House battery question

[saillavie38]

It's time to replace the house battery on the Sail-La-Vie... the current setup is an 8D gel cell that has lasted over 10 years. I've been thinking about replacing that 160 pound beast with 3 x group 24 batteries in parallel at about 50 pounds each. A bit more manageable from an installation perspective, but still providing about the same amp hour rating.

Are there any pro/cons going with 3 smaller batteries vs one larger one? Are the larger batteries are constructed differently? Isn't there an advantage to multiple batteries vs one single point of failure?

Larry~~

[celenoglu]

The battery technology does not differ for a single or parallel 3 batteries. The porblem is there is a slim opportunity to find a failing one. If onefails andyoucan pinpoint it in the beginning you can easilychange it.

But in practice it is not possible to find the failure before the others get defective as well. It will be always a good idea to change all three, because if one faails, it is more likely the otherswill fail due to the defective one.

Another alternative is to use three batteries separately. You can swith to the second or third battery if the first is discharged.

[epaolino]

I had a friend change to 6 volt golf car batteries from 4d's. In this configuration he had more amp hrs and lighter batteries when time to swap out or do matainence. And the 6v batts were cheaper.

[mitiempo]

6 volt golf carts will last longer due to thicker plates, handle more cycles than any 12 volt, and are easier to handle. I have installed many dozens of golf carts and only one 4d in the last year. More amp hours as well and less expensive.

This link has information you should read.
http://www.sailnet.com/forums/electr...good-news.html