What’s the best battery type for your boat? AGM, Lithium or FLA?

I often get asked “what type of battery should I be using on my boat”. The answer, as always, is “It depends”. In this video I look at the most common types of batteries and why you may want to have one over the others. Specifically I discuss Flooded Lead/Acid, AGM and Lithium batteries and the Pros and Cons of each along with other related topics.

If you have enjoyed this video and/or learned something you can now buy me a beer using the link above to make a donation to the channel. If I end up with more beer tokens than I need then I will put your donations towards a better camera, better mic’s and lighting so it ultimately benefits you the viewer. I don’t do Patreon, I don’t sell T shirts but you can help support this growing channel. Thank you

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About Me
I run a small business called The Solent Boat Butler Ltd and spend my days repairing, maintaining and refitting sailing boats (often Contessa 32’s due to my long experience with them). I'm mostly in the central Solent area of the UK. Being a cruising and racing sailor with many thousands of inshore and offshore sea miles logged I like to think that I bring a great deal of real-world experience to my work and help many new (and not so new) boat owners to improve and maintain their boats. When I'm not fixing boats I also provide some own-boat sail training, help owners with deliveries, provide pre-purchase inspections and deliver consultancy services to those that are refitting their own boats for cruising or racing.

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Disclaimer
I hope that viewers both enjoy and learn something from my videos but please remember to take the appropriate precautions for any DIY refit works you undertake with appropriate PPE and the correct tools for the job. If you are in any way unsure as to how to go about a project or are unsure if something on your boat is safe please consult a professional.

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[kiang]

Hahaha just as I was thinking 'Maybe my old school battery monitor is ok'...is when you said 'these are rubbish' and my exact one came up!

[superformOG]

i have a 300ah lithium and i love it, was on the boat with no charging source for 1 week in winter with the heater running and it was at 40% at the end, having power for autopilots where you dont need to worry about running out of power on multi day ocean passages is the best part.

[allanjames]

Excellent explanation of the dark art of batteries! Thank you, George.

[Dulce-Phil]

Thanks George, the best battery video I have seen. Enjoy your beer.😀⛵

[cmcsailor]

Fantastic video, makes sense finally a easy video to understand about different batteries, without making it all to much great job thank you 🙏

[andreadoniselli]

I think that it should be added the optima patented battery as it is to me the best choice especially using a bow thruster or anchor winch, they last a lot longer and solved the battery issues on my Southerly after many attemts with oter types. Thanks for all from Andrea and from Italy!

[MP-qnjw]

...and they all stink. Lol! THANKS!! You got me at the opening joke. Great video. Making my first attempt re-rigging dual batteries on a 30yr old 26' walk around. Want to add inverter, solar, and/or small genie. Bookmarked this video because you hit all the points I could think of, and then some. Thanks for the knowledge. Cheers!!

[redsnappersadler]

Thanks for posting-just about to renew the batteries on my boat so your timing is perfect. Don’t worry about checking your notes-your not reading the news on the BBC😅

[danknox]

I’m on my third set of AGM batteries. Each set costs about $1000 and last about 10 years. I am a weekend sailor that averages sailing twice a week with maybe 8 three day weekend trips and one week long trip a year. I’m happy with my setup.

[kdl]

Excellent job at explaining this topic that has been so confusing to some of us. Cheers

[gregg]

I was thinking about this subject the other day so it’s just what I want

[janliljeberg]

I saw in a boat video, one battery, not sex, with the capacity of 7000w, if i remember right. Seemed the best at the time.

[MagicMoose]

Loved the video, it's always great to hear a deep dive from a knowledgeable and experienced person. I didn't mind you reading your notes, there were a lot of facts to get right!

[hedleyjackson]

Great info as usual George, I can see you went to a great deal of effort to produce this thank you.

[bendaves]

You're a wealth of knowledge and information which has come from experience rather than someone who has just read about it or taken someone's crappy advice. I'm also curious as to why no one has come up with the idea of using a water turbine to generate power while sailing through the water? They make portable one for camping which are either wind generators or using the flowing water of a small creek to generate power

[richardcourtenay]

My last AGMs lasted 10 years with good care. Price for quality AGMs beat lithium hands down for price and maintenance provided they are kept at float when not in use. Just check connections are clean, tight and sealing grease.

[gms]

Really interesting video, I am just going through a rewire and potential re battery and have to say that with our 'use case' of sailing and dropping the hook, Lithium is looking like a good option. I could see that we could survive on FLA or AGM, but we only have room for a 2+1 battery layout and if we are away for several weeks it looks like we will be too reliant on the engine and solar to top up a depleted storage. As we are doing the full replacement, I am now minded to go down the Lithium route for House and the current FLA for Engine. Thanks for the info and helping me think through how I want to use the yacht over the next 5 years.

[svlamancha]

Lots of great info there. Thanks. I’ve got to the stage where I just buy a cheap leisure battery pretty much each year. Boat is on a mooring so I rely on a small wind generator to keep the single battery topped up. How about a DC to DC charger to keep a separate house bank charged is that something you will cover in your next video. 👍

[etherboy]

I haven't heard of Unicorn tear batteries. I have heard of Unicorn Fart batteries though via Mighty Car Mods though, those are the best.

[James-cvtx]

Ooooo, im the second viewer and the first #exciting

It's always good to see these films arrive, as they're always a weath on knowledge 😀