My recent project to replace the "dumb" charger/inverter with a "smart" unit has gotten more expensive. It's the "one thing leads to another" syndrome. After pulling all the cables off my house batteries, I got a chance to test the 2 individual "no-name" flooded 8Ds that came with my coach. These were installed by the PO in Sept, 2010. One showed 4 volts, the other 5 volts. On load test the needle dropped to dead zero. This is after sitting in my driveway for several weeks, plugged in to 50 amp, with the old "dumb" charger feeding them 14+ volts whether they needed it of not.
Went looking for some new AGM 8Ds (I DEFINITELY want to avoid ANY battery that requires "watering"). Thanks to a fairly recent post by Kent Speers, I was aware that O'Reilly sells a AGM8D built by East Penn. Checked their price, and it looked pretty good:
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/SSBL/AGM8D/N2493.oap?ck=Search_N2493_-1_-1&pt=N2493&ppt=C2389s (http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/SSBL/AGM8D/N2493.oap?ck=Search_N2493_-1_-1&pt=N2493&ppt=C2389s)
Went by the local O'Reilly store today - talked to the manager. Told him my situation - he said if I bring my coach to the store, he'll have 2 of his guys pull the old batteries out of my coach and slide the new ones in, thus saving me a broken back. Put in my order and will pick them up Friday. The new batteries + my new smart charger/inverter should put my "house power" in good shape for the foreseeable future. Thanks to Kent for the tip!
PS: My second choice (next lowest locally available price) if O'Reilly hadn't panned out was NAPA:
http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Battery-Commercial-BCI-8D-NAPA-Batteries/_/R-NBE9275_0386175609 (http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Battery-Commercial-BCI-8D-NAPA-Batteries/_/R-NBE9275_0386175609)
Clean up your positive cables and get some red electrical tape wrapped around them before you do the swap!!!! And just for kicks, take pics before starting too!!!
And I am very happy with my East Penn (Deka) AGM 8D batteries.
Chuck,
Thanks for leads on batteries. I was just going through this as we speak. Big help. Would not have thought of these two outlets.
David
See if you have any local battery outlets also. I bought my Deka AGM's at a local outlet a few miles down the road for less than $400 a piece.
Mark
Mark,
I'm sure living anywhere in Florida, with the large resident and transient RV population, you have access to many more sources of anything for your coach. Some of us are not so fortunate. I checked any and all battery sources in a 100-mile radius, and nobody could beat the O'Reilly price.
Another plus for O'Reilly: in the unlikely event of a problem, their 1-year warranty is good nationwide at any company store.
I'm still waiting for the source of the $376 8G8D batteries that was reported last week by someone here. That would be a hellova deal.
Chuck, the link you posted for the O'Reilly battery shows water caps, although the description says AGM. Please let us know what you actually find. I'm going to replace my two house batteries fairly soon, too.
The picture I see on the Orileys ad shows the valve regulated caps.
I noticed the same thing
I think Foretravel switched to gels at a certain point. And red tops for engine start?
I went back to what was installed in mine in feb 1997.
Bob
In 2002, it was 2 Gel house batteries and 3 Optima YellowTops from the factory in my U270. (Yellowtops are still there and starting without a boost. My Trik-l-start must still be working.)
And in 2003 we had 3 gel house and 3 Optima BlueTops for starting in our U320.
Regarding the Oreilly batteries, I checked with East Penn and gave them the part number for the Oreilly 8Ds before I bought them in December 2013. They confirmed that they were AGM deep cycle batteries made by East Penn and were of equal quality to the East Penn brand batteries. I have had mine for several months and been very satisfied with them. They do have caps but are supposed to be spill free. Since I don't plan for them to be upside down I don't plan to check that claim.
"Since I don't plan for them to be upside down I don't plan to check that claim." Don't you like inverted driving? <grin>
My Daddy always said "Greasy Side Down, Shiny Side Up". He also said "Do As I Say, Not As I Do".
Sometimes he was a pretty smart guy.
The 'caps' on East Penn AGM / GELL, like the popular MK label, are free turning covers over pressure relief valves for each cell. AGM & GELL are pressurized and if any pressure is lost due to opening valve or over voltage charging, the pressure cannot be replaced and the battery is toast. All AGM & GELL of any brand have pressure relief valves.
Picked up my new O'Reilly AGM batteries today. They are exactly "as advertised". Photos below:
Those look exactly like the "Power House" brand batteries that I just replaced. Ridge patterns on the body look the same.
My batteries were about six years old and served us well during the four years we've owned the coach. It appeared that one failed with some kind of internal short and took one of the parallel batteries with it before I noticed that the batteries were drawing too much current when they should have been floating.