We think of a battery as being a pure reservoir of power. In actual fact, a battery is a source of power that has an internal resistance that changes with the state of charge and age/condition of the battery. For this reason if you have a bank of batteries wired in parallel (as is done in a house bank) all the batteries should be the exact same type and age, otherwise they will charge and discharge unevenly which will be detrimental to the longevity of the battery with the lowest resistance.
Standard lead acid batteries went from being the environmental villain of the automotive repair industry to the poster child for parts recycling. Something like 99.5% recyclable content in a standard flooded battery. So just trade them in for new, identical batteries. On Mon, Apr 22, 2019 at 9:37 AM Bruce Whitmore via CnC-List < cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > Hello all, > > Without getting into a lot of details, I have the ability to add a 3rd > battery to our existing house bank. Those batteries are coming up on 2 > years old. Can I add a new 3rd battery of the same type (lead acid), and > of about the same capacity to the bank, even though the other batteries are > older? > > I am being told by another sailor who I generally trust on electrical > issues that this is less than ideal, in that the older batteries will > shorten the life of the new battery. > > Might you have a link to something you consider to be authoritative out on > the web? I'm finding lots about not mixing different types of batteries > (which I get) but not much about the age of the batteries. > > Thanks in advance, > > Bruce Whitmore > 1994 C&C 37/40+ "Astralis" > Madeira Beach, FL > (847) 404-5092 (mobile) > bwhitm...@sbcglobal.net > _______________________________________________ > > Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each > and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - > use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > >
_______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
