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Old 07-25-2019, 11:27 AM   #1
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Battery question

So I have a 13’ little joe I purchased used
The battery only piers a single inside light/ ceiling fan... and I have no interest in running frig off the battery
So what type of battery would you suggest / make/ mfg etc
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Old 07-25-2019, 11:34 AM   #2
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My phone did auto spell
Sorry
What I meant to type was it came without a battery and the battery once installed will only power a single light and ceiling fan
Sorry for any confusion... also the converter at this point does not work for charging when plugged into shore power
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Old 07-25-2019, 11:58 AM   #3
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I bought our 12v deep cycle battery from Costco. I also bought a new converter / 4 stage charger on Amazon.
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Old 07-25-2019, 05:13 PM   #4
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group 27 or 29 RV battery available everywhere. For convenience I bought one at Walmart
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Old 07-25-2019, 05:19 PM   #5
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The smallest and cheapest deep cycle battery is a 24 lead acid battery.
It would be way plenty for your needs.
Unfortunately it usually has a shorter warranty than a 27.
Heck you could probably use a lawn mower battery and save weight and space at the expense of longevity.
Your best bet is a 24 deep cycle and keep it charged above 12V, it will last for years.
Think of 12V to 13V as a fuel gauge... 12V= empty 13V= Full
Keep above the empty level and the battery will last for many years.
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Old 07-25-2019, 06:10 PM   #6
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Thanks Floyd
Kind of what I was thinking
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Old 07-25-2019, 06:20 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alan H View Post
also the converter at this point does not work for charging when plugged into shore power
While you are at Walmart, pondering batteries, look at the cheap, smart chargers.

You might do well to buy a small battery charger and not worry about the converter for now. Something in the 4-6 amp size should do the trick. Larger will be more expensive, but won't hurt.

You'll know it's a smart charger if it's light weight and says "multi-stage", or something to that affect. Pretty much the smallest one will handle your described needs. "Smart", and "Multi-Stage" indicate you can leave it connected without hurting the battery.

If you plan to add more loads, you could splurge and get a Group 27 battery and a slightly larger charger.

Be aware that if you let your battery get below about 10.5 volts, a "smart" charger will not charge it back up. This is not a malfunction. Smart chargers use battery voltage to turn them on, and if the bat is dead, they won't turn on. The fix is to jump them with jumper cables, or use an old-fashioned ferro-resonant charger from yesteryear (heavy with a large transformer inside). The old chargers put out power regardless of the state of charge of the battery. Once the 10.5 threshold is reached, the smart charger will take over. I keep both types available in the garage. But do not leave the older style connected indefinitely, or the battery will run dry and be ruined.
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Old 07-25-2019, 06:55 PM   #8
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The size depends on how long you want to run the light and fan between battery recharges. A LED light will run a very long time on a group 24 battery so no worries there. A roof vent fan (or a furnace fan for that matter) might run on average 30 hours (give or take a lot!) before you get to the safe 50% discharge level and should be recharging. So if you plan to run it 8 hours a night, you might get four days out of before its time to recharge. If running it two hours a day (or night).. figure a few weeks. If you need longer than those figures between recharges then you likely need a bigger battery. Group 27 will give you a little more but not much more. For extended outings with no power to recharges, a pair of golf cart batteries is usually the next step up (and probably overkill for your situation).

As for make, there are many good ones. But for deep cycle batteries one of the ways to tell the better ones is the thickness of the plates. Thicker means heavier, so for two batteries of the same size, the heavier one is often the better one. Trojan, Vmax, Optima are just a sampling of some good brands. Personally I would stay away from Costoc, Walmart, etc. Look for a true deep cycle (not dual purpose).

And dont skimp on the quality of the charger.
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