At 10:04 PM 3/14/2011, Daryl Christensen wrote: >OK…My van charges at about 13.6 to 13.8 or9 max. >All the spiffy temp/voltage AGM battery chargers I see are 120V AC input.. Now that I've preached the gospel - and I believe every word of it - you have to make your own evaluations of first cost vs lifetime cost and so forth. I will seriously state that for someone who is going to be actually cycling batteries down on a regular basis (or irregular one, for that matter), lifetime system cost will be less if you do it right, and you'll get much better service as well - and the batteries will last many years. But the up-front costs are quite high. And as the DEKA comparison pointed out, if you're going to be using them below 32F/0C, use AGM instead of gel. Conversely if you want to minimize up-front costs without *unnecessarily* increasing lifetime costs, stick with flooded-cell batteries. Your lifetime costs will still be a lot higher, and you'll still get poorer service and you'll have to replace batteries more frequently, but the flooded-cell batteries are less expensive and will take the abuse better than the sealed ones of either type, but especially the gel ones. If you want good service and good battery life but want to take the edge off the costs up front, pay for the three-stage regulator, use flooded-cell batteries and keep track of your state of charge with a hydrometer if you can't afford an integrating consumption meter. Yours, David |
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