Help Need tonite on House batteries

House batteries have given up the ghost and I need to replace. I have 2 12 volt batteries which were purchased maybe 7 years ago in Canada. What kind of batteries should I buy? Can I walk into Wal Mart and pick up batteries? Help tonight (Sunday June 17) cause I am heading west tomorrow morning and will not be on line for a while

Reply to
Wingnut
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Got a Batteries Plus in your neck of the woods? Can't imagine you can't get them at Wal-Mart.

Reply to
mrsteveo

I have no idea what you mean by house batteries.

Why can't you just shut down the house or whatever, and worry about the batteries when you get back?

I would write down the numbers on the batteries and whatever unit is involved, and look them up on the internet using google and the manufacturer's name.

The other thing that comes to mind is that batteries usually don't suddenly die. There may be something else, like a loose wire, corrosion, etc.

jeff

Reply to
Jeff

The term "House Batteries" is used for a Motorhome or Travel Trailer for running the lights and furnace while dry-camping, and that calls for Deep Cycle lead-acid batteries.

Put regular car starting batteries in there, and they will die a rapid death - a dozen deep cycles if you're lucky, and the last six will start showing diminishing capacity.

I'm pretty sure Wal-Mart sells those, but make sure they are the proper batteries for the duty - they'll have a picture of a boat and a camper on the side, have the post and wingnut connections, and say Deep Cycle and/or RV-Marine.

If you stick with two 12V batteries in parallel, they must be identical twins - same manufacturer, model, and manufacturing date. Having two 12V batteries wired in parallel, if one is newer, has slightly higher resistance internally or in the wiring it will take more of the load and run down first. Then the first one dies, and throws all the load on the second battery.

If you want better overall battery capacity, see if they have the six-volt "Golf Cart" style deep-cycle batteries that will fit in the same tray, you have to wire them differently to put them in series (positive to negative in between) to get one 12-volt string. But they last longer because they are One string of batteries in series, and don't have the load sharing problems.

(There are many different things that can go wrong in series/ parallel battery strings, but you don't need the $500 lecture.)

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Thanks for the explanation. I assumed that by house batteries, it had something to do with solar power for the house (probably not that common in Canada).

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff

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