House Batteries

John41

My boat is a 2004 342. A couple of years ago I replaced my house batteries with interstate and they are already dying. Can you recommend a good battery to replace them?

Handymans342

AGM or Lithium

LaRea

Does your boat have the original Inteli-Power battery charger?  Maybe that's the problem.  The overwhelming evidence from people on this forum is that battery chargers from that era last 10-15 years.  

Any decent battery should last 3-4 years, maybe 5.  

John41

I installed the pronautic 1240 battery charger 2 years ago

davidbrooks

I put in AGM batteries from Sam's club 2yrs ago.  $120 each. At that price if they last more than 2yrs I am ahead of the game. Right now I was gonna just keep replacing them every 3 yrs.

YYZRC

What are your settings on the ProNautic?  I assume you set it correctly for flooded batteries and all your batteries (house and starting) are the same type?

Also, did you check the levels in the batteries?

John41

I have a boat mechanic that installed it. I hope it’s set up correctly. The starter batteries are also interstate, I believe group 27.

Grahamu

The batteries must all be the same type, if your house is AGM then the starter batteries should be AGM and the programing set to AGM. It is also important that the house bank charging cable be connected to the positive charge terminal next to the negative terminal. The starter batteries should be connected to the remaining terminals.

Cableguy Greg

I have 2 Group 31 Duracell AGM batteries from Sam's Club. They are made by East Penn/Deka. I also have a ProNautic charger. My starting battery is a Deka 1000MCA traditional battery. I have the charger set for AGM, which charges at a lower voltage than a flooded battery. The way I look at it, I am only using the starting battery a few times a day and it will recharge via the boat or the charger. So far, it has worked for me. 

Michael T

AGM TPPL or Lithium depending on your load while at anchor and how long that load will be required.

mattie

Batteries are a frustrating part of boating. Difficult to get the set up correct.

oscar1

In the past I could not keep up with my house battery. I installed 3 different brand and the last one is made by Rolls (AGM), but it still not lasting too much at anchor, so My final idea was installing solar panel (300watt), which it made a great difference nw because I don't have to worry about my load any more. It was wort it.

Michael T

@oscar1....insightful post, thank you. With my EC 360 I had 5 series 31 AGMs - 3 for house batteries and never had a problem either but I like the idea of a solar panel with a good controller.