Katie Lee Gets New Batteries

The house bank of batteries that we bought in the Philippines is failing, so we ordered new 6 volt deep cycle lead acid batteries.

I have not had good luck with batteries. I thought they are supposed to last 5 or 6 years. But I keep having accidents with them. Except this last set. The first one to fail had a shorted cell at only 6 months. A one year warranty replaced it, but then we left the Philippines. No warranty out of the country. At about 14 months 2 more have a shorted cell. Using just using 6 out of the 8 for the past year. Now 2 more have a shorted cell. No accident on this set, they are not good batteries.

Looking back through the log book this is what I found about buying batteries:

May 5, 2006 - ?brand X? - San Carlos, Mx (Tucson, Az) - $65 ea

over discharged several times

Feb 1, 2008 - ?brand X? - Kona, Hawaii - ?? (Had a green label I think)

charger/inverter problems - charged at too high current to much

??? -  US Battery US2200 - (this is what I took out in Johor Bahru)

forgot to fill water as I had stopped using water recovery caps

Mar 5, 2013 - US Battery US2200 - Johor Bahru, My - RM480 ea. -$120 ea

left boat and caretaker put in wrong water

Oct 10, 2016 - Motorlite Golfmaster - Danao, Ph -$100 ea

just defective

Dec 29, 2018 - US Battery US2200 - Hengchun, Tw - NT5468 - $181 ea

I hope they last longer

My battery boxes are under the salon settees, 4 on each side to distribute the weight evenly. After all they weigh around 65 pounds each. Moving 8 batteries out and 8 more in is just less than a 1000 pounds for this old tired body. I haven't got them all up to the edge of the dock yet!


The old batteries in the boxes: Port  and Starboard

New

Installed:

Port Settee

Starboard Settee

After a week they are doing well.