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fjmike

Hmmmm on horns of dilema here was toying with adding another battery to supplement the 85amp/hr gel battery that is fitted under the passengers seat. Reading the Dethleffs manual it states"only use gel type batteries", so is this a German safety thing?. From what I have read on this forum mixing the two (gel and acid) is a no no, so what is my best course of action

DABurleigh

fjmike,

Possibly to do with the battery venting arrangements, or lack of ....

With the right charger, gel batteries are designed not to vent. Similar can be argued for wet cells, but the level checking caps are there for a reason!

Dave

webwobin

If you are lazy and forgetfull about battery maintenance, never over-discharge your batteries or overcharge them and they are free then have them.

Not all Gell batteries are the same though. Those designed for emergency no break power supplies in important places like Air Traffic Control will be capable of very high discharge rates and similar charging rates up to about 75% charge. But you are talking several hundreds of pounds for these and they don,t come up as freebies very frequently.

By and large lead acid batteries with wet electrolyte are more robust in most environments providing they are looked after properly.

Lastly vehicle charging systems tend to limit charging voltage to 14 for a 6 cell battery. This is done for several good reason, maximise battery life and minimise topping up for a start. So, rather than incorporate a special non standard charging system to totally charge your battery - with all the associated other features it makes more sence to have a 20% bigger battery and stick to standard and industry accepted charging methods.