Odyssey, East Penn, Trojan, .....which deep cycle do I choose?

Discussion in 'Electrical Systems' started by missinginaction, Mar 7, 2022.

  1. missinginaction
    Joined: Aug 2007
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    missinginaction Senior Member

    A couple of years ago the power failed for a week or two down in the boat yard. No one said a word about this at the time. I keep my house banks on a Xantrex Truecharge2 charger and they held up well until some parasitic loads discharged them during the outage. I didn't bother to replace them last year as I didn't take any long trips. This year, inspite of the fuel situation I'm planning a long journey.

    They need replacing.

    The batteries that are in there are "Duracell" Group 31 deep cycles. I picked them up 8 years ago at Sam's Club. They performed fine (until they were ruined). The problem is I can't replace them at Sam's as they are always out of stock.

    I believe I can get the same battery at O'Reilly's Auto Parts they just have a different label on them but still come from East Penn.

    I'm also looking at batteries from Odyssey, Trojan and some others. I take very good care of my batteries and can spend up to around $1K for a couple of group 31's.

    The only battery brand I've ruled out is Optima. Years ago I used them almost exclusively. Over the past few years I've had three of their batteries fail just out of warranty. One of them even stranded me at an Interstate rest stop when it shorted out internally. I still have a 10 year old Optima that holds a charge just fine but it was made before they moved their manufacturing out of the USA.

    I'd like to keep these batteries going for 10 years or so with any luck. What brands have you guys had good luck with?
     
  2. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

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  3. missinginaction
    Joined: Aug 2007
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    missinginaction Senior Member

    Thanks Hoyte. I didn't know that Johnson Controls made batteries for O'Reilly's along with East Penn. That complicates things a bit as I'm not a fan of Johnson Controls as I mentioned in my OP. Notice with Johnson Controls, the reference to Ireland and moving production to Mexico. Based on my experience, they went to Mexico and the QC vanished.
     
  4. BlueBell
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  5. rangebowdrie
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    rangebowdrie Senior Member

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