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Whats up with my battery?

Gel & AGM are best suited to off grid , isolated solar PV systems where regular maintenance isn't practical & of course mobile application where spillage or gassing could be a problem I.E. in the back of your cruiser.... Both gel & AGM aren't hermetically sealed & will eventually dry out.
 
Think my boat had gel 12v batteries "because they are located in the living compartment" no gas residue or some bollox , pain in the ass finding replacements quick so i swapped them for typical lead acid .
 
Any reason you want to go AGM? As others have said these are better suited for non-automotive applications. It would probably work for a while but I wouldn't put money on it lasting a long time with the instantaneous load of a starter or charge of an alternator.

If you just want the ability to run stuff like lights and chargers for trips etc., then you're probably better off just using a normal flooded starter battery and then an auxiliary AGM battery with a dc-dc charger between the two. Your starter battery is also 'isolated' then just for the car.
 
I think that an AGM vehicle battery is ok if a smart alternator (talks to the ECU and varies output according to need) is fitted, but not otherwise. It won't get a full charge and considering the extra cost of a decent one (just had to buy one for the wifes car) not really much point in having.
 
Think my boat had gel 12v batteries "because they are located in the living compartment" no gas residue or some bollox , pain in the ass finding replacements quick so i swapped them for typical lead acid .
There 's a recent post describing a battery explosion somewhere .Try looking up a hydrogen explosion on YouTube.even a small amount can cause a big bang.You could seal the battery compartment & vent it maybe?
 
Thanks everyone! Some really great advice here and i'm very glad I asked.

TBH I don't really want to start messing around with DC-DC s chargers or smart alternators none of which I really understand so i'm going to stick with 2 lead acid batteries - 1 for the main and 1 for the leisure. I like a Keep It Simple approach and as a few people have said this set-up has worked for me for a while so why fix what isn't broken.

Thank-you once again everyone for sharing your knowledge and expertise. The value of this forum to people like myself is absolutly priceless and is very much appreciated.

N
 
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Nick, have you upgraded the stock alternator ?

Nope still running the original one. Presumably if you upgrade the alternator you also need to upgrade various fuses and wiring to handle the additional load, and due to my lack of understanding the whole electrical system I feel it would be easy to miss something and end up at best damaging the electrical installation somewhere and becoming stranded, and at worst causing a vehicle fire and losing the vehicle. Again, a Keep It Simple approach is the best approach for me.
 
Not really Nick. Not the place here really for a detailed explanation, but alternators don't work like that. Say your truck with everything running pulls 40 amps. I mean headlights, batteries, heated steering wheel.... You have a 70 amp alternator. So all is good. It's within capacity. But you then decide to fit a million amp alternator. With everything running you're still pulling - yep, 40 amps. Now of course if your vehicle demands then increase because you fit a sauna, massive stereo, floodlights etc and you're now pulling 120 amps your little alternator is going to be maxed out and your headlights will be a bit dim I'm afraid but you can still only supply 70 amps. So you fit a 150 amp alternator. Hurrah, you're back in the green with a bit to spare.

Now will you have to change fuses and such? Well not really as each individual item such as headlights, heater, stereo will still only demand the same current. It's only the new things that you fit that will need checking to make sure that the cables are right.

Unless you do a calculation of how many amps you actually are drawing and it's very close to the 70 at full whack, you won't see any benefit from a bigger alternator.

That's a simplified version of course and not one from an electrical engineer. But safe to say unless you fit something that sucks huge current you don't need a bigger alternator. There's only so much you can cram into a battery in any case. Fitting a billion amp alternator won't charge your batteries in any quicker time than now really.
 
There 's a recent post describing a battery explosion somewhere .Try looking up a hydrogen explosion on YouTube.even a small amount can cause a big bang.You could seal the battery compartment & vent it maybe?
All fishermen think water tight doors are for submarines , for us at sea the exit remains bolted open at all times .
 
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