AGM Battery Test–Part 1

by John August 2, 2010
Lifeline AGM Battery

About eight years ago, we switched to Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries on Morgan’s Cloud, to get the following benefits over traditional liquid filled lead acid batteries:

AGM Battery Test–Part 2

by John August 10, 2010
Lifeline AGM Battery

In the last post we wrote about the very poor service life that we have been getting from AGM batteries on Morgan’s Cloud—typically just a year or so. Justin Gobar at Lifeline, who provided us with new batteries, is advising us on how to care for them. Put broadly, there are four ways that will [...]

Our Inverter/Charger Saga

by John August 28, 2010
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In part one and two of this series on the care and feeding of batteries on a live-aboard voyaging boat, we talked about what batteries need for a long life. In the next few posts we will move on to how to actually get those battery needs met. We now have a fair, but certainly [...]

We’re Just Trying To Charge Our Batteries Here

by John September 4, 2010
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As I wrote in the first post in this series on the care and feeding of batteries, and particularly AGM batteries, on voyaging live-aboard sailboats, charging them properly is complicated by the fact that some, perhaps most, battery chargers are, despite the claims made for them, not capable of charging any battery properly. Or at [...]

Charging AGM Batteries With An Alternator

by John September 18, 2010
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So far in this series we have been writing about charging AGM batteries using AC chargers powered from shore-power or a generator. But on a cruising sailboat the batteries will likely be charged far more often by an alternator on the main engine, particularly if the boat does not have a generator.

Equalizing Batteries, The Reality

by John October 5, 2010
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As we have discussed in previous posts in this series, fully charging your batteries after each discharge on a live-aboard cruising sailboat is simply not practical. Instead, most of us will cycle our batteries between 50 and 80% of their capacity. The bad news is that this will, as we on Morgan’s Cloud have found [...]

AGM Battery Test, Six Month Report Card

by John January 13, 2011
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Six months ago, we started a test of AGM batteries from LifeLine to see if, by implementing recommendations from that manufacturer, we could solve the problem of short life that we, and many other live aboard voyagers, have experienced with AGM, and in fact all, lead acid batteries. It’s still early days. But on the [...]

Eleven Steps to Better Battery Life

by John February 10, 2011
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Eight months ago we replaced our house battery bank for the third time in four years. Concurrently we started a project to improve the life of those batteries—like anyone would after going through the kind of coin we have replacing batteries! A month ago we reported that our new batteries—generously provided for free by voyage [...]

AGM Battery Test, 18 Month Report Card

by John January 29, 2012
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A year and a half ago we installed a new house-bank on Morgan’s Cloud, and embarked on a field test of AGM batteries and the care regime that Justin Godber at LifeLine Batteries helped us develop. We now have some solid results.