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Hull #187, 2004
Replacing original batteries; decided on golf cart as result of all input on this site
Ready to purchase 4 Trojan T105's when passed a tip that Duracell EGC2 from Sam's Club similar but better and cheaper
Anyone have experience with the Duracell EGC2?
If this were the golf cart battery primary election, which candidate would you vote for?
Thanks
Never hear anyone say EG2's from Sams Club were better than T105's.
Less expensive yes. Better value, perhaps.
But, particularly with the batteries mounted inside where they are, I am a firm believer in AGM batteries that do not out-gas under ordinary conditions (will out-gas if extreme overcharging takes place).
An unventilated battery compartment under the nav seat is NOT the place (my opinion) for wet cell batteries.
We put a pair of the EGC2's from Sam's into The Best of Times last year, and have not had any problems yet. Brett, bings up a good point about out-gasing. If I happen to leave the charger on overnight, the CO alarm goes off from the outgasing of charging the batteries (usually at 2am!). If I were replacing ALL of the batteries, I would certainly consider Brett's suggestion with going with AGM battery banks. However, in our case, I had heard that you should not mix AGM batteries with lead/acid batteries in the same system. I'm not sure whether that is true or not, but since we were not replacing the original 4D's with golf cart batteries, we were just adding another bank, we figured we should stay with the same battery type. So far, so good. I just have to remember to turn the battery charger off before going to bed.
There is a series of 3 articles in the Feb/Mar/Apr 2012 issues of Cruising World that goes in depth into the advantages and disadvantages of various battery types, and the changes that may also be required to accomodate a switch over from lead-acid to another type. For one thing, it seemed that the new TPPL batteries (Thin Plate Pure Lead, a type of AGM), might be a good solution do to it's rapid recharge times. However, the drawback is the load that this puts on your alternator and regulator. After you pay more bucks for the "better" batteries, you may also need to pay some additional bucks for a new and bigger alternator and/or shore power charger to produce and handle to recharge rates these batteries can accept. Very interesting reading, and the decision has a lot to do with how you use your boat, and how often, it's plug into shore power versus on-the-hook versus running the engine.
