Our next major purchase was batteries.

Firstly the background.

When narrow boating, batteries were the bane of my life and I was determined not to make the same mistakes and wasted expenditure again. Despite what many Chandlers will tell you there is no such thing as a dual purpose battery. Over a four year period on our NB I spent £800 on Numax, Adventurer and various other chandlery supplied batteries. It turns out that in many cases these are manufactured by the one company to a low price, supplied to the trade, who stick any label they like on them. Research has apparently shown that in many cases batteries sold as ‘dual purpose’ are in fact cheap starter batteries with a fancy label. Further more the guarantee is not worth anything. They take the failed battery back, don’t provide a replacement and three weeks later tell you it was your fault for over charging/discharging it. 

Secondly, our boat whilst having excellent access to the engine via central panels in the deck has absolutely no access to anything installed on the swim and that is where our battery bank resides. So manhandling batteries out and in was going to be difficult.

Let me say at this point I only looked at open lead acid batteries, maintenance free are nothing of the sort, they are just unmaintainable. AGM and Gel, one works better in warm temperatures the other in cooler temperatures. So no happy medium if your batteries are in your engine bay. So until Lithium batteries are available/affordable to me it’s a no brainer.

I watched a lot of YouTube clips on the subject and spent hours researching. I decided the way to go was 6 Volt wired in series to produce 12 Volts. They are smaller and lighter than an equivalent 12 volt battery, so would be easier to manhandle. Via Ebay I came across the Battery Megastore and found them to be extremely helpful (and patient) before I had committed to spending anything.

I decided on Trojan T105 6 volt 225Ah batteries (Trojan have excellent tutorials on YouTube)  and the Megastore had a deal running. Six T105’s for just over £600. This would give me 3 x 12volt 225Ah batteries, so a total capacity of 675Ah coupled to 175Amp alternator and a Sterling Battery Management system the whole lot came out at just on a grand.

I know this sounds like a lot of money, BUT, the Trojan batteries are guaranteed for 5 years and according to the wise sages I spoke to, providing you don’t drain the bottom out of them every day they should last for 10 years, and if they only last for 5 years I will be no worse off.

Another point to consider with open batteries is maintenance. Trojan have a single point watering system, so you don’t have to go delving in every cell every month. As long as the header tank is full each cell takes what it needs, when it needs it.