Bob,
If I did the full lifetime analysis, I'd probably agree with you the Li batteries were (long term) a better deal.
The issue is that for me to fund a single 24V bank, I'm looking at around $2500.
For my larger boat, it's $5000 for the 48V bank.
Even assuming $200 per 12V battery for AGM, it's sooo much more affordable on the budget, even if I know I will most likely have to replace the AGM bank a couple of times over the next 10 years. If I spend $1000 on AGM batteries every 2 years, I'd break even on a Li purchase after 10 years. Given that I typically don't keep boats for more than 2 years, certainly not as long as 10 years, it's just too long of a period for ROI. And there's no way I'd begin to expect to get much on resale of used batteries of any type.
If I end up sticking with my C-22 LONG term, and sticking with the electric motor LONG term, I might eventually try a Li pack as the primary battery for that boat, and keep a AGM or possibly even FLA as backup, just because it's soooo much cheaper. But it'll be a while before I can afford another $2500 of hobby bucks.
Again, I'm not disagreeing with you technically. I'd LOVE to try out a LI bank and see how well it really works. It's just the initial investment plunge that's holding me back.
John
From: Robert Lemke <robert-lemke@att.net>
To: "electricboats@yahoogroups.com" <electricboats@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Electric Boats] AGM Batteries?
John,
I used to use Odyssey AGM for my electric kayak for a 16~18 mile range. Last year I switched to LiFePO4 and the same weight in batteries, now have a 80 mile range. When you consider cycle life, these Winston lithium cells give the best bang for the buck.
Bob
From: oak <oak_box@yahoo.com>
To: "electricboats@yahoogroups.com" <electricboats@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 6:06 AM
Subject: [Electric Boats] AGM Batteries?
I recently noticed that a number of my deep cycle marine flooded lead acid batteries had been pretty much cooked dry from the Texas sun and the relatively moderate discharge cycles of the Torqeedo motors.
The batteries are Exide batteries, group 27, 160 reserve minutes. After re-filling the batteries, they would charge, but certainly won't take a load for very long. The batteries came with a 2 year replacement warranty - and at this point are less than a year old.
I went by the place where I bought them, and noticed they had Exide Vortex AGM batteries (group 24, 100 reserve minutes) on sale for $119.
I pulled two of the most problematic FLA batteries (would take a charge, but at less than 25A were dead in 5-10 minutes), and returned them. The store gave me a full refund, which I turned around and put toward purchasing two of the AGM batteries to give a try.
I have discovered that "maint. free" deep cycle batteries aren't. And they can't begin to take the heat of a Texas summer. However, the power density was ok for my needs. When they were new, and performing well, I could get over an hour run time out of them at moderate power (though this was still far below the rated 160 minutes at 25A rating!)
Will I get better results from the AGM batteries??
Is it realistic to expect with AGM batteries rated for 100 Reserve Minutes (which I understand means I can run them for 100 minutes at 25A load) that I can actually pull 10-20 amps for over an hour, and then charge them back up on a fairly regular basis?
John
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