Deep cycle battery

[Cincy Aquaholic]

This is actually for a enclosed trailer/camper I have but this boating site is the best knowledge source so here's my question. Looking for a pure deep cycle battery to run in an enclosed trailer to power a fridge etc when generator is not running. What is a good one? How long can I expect a small dorm room fridge to run off one?

 

[paulswagelock]

Lifeline, Odyssey, Northstar, are a few.

Most are 100ah batteries. If you get a 12v marine fridge, they draw about 5-7 Amps, probably run 20 minutes an hour, so 2 days or so without recharging.

Just multiply amp draw times service use (in hours) and divide into battery capacity.

Above calc would be 100ah/ (6 x 1/3) = 50 hours.

 

[Cincy Aquaholic]

Thanks! How do the Optimas stack up? Its been awhile since I need to research batteries.

 

[Little Ducky]

You might consider 2 6v golf cart batteries wired in series.

EDIT: corrected.

 

[Creekwood]

You might consider 2 6v golf cart batteries wired in parallel.

Wired in "series" to get 12v from two 6v, not in parallel.

 

[Creekwood]

Lifeline, Odyssey, Northstar, are a few.

Most are 100ah batteries. If you get a 12v marine fridge, they draw about 5-7 Amps, probably run 20 minutes an hour, so 2 days or so without recharging.

Just multiply amp draw times service use (in hours) and divide into battery capacity.

Above calc would be 100ah/ (6 x 1/3) = 50 hours.

Don't forget to allow for the efficiency loss of your 110vAC/12vDC inverter and make sure you check the power consumption of the fridge. Those cheap dorm room fridges often consume much more power than a marine or RV refrigerator. Also, you cannot run a deep cycle down to zero without damaging it. Most battery manufacturers will have the specs and sometimes a graph of the capacity.

 

[Lazy Daze]

I ran a normal, wet cell, Deka Group 27 Deep Cycle for 3 days on the hook. Used the stereo (a little bit here and there), the fridge the entire time, some lights at night, anchor light overnight. Only ran the engine for maybe an hour the whole three days. Still started the engine on the last day just fine. I did that as a "test" to see how long a battery can really last.

 

[The Bill Collector]

Are the batteries to be stored inside the "enclosed trailer" ? If so that you'll need sealed maintenance free batteries.

 

[insfnds]

Stay away from optimas for deep cycle applications. They may take a deep cycle but only have about 75% of the capacity of a 'square' battery.