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Topic: O'Reilly batteries (Read 3227 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #20 –
Hummm, never seen a fireman dumb enough to get on top of a motor home on fire,  by the time they get there no need. Just saying! My 850 watts (72 volt panels) and 3 AGMS Work great for me. Course we are Fulltime and boondock 70% of the time.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #21 –
Like I said HE was worried.  All the rv panels are less than 30 volts.  He understood that the higher powered residential systems are higher voltage.  I wonder if any rv manufacturer installs higher voltage residential systems? 

Are higher voltage legal on rv's?  Never asked.  Wiring has to be in conduit as far as I have read?

Can a cracked panel discharge voltage to anyone on a roof? 

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #22 –
This is a choice you get to make for yourself.  Make it with all the correct information you can get.  Choose based on what is important to you.  No one else can say your choice is right or wrong.

Solar cost.
My self installed 1200 watts of solar using commercial grade solar panels and a Victron charge controller, cables, fuses, switches and custom made panel mounts cost me less than $1700.  On a nice sunny day I get more than 6,000 watts of production.

Lithium battery charging at low temperature
A common bit of misinformation here.  Lithium batteries will charge and discharge at very low temperatures (below zero here last December) with very simple battery heaters.  Once the batteries are in active use, charging and discharging, low temperatures are not an issue.

Some considerations
3 O'Reillys will have a new capacity of about 735 amp hrs (+/-).  At discharges to 50% SOC and recharge to 100% SOC every time you will get at about 1000 cycles. That is 367 usable amp hrs.  At discharges to 75% SOC and recharges to 100% SOC every time you will get about 2100 cycles.  That is 184 usable amp hrs. Every time you do not recharge to 100% you lose a bit of capacity.  After a while that loss of capacity is permanent.  Getting to float is not the same as 100% SOC.  O'Reillys have a 3 yr warranty.

Battle Borns have a 10 year warranty and if you recharge at a maximum of 20% capacity you can get close to 5,000 cycles.  Battle Born considers one cycle from 100% SOC to 0% SOC and back to 100% SOC.  80% to 30% and back to 80% SOC is 1/2 cycle.

So 2 100 amp hr Battle Born Batteries have 200 amp hrs usable capacity, more than 3 8Ds at at 25% use cycle and 2-1/2 the number of cycles, likely all under warranty. 

All of these numbers are just numbers.  For many the only consideration is dollars so O'Reillys before Lifelines.  For some the prospect of probably never buying house batteries again is appealing.  I suppose if you sell your coach a very well done Lithium battery system might make you coach more desirable to a buyer but I wouldn't expect to recover your difference in front end cost. Some will like the 500 lb weight savings.

There is an argument that can be made that lithium batteries charge easier than AGM batteries and do not have to go to 100% SOC. And AGM batteries get hard to charge in that last 5-10%.  And not getting the AGM batteries all the way to 100% is not good for maintaining capacity over time.  So if you do a lot of off grid camping (fishing) then from a system point of view Lithiums might have a performance and operational advantage. 

This choice is one only you can put a value on.


Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #23 –
Bob, weather or not an RV manufacturer installs something or not makes no difference. We are talking about basically an unregulated industry, no construction standards, no fire codes, overweight vehicles before they leave the lot. As to weather a higher voltage panel is legal in n an RV who you going to ask, in the above non standard industry. Just saying. Oops sorry to head off topic. Deca, East Penn, O'REILLYs AGMs have been working for us for 5 years and still going.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #24 –
So some of us are on a budget for what ever reason. so say 1500 for 3 AGMS that take care of our needs for say 6 years (at least), with no up grade of existing charging equipment. Verses 3-4K in lithium+ up grading charging equipment say 3K or so, and at the end of the day they still do the same thing my AGMs do, for my needs. All the the 10 year warranty, and 5000 cycle stuff remains to be seen. Not saying lithium is the Not cat's meow, but lead acid batteries have been working for years, shoot many 6volt golf cart batteries are going strong in RVs. Just my point of view, as always your $$$ DWMYFG and makes you happy.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #25 –
We have been using the O'Reilly's for 5 years now. No issues so far.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #26 –
As far as asking someone that's a good point.  RVIA or your insurance carrier might be good starting points?

Home stuff on rv? Any codes?  The manufacturer question relates to legalities that they may have researched. 

Can you order a high powered residential solar panel system on any new coach?

Do not take this wrong.  I am in favor of putting on a much larger solar system on our coach.

That and adding the  gen auto start also  based on temps come to mind. 

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #27 –
Oriley start and coach batteries. 2 1/2 years and strong

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #28 –
OK
(3) O'Reilley 8ds 250 ah agm $455 or

(4) or (6)? 6 v 225 ah flooded batteries Trojan $193 ea      Interstate $ 162 ea

Currently have (3) Lifelines

How about differences in recharge time? A buddy suggested separating (4) banks in order  to "rundown" one bank at a time for faster recharge time, using an a, b or ab switch

I keep hoping on, then falling off the lithium wagon. I just would like to make the best, intelligent decision here.

I could "muddy the waters" here and talk about Forest River 6v agms......4 for a our $2500

Comments?

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #29 –
Your money your choice. However I would never put a wet cell battery in a closed compartment. Let one boil over and see what a real mess is. Some folks do and that's their choice. If you where going to keep the coach for many more years and you Boondock a bunch, and you have 3-4k laying around lithium is the way to go.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #31 –
Separating the banks would seem to run into the same 85-90% to 100% double the run time it took to get from 50% to 85-90%?

