Don't Make this Mistake with Deep Cycle Batteries!

[techiq]

You need at least a 30a charge to revive them when not charging it via another battery. the reason it charges via other batteries connected in parallel is that the other battery will supply high amps to the dead one. Charging it with a high amp charger, preferably 30a will revive it. I have done it countless times with Gel deep cycles.

[TimKaseyMythHealer]

Test everything at home before you hit the road. Most important thing to realize is that when you are using an AC device, they are going to be 10 times the amperage when going through a DC inverter. An apliance that normally uses 5 amps AC, when you plug that into your inverter, it will be using 50 amps DC. A small space heater is going to drain a two x 6 volt battery system wired in series in under 30 minutes.

[LA-Creative]

Having a low voltage cut off on your charger controller is a must. Then also you can install a separate shunt battery meter with alarms on it to be extra safe.

[Blazah]

A good smart pulse battery charger with AGM battery restore feature AND cycle the battery (quickly drain the battery to a point using something like a welder and recharge them again). Each cycle the battery can get stronger back to close to a higher charge and hold it like it should. If you do that and it don't work time for a new battery.

[michaelcarney]

It’s perfectly fine to use a good battery in parallel to the dead battery to get the voltage up. That’s what you are doing when you jump start a dead car. Same principal. I would have definitely attempted it to get a charge back on them.

[michaelmedicworldoftanksfps]

I prefer more convenience than luxury and that is if I need camping heating I would always choose $1.5 gas cartridge in my portable stove over $300 battery and I think one of those cartridges can give as much heat as 10 fully charged batteries 🤗

[jimmycrabtree]

Try connecting your batteries back like you had them when you discharged them.. Then reconnect your charger positive to 1 battery and negative to the other 1. I will assume that's the way you discharged them... Best of luck to you sir. I hope your able to revive them!

[BlueSkySmileGTP]

Repairing a completely dead battery takes a long time, I brought a dead battery back from the dead on a dumb old charger which doesn't require any charge in a battery, it took a week to even start building a charge, after 10 days it was back at 6v when I could put a more powerful and newer smart charger on to run a maintenance mode which was able to restore the battery to 12.1v the battery definitely had damage but holds enough power to be useful for light work.

For my off-grid setup I am using 2x150ah gel batteries because I got them super cheap - the business had 200 bought in for a job that fell through so sold everything off as a loss (£80 for 150ah!) to clear the inventory and write off on their taxes. Their loss was my gain I guess. :)

The setup has a shunt with a battery monitor with alarm, I don't plan to ever let my batteries get too low. ;)

[AntonioMaggetio]

I grabbed the genius 10 charger maintainer.
I have agm 12v.
The gen 10 has a restore mode. I let 2 batteries sit to 12.40 and came to find that was bad. The charger restored agm.
It also has settings for 6v 12v, flooded, agm, and lithium.
Checkit out. Maybe itll help

[solidsnake]

That is not an AGM battery. That is a flooded battery. It is known that flooded batteries don't keep their charge as good as AGMs. The Walmart Everstart H8 AGM is an AGM battery but it costs $169.

[garyp]

I did the same exact thing you did. We went on a camping trip to Colorado. Boondocking. Bought 2 brand new deep cycle batteries. Hooked up in parallel. Didn't use the heater, but used a inverter to watch TV and general use of everything else. Next morning, batteries so dead lights wouldn't even come on. We had to leave that morning and the first thing I though was how am I going to get my awning back in and my slide. I've never used the crank handles to do so and I was worried. I had a small generator and I hooked it up to the batteries. Got my awning and slide back in. However, I ruined the batteries from letting them get down to zero. I could charge them, but they hardly hold any charge now. Lesson learned. Don't let them get under 12 volts or you killed them.

[jeffs]

I did the same thing on our first outing. I learned when boondocking in the cold you don't run the heat until morning when you can turn on the generator. (which is a must) Unless you have solar too like in our GeoPro the sun hits the panel in the morning and were good but I still wake up and turn on the generator. (Generator before bed & generator when you wake up.) If there's no sun then you watch your percentage and then generator mid-day. Also, if it's that cold do not run your tank heater in the night. Wait till morning to flip it on. That will run your batteries down too in the night.

[martingsilva]

To begin with you need to go marine deep cycle batteries. Then control temperature. Then to know what batteries you are dealing with, etc..

[garyhicks]

I don’t think that’s an AGM battery, it appears to be a flooded cell battery.

[skoolzone]

Combine teg units charge battery with your LP heater

[richardyao]

Each battery has only around 1kWh and you can only use half of it. If you have two, 1kWh is not enough to run a resistive heater overnight. Get a heat pump heater and you might be able to do it.

[blkcoupequattro]

AGM while suited to cold weather you need something Iike 4 of them to have necessary amps to run an electrical heater even then usually not enough amps available with other things going on sapping the batteries, want to be warm in cold weather use a small diesel heater, use your batteries only to cook if necessary, propane is probably better there also, AGM is good for lights and other low amp stuff, and usually give your AGM’s time to recover with solar in the day time when lights are not in use. Always good to have a generator to bump them up before use if solar has not been pumping enough Ah for your batteries to keep floating charge going with usage.

[kelvinstrickland]

I'm using 6 12 volt Lithium 100AMH batteries and can run anything i need, You need stored power in batteries for the inverter to work to heat, light, cool food

[leekh]

Should use the battery seperately if using two than parallel.

[enemyofthestate]

I have heard they have a controller that will turn off the inverter if it is draining the battery and if I remember right it gives you a read out with the %
I run a buddy heater for heat and I only use my battery to run some 2 high efficiency lights I I use solar or electric depending on where I'm parked or how long I'm going to be there I use a generator to run everything from power tools to my kitchen and computers some of them are solar powered too
I wouldn't use batteries for heat get a buddy heater and a long factory hose and two 20lb tanks and a filter don't run it without the filter and if you do that most likely any problem you will have is the filter
Keep the heater clean and change the filter once a year or so depending on how much you use it!!
This is my second year living off grid and I gave up on electric heaters unless I am someplace I can plug in!!!
When the heater filter goes bad just bypass it and buy another one asap
And definitely buy the mr heater hose the cheap Chinese ones leach oil and it messes the heater up and it's a pain in the ass to fix especially when it is 14° out side and you don't have part's cleaner or a pipe cleaner lol!!!!
I was pissed of at buddy heater and said some bad things about them but it was my fault for buying the cheap hose I bought the good hose and a filter gave it a good cleaning and haven't had any more issues in 2 weeks
SORRY MR BUDDY HEATER MY BAD!!!