Battery replacement

[jeremiah.hough]

I finally took my house battery out and had it tested at oreily's and they said it was bad. It had an interstate battery (SRM-24, CCA 550, MCA 690). They had a similar battery except the CCA was like 420. Is that a big deal? Is there a brand recommended?

[jeremiah.hough]

Here are pics of my house battery and cranking battery. This is the way it's been wired since I've had the boat. I also have always got the low voltage warning every time i start the boat. The dealer said it was normal but just making sure. Sorry the pics aren't great. I can get better ones tonight if needed.
house battery.jpg
cranking battery.jpg

[KoolAid]

It's a big deal when your cranking battery is toast/dead and you are relying on the house to start the engine :-)
Easy way to tell if the cables on the batteries are correct. With key off and touch screen on, you should only see house voltage on the screen. Then key on should bring in cranking battery voltage. If you are missing one, then a battery is not wired properly. If you see house and cranking voltage without the key in the on position, the batteries are wired up wrong.

This doesn't cover issues where the isolator is wire improperly.

[chpthril]

I finally took my house battery out and had it tested at oreily's and they said it was bad. It had an interstate battery (SRM-24, CCA 550, MCA 690). They had a similar battery except the CCA was like 420. Is that a big deal? Is there a brand recommended?

If im looking for a house battery CCA, CA and MCA dont mean chit to me. Its all about Ah, amp hours. You want a deep cycle with amp hours, not cranking amps.

[jeremiah.hough]

I didn't really understand why cranking amps mattered on a house battery but my current house battery listed all those numbers so i thought I'd check. Should it also list Ah? I didn't see that anywhere.

[chpthril]

I think the SRM-24 is 84Ah

[tigemech]

if you go with interstate, get a 24m-xhd, similar ah rating as the group 24 deep cylce, and also has the cranking amps if you ever need it.

[NICKYPOO]

I got rid of all my interstate batteries. Boat, truck, car, camper. All of them. They kept croaking after two years. I’ve replaced them all with batteries from Walmart and couldn’t be happier. I think this is my fourth season on this set of batteries and they still work perfect.

[Zackdogg]

My interstates were dead when I got mine with 27 hours on it, and less than 2 years old. Not sure how they were treated by the previous owner, he was pretty immaculate for the record and they were off when I got the boat, but that’s pretty inexcusable battery life either way. I wouldn’t run an interstate again based off that.

I would have liked to run optimas, but they don’t appear to make the right size. I know Trojans are pretty bulletproof in golf carts.. not sure about their marine stuff..


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[twinturbostroker]

Interstate unfortunately relies heavily on brand marketing and dealer partnerships to promote their substandard batteries.

When I was in the industry, the Interstate territory manager visited my shop on a dealer complaint that the batteries weren’t lasting and was advised to use this as an opportunity to generate additional revenue from your patrons.

The shop I worked in (building my own cars) promptly called the distributor and requested they remove the remaining stock.

A few years later in college I met an owner of an Interstate battery distributorship, whom was patron whom frequented the bar I worked during college. Guy would boast about how much he was making in the area. He was nice enough to solidify what I had alr art surmised when speaking with him one evening, that Wal-Mart offered better battery with a longer warranty and thereby putting a strain on his income. Learned several years later that he sold his distributorship and the new owners were having trouble keeping it afloat.

Trojan has a good reputation amongst the solar generation and storage community for some of the thickest lead plates in the industry. Many of the enthusiasts source these batteries and use a desulfinator, drain and then refill with fresh acid. In fact when I was playing around with a yard (golf) cart, I picked up a set of used Trojans from local battery company that merely tested and resold them as they were commonly replacing the group of 4-6, when only one battery had failed. The company warrantied the used Trojan’s for a year, which is unheard of, but the guys in the battery shop also boasted about Trojan’s quality, albeit this was for Trojan battery's that were manufactured pre 2009/10.

I use Walmart batteries in all my cars, however I buy my deep cycles for the boat, lift, and marine batteries locally from the same battery shop that took care of years ago on my Trojans.

[Rx79394]

I didn't really understand why cranking amps mattered on a house battery but my current house battery listed all those numbers so i thought I'd check. Should it also list Ah? I didn't see that anywhere.

Last time I looked at batteries, they don't clearly show Ah but rather "Reserve Capacity". That is the specification you can use to quickly compare batteries for just hanging around, no cranking amps needed.

The Ah are ultimately what you need to compare, but might be minimized on the labeling.

[chpthril]

You can look on line at the manufactures listed specs for AH as its not always listed on the sticker. Using RC is ok, as long as you are using RC for all being compared.