Leisure batteries

Does anyone know much about leisure batteries? From what I gather unless you go for mega expensive Traction batteries you don't get a proper deep cycle battery. At the moment thats not an option so... Halfords 110ah is currently £89 instead of £130, or I can get a Numax 110ah sealed for £69. I've heard reasonable things about both companies for batteries and am swaying towards the numax as its cheaper and an extra year warranty but the numax weighs 24kg compared to the halfords 29kg. The halfords battery is pretty much the heaviest by 4 or 5kg agains all but the really expensive ones. Is weight a good indicator of quality in a battery?

Can't say I know anything really about lead acid batteries, but the plates inside are lead, so I guess the heavier it is the bigger the plates are????

I wouldn't be surprised at all that the lead is the most expensive part of the battery, and I'm sure if you want to make them cheaper you could just skimp on the plate thickness.

What do you need to power?

It's the number of plates rather than the thickness per cell as for which is best not a clue.

rich the mechanic wrote:It's the number of plates rather than the thickness per cell as for which is best not a clue.

Wouldn't changing the number/surface area of the plates alter the voltage of each cell? Just speculating as I really don't know batteries!

d1noh wrote:What do you need to power?

This isn't technically a Hijet related question...I've bought a boat i'll be living on so will be buying around 5 or 6 of which ever battery I decide on. I'd like to get a couple of years out of them.

8bit-ash wrote:

d1noh wrote:What do you need to power?

This isn't technically a Hijet related question...I've bought a boat i'll be living on so will be buying around 5 or 6 of which ever battery I decide on.  I'd like to get a couple of years out of them.  

Fuck me, is the flooding that bad?

with the banner chat above you can work out how many watts Amperes you get
ie 50 watt 12v = 4.17 ampere, to run that for 5 hours you need 34ah battery,

d1noh wrote:with the banner chat above you can work out how many watts Amperes you get
ie 50 watt 12v = 4.17 ampere, to run that for 5 hours you need 34ah battery,

cheers, i'll get around to working that all out, i'm basically going to get three times the ah of what my calculated daily usage is that way the batteries shouldn't ever get below 50%, just confused by the many brands on offer.

8 Bit, why not ask on a boat forum, you might get a better idea from them that use them

HighlyJetted wrote:

Wouldn't changing the number/surface area of the plates alter the voltage of each cell? Just speculating as I really don't know batteries!

Think AAA cell and D cell battery same volts different Ah/run time.

rich the mechanic wrote:

HighlyJetted wrote:

Wouldn't changing the number/surface area of the plates alter the voltage of each cell? Just speculating as I really don't know batteries!

Think AAA cell and D cell battery same volts different Ah/run time.

But AAA's and D's both have the same number of anodes and cathodes.

The lead plates are the anodes and cathodes.

I have no idea what I am taking about!!!!

Just done a tiny bit of reading:-

The concentration of the sulphuric acid in the fluid is what determines the voltage.

Plate surface area determines current.

We have just got to my limit on it.

waz wrote:8 Bit, why not ask on a boat forum, you might get a better idea from them that use them

can't be arsed to join any more forums. its not particularly a boat specific question just thought i'd ask incase anyone had any vast knowledge on battery brands. Think i've decided on my battery of choice now.