Marine batteries FAQ

I thought Deka was a a premium deep cycle. Never have used one. In my boat when I was fishing two to three days a week and fishing tournaments every weekend I tried a variety of trolling motor batteries. Trojan had a great rep, but for me started losing capacity after about 11-12 months. The dealer said if they load test at all they are still good so no warranty. Never bought another Trojan. Way to epensive for that s*it service life and poor service. I tried a couple brands of deep cycle AGMs and got about 3 yeas use out of them. Once when I was short on cash I bought a set of WalMart Maxx Deep cycles in group 29 size. I got 18 months out of them and a free replacement. They were half the price of the cheapest AGM deep cycles. So I have been using the WalMart group 29 deep cycle Maxx batteries in my boats ever since.

Now trolling motor batteries in a boat see pretty hard use if you fish a lot. They see a significant discharge every time you go out, and then get charged when you get home. I suspect its possible in a lighter use they might last a little longer. I have been using WalMart batteries in my truck and tractor for years now as well. I get better life out of a Walmart tractor battery then I got out of the insanely priced original John Deere battery. The one thing is I always buy the BEST' grade battery WalMart offers rather than the cheapest.

I was hearing great things about Dakota Lithium and was considering biting the bullet on those for my boats (very expensive), but a couple users who have had problems have reported that Dakota Lithium will not respond to them with issues on in warranty batteries. I'm not sure I want to gamble the price of lithiums just yet. Not even the price of "cheaper" Chinese lithium batteries on Ebay, Alibaba, or Amazon.

I thought Deka was a a premium deep cycle. Never have used one. In my boat when I was fishing two to three days a week and fishing tournaments every weekend I tried a variety of trolling motor batteries. Trojan had a great rep, but for me started losing capacity after about 11-12 months. The dealer said if they load test at all they are still good so no warranty. Never bought another Trojan. Way to epensive for that s*it service life and poor service. I tried a couple brands of deep cycle AGMs and got about 3 yeas use out of them. Once when I was short on cash I bought a set of WalMart Maxx Deep cycles in group 29 size. I got 18 months out of them and a free replacement. They were half the price of the cheapest AGM deep cycles. So I have been using the WalMart group 29 deep cycle Maxx batteries in my boats ever since.

Now trolling motor batteries in a boat see pretty hard use if you fish a lot. They see a significant discharge every time you go out, and then get charged when you get home. I suspect its possible in a lighter use they might last a little longer. I have been using WalMart batteries in my truck and tractor for years now as well. I get better life out of a Walmart tractor battery then I got out of the insanely priced original John Deere battery. The one thing is I always buy the BEST' grade battery WalMart offers rather than the cheapest.

I was hearing great things about Dakota Lithium and was considering biting the bullet on those for my boats (very expensive), but a couple users who have had problems have reported that Dakota Lithium will not respond to them with issues on in warranty batteries. I'm not sure I want to gamble the price of lithiums just yet. Not even the price of "cheaper" Chinese lithium batteries on Ebay, Alibaba, or Amazon.

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Thanks. It appears that Johnson Controls makes the WalMart Everstart Marine Group 29 battery which has a rated capacity of 122Ah, not bad for $90. It's rumored that Johnson used more recycled lead than East Penn, which makes their flooded batteries self-discharge faster in storage. Have you seen that?

Although I can't reveal specifics the 1 year battery was used outdoors in Arizona.

Heat and cold are hard on batteries. Even more so on lithium batteries.

Its funny where I grew up (SW Az) there were material test sites in the desert. I seem to recall it was AT&T or Bell Labs. They just had various test samples of materials out in the sun and weather for years.

The other killer for batteries - particularly "flooded" batteries, is VIBRATION. The vibration stresses the plates and active material flakes off, settling in the bottom of the case where it eventually shorts the plates. Up untill the plates short the capacity just tapers off as there is less and less "active material" on the plates. Marine duty batteries are generally built to deal better with vibration than regular "deep cycle" or SLA batteries (starting/lighting/accessory) and USUALLY are a bit of a compromise between an SLA and a deep cycle performance/spec-wize

Heat and cold are hard on batteries. Even more so on lithium batteries.

Its funny where I grew up (SW Az) there were material test sites in the desert. I seem to recall it was AT&T or Bell Labs. They just had various test samples of materials out in the sun and weather for years.

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The Army has a lab here in NH to study operation in the Arctic.

Johnson Controls hasn't been in the battery business for almost 3 years now.