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Agreed. They give more useful service charge than lead acid.My Group 31 AGM's are going on 5yrs with no issues. I would never go back to lead acic.
I did buy a Duralast marine deep cycle at the beginning of last season as my "house" battery that I use at anchor. I have and Interstate cranking battery for starting. I will be interested in how long the Duralast lasts. That is all I use in cars and have been very happy.First of all, DieHard is a problem. They used to be be the best, now they are crap.
Best lead acid these days are Duralast from auto zone.
Secondly, as a FORMER supporter of AGMs I finally switched my 7 auto / boat / tractor batteries back to lead acid. I had too many problems and short life with the AGMs. I can get 8 years out of a boat battery, WITH PROPER MAINTENANCE. Even then, I replace them just because, not because they show signs of wearing out.
My classic car battery was replaced last year after 21 years of faithful service.
I started buying my lead acid batteries from Walmart - I swear they last as long, maybe longer than the better name batteries.
Added the Victron shunts last season and it was the best thing I've done to the boat to date. The lead acid batteries suits us just fine now that I always know their state of charge. I would say the average person, not knowing the state of their batteries and just guessing how much to put back in to them is the recipe for short battery life.
... I found that my lead acid batteries were not lasting more than 2 seasons when I was on a mooring. I believe its because they were not being regularly charged, and they are constantly self-discharging. LA batteries are toast if they get under 50% charge and last longest when they have regular float charges. Once I moved to a dock and could have a shore power to an onboard smart charger my batteries started to last way longer.
Look at your driving patterns in your area when considering a hybrid. Hybrid electric motors typically run the range from 0-30 mph before switching to ICE. If the majority of your driving is highway over 30 MPH the hybrid electric motor barely functions and you will not see the advertised MPG. Around town in stop and go - they are a great choice.My wife and I have been talking about this a bit lately. It feels like the current best scenario is the hybrid drivetrain. For more predictable or daily driving, EV is fine.
But for us we need to longer range of an ICE engine. For example, we drive 750 miles / 14 hours from NY Metro to TN over Thanksgiving. Needed at least 2 gas stops. Trying to do that in an EV would be really hard. Next example, I have to drive from NY Metro to central PA this weekend, 5 hours/265 miles. I could do it one way in an EV but the charge when I get there is the question. The charge time and infrastructure are still issues. If new battery tech improves for really fast charging (carbon nanotubes? graphene?) that will be huge for adoption.
The 15-20 years time horizon is certainly an issue with municipalities planning to ban ICE engines in 2030.
Don't tell @Pirate Lady that all of our satellite based services are battery powered