Thanks for the good advice. There's currently a sale on Dual purpose batteries at my local West Marine, they're about 1/2 price, and quite tempting. Any opinions on their functionality? I understand they they'll not do either action particularly well, but if I can avoid getting a starting batter AND a deep cycle, that would be nice. Chris m15 Persephone On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 1:35 PM, Steve R. <stever707@mail.saabnet.com>wrote:

Let me share with you what I have learned about gel cells.

My organization put a new facility in service in 2005. Soon afterwards our insurance carrier began a process that forced us to dispose of several gel cell battery banks and replace them with wet cells (lead acid). These banks primarily provide emergency lubrication for about $100 million of rotating equipment, with maybe double that amount in lost revenue if the equipment had to be replaced (revenue not profit). Everyone thought gel cells were a great idea, but no one talked to the insurance people. The carrier reported that actual life of gel cells in an industrial setting was something like seven years, where as life expectancy was predicted to be 20 to 25 years. These cells are far more pampered and scrutinized than those in the average recreational application. The banks are stationary, in a stable temperature environment, monitored on a 24 x 7 basis and fed by commercial grade chargers. A computerized log of maintenance and testing activities is kept. I do an annual internal audit of records and we are subject to an external audit every third year. They may supply power three or four times a year for an hour or so if at all.

I have to say that experience changed my opinion of gel cells.

steve

Steve R. M-15 #119 Leexington, KY _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats

Remember, there is no privacy on the Internet!

-- Chris