My old freedom 25's owner manual mentions this issue so it recommends going from 50% max to 85% to reduce gen run time.

You large solar guys can quit reading now.

Other than large solar and sun power the only way to not damage/wear the batteries is either gels, li-ion, Lifelines and/or desulfurization electronics. 

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #32 –
Quote from: Caflashbob –
.....Remove cabling. Test each battery. Help us all?

Thank you Bob, Interesting meter, if only it was that easy.  Gives me something to do now, and research, battery testing.  Definitely easier than running a test the way Lifeline and Roger sugest, however, Lifeline calls these and other testers, "not reliable."

I felt the best review of that meter is by ODCaveman review at the end of the following AmZon link.
Amazon.com: Battery Tester FOXWELL BT705 Automotive 100-2000 CCA Battery...

How to test Capacity  (From Lifeline Technical publication)
"To determine the actual capacity of a Lifeline® AGM battery relative to its rated capacity, a full
discharge test should be performed. Although there are various battery testers available on the
market, such as carbon pile testers, impedance meters, conductance meters, and others, these
testers are not reliable in determining the battery's actual capacity. To determine the battery's
actual capacity relative to its rated capacity, use the following procedure:
1.
Stabilize the battery at 68-86°F (20-30°C) for at least 24 hours.
2.
Bring the battery to full charge as described in Sections 5.4, 5.5 or 5.6 as applicable.
3.
Discharge the battery at a constant current of 25 amperes until the voltage falls to 10.5
volts (5.25 volts for a 6 Volt battery). Record the discharge time in minutes.
4.
Compare the measured discharge time to the published 25A rating (reserve capacity
minutes) for the battery.
5.
If the battery delivers less than 80% of the rated capacity the conditioning procedure
given in Section 5.5 should be attempted and the battery capacity should be retested.
6.
If the battery delivers less than 50% of its rated capacity, it should be replaced.
However, the user should determine the amount of capacity needed for their particular
application and adjust the pass/fail threshold accordingly."
As an Amazon Associate Foretravel Owners' Forum earns from qualifying purchases.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #33 –
All good information, and interesting. But at the end day if the batteries take care of you needs great. When they quit doing that you need new ones. Your choice what kind, and how you charge them. One person opinion is just that an opinion, your pocket book and your need dictates what you purchase.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #34 –
Quote from: GleamB –
OK
(3) O'Reilley 8ds 250 ah agm $455 or

(4) or (6)? 6 v 225 ah flooded batteries Trojan $193 ea      Interstate $ 162 ea

Currently have (3) Lifelines

How about differences in recharge time? A buddy suggested separating (4) banks in order  to "rundown" one bank at a time for faster recharge time, using an a, b or ab switch

I keep hoping on, then falling off the lithium wagon. I just would like to make the best, intelligent decision here.

I could "muddy the waters" here and talk about Forest River 6v agms......4 for a our $2500

Comments?

Never split the bank imo. Use one large bank.
As far as wet cells vs AGM/ gell cells, there's a reason why they invented the sealed battery. For our applications, a sealed battery is the way to go. Unless you want to mess with wet cells.
Sure the cost is lower but the hassle is higher.
Some may disagree.
But to reiterate the charging cycle of lead acid batteries can be a real hassle in my opinion. The time it takes to charge, The voltage drop with pulling large amount of amps out of it, in fact all those some companies have left out in the difficulty in charging them 100%. All left me with the desire to switch to a lithium. of course I may be biased because my started out in boats and to me lithiums were the bee's knees for that application. Going to coach's I continued with that mindset. As many others have shown AGM and/or gel cell batteries work just fine for their applications. If I didn't go with lithiums I'd probably would have went with the AGMs, although the case for gel cells is good.
I've had the Pixel 3 phone for a while now. When I plug it in it's fully charged in an hour or less. My older phones took hours to charge. And the battery had many fewer cycles.
To me it's all about the cycles. Remember with any lead acid technology you're really looking at about a 50% cycle rate. But with some technologies including wet cell, it's very difficult to get to that 100%. So then you're really dealing with only about 40% of capacity to get the most amount of cycles out of that battery. Of course you can cycle it more than 50% but you'll see a significant drop in the number of cycles that battery will deliver. Which means that you're going to be replacing it more often. That means lugging 80 to 160 lb or more in and out more frequently. on the coach that may not be as big of an issue since the battery compartment is just a door open away. On a boat where the batteries could be down in the bilge little bit different. so if you are not full-time or you are but have a good solar array on the roof or you plug in frequently then it's not an issue. If all you're looking for is a day or two unplugged using all your stuff then battery array that you're looking at will be much different than if you're spending 14 days out in the boonies unplugged. As others have pointed out they can always start their generator, that's what it's there for right? But if you don't want to use your generator often and it does seem like a big waste to just charge batteries a different system is needed.
So in the end it really depends on what your individual needs are. How do you use your coach how you plan to charge.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #35 –
https://www.foreforums.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=37876.0;attach=85450

Actually this is what I am using to test two batteries at the same time,  adjustable load up to 20 amps.  Requires a separate 12volt plus or minus 5% power supply,

Not available any more from the Canadian seller.  Lab grade product.

Used them to verify the 4patriots actual  power capacities.  Showed 55 amp hours to get them to 12 volt.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #37 –
Bob,

What circuits are you "powering" through that device?  Temporary/troubleshooting or permanent? Kind of like a very limited capacity shunt.

Re: O'Reilly batteries

Reply #39 –
All that makes my head hurt