doesn't work I'll go with an AGM battery.
Dbplug (AGM) stands for absorbant glass mat, it's like fiberglass mat saturated with gel and sandwiched between the plates. The Optima batteries are AGM they just have thin spiral lead plates instead of flat ones. Gel batteries are a third kind which uses the same structure as wet acid batteries but have a silica gel inside instead of water. If you overheat gel batteries they can develop bubbles and lose capacity. At least thats what I've learned so far.
So I probably ask for it by not maintaining them when I don't fish for a month or two. I just hate cold and Saturday football games take up alot of days. I do plan on finding some sheepshead this winter though. It seems from what I have found that the charging is the most important thing. You don't want the battery to go down to a certain low level of charge and you don't want to over charge it. I will probably go with a regular lead acid battery and try a good charger. I've always used one of my dads cheap old Sears chargers and it tends to overcharge. So I am going to get a Guest on board charger and see if that works. It seems most new chargers are three stage and automatically shut off. So for now I am going to go with the theory that the batteries were ok but I wasn't charging them correctly or often enough. The new on board charger should help that. I like the plug ins you can install so you just plug the chord into your boat and it's all automatic. That's better than the growing up when I had to get in and out of Dads boat to charge the battery. If that doesn't work I'll go with an AGM battery. Dbplug (AGM) stands for absorbant glass mat, it's like fiberglass mat saturated with gel and sandwiched between the plates. The Optima batteries are AGM they just have thin spiral lead plates instead of flat ones. Gel batteries are a third kind which uses the same structure as wet acid batteries but have a silica gel inside instead of water. If you overheat gel batteries they can develop bubbles and lose capacity. At least thats what I've learned so far.