Trojan T105 expected Lifespan.

twalker H260 · Jun 30, 2019

Don’t have any observations on most of what you have but want to point out that Mainsail indicates that the proper orientation for FLA batteries on a sailboat is Port/Starboard. Not sure if this is just a matter of how things are written up or if your batteries are needing to be turned 90°

https://marinehowto.com/installation-orientation-of-flooded-batteries-on-boats/

Don S/V ILLusion · Jun 30, 2019

We got around 6 yrs with T125s which were replaced with Sam's Club variants which also lasted around 6 years. I guess neither of us 'lives right'.

jssailem · Jun 30, 2019

Don S/V ILLusion said:
I guess neither of us 'lives right'.

I like to believe you are living right, just with 6 year life cycle batteries..

Just think about it as refreshing your energy rather than dwindling down the last volt from aged power source.

Of course this is coming from a guy who has 3 year old batteries and hoping I am not Half Dead....

Stu Jackson · Jun 30, 2019

6 years sounds very good. Other than floating them for the entire summer by being plugged in, which is not good for any FLAs.

Say $500 over 6 years: <$100 per year. Still a bargain.

But you're not complaining, right?

Sailgunner · Jun 30, 2019

Around 5 yrs is normal here in Florida.

Rich Stidger · Jun 30, 2019

I get 4-5 seasons out of my 6V 232Ah batteries. Not Trojan but either Superior (right now) or US Batteries. I have had a set of Trojan 105's in the past and have not had any longer life than with US Batteries or Superior. I do however charge aggressively with 110A of chargers with my genset, so maybe that charging practice is shortening their life. I do keep an eye on the electrolyte level and top with distilled as required. I equalize at the end of the season before storage. I don't rotate my battery positions but my batteries are orientated port-starboard.
Bottom line- at 6 years service I think you are doing fine. At least I would not complain or feel cheated.

Steverhnm · Jul 5, 2019

A little food for thought.... Goofing off on a day off thought I would share.... Flooded lead acid batteries need to be deep cycled on occasion, otherwise they will sulfate either on the face of the plate or at the depth of discharge and develop a high resistance and not provide the current of accept charge, i.e., I can only get 50% of rated Ah out of it - OR it recharges quickly but there is no capacity). When the plate transitions (during discharge) from lead peroxide to lead sulfate it develops crystals inside the plate - expanding and opening up the surface of the plate. These crystals grow during discharge, then go back into solution during recharging. If the battery is not well "formed" or deep discharged a few times when you get it the lead sulfate layer will develop halfway into the plate thereby limiting the charge/discharge cycles. By not deep cycling your batteries on occasion you are doing them a disservice.

Keep in mind batteries are a consumable item. During this charge/discharge cycle material sloughs off into the bottom of the battery (there is a well made just for that in the case). They add antimony in the golf cart (or deep cycle) batteries to help reduce the sloughing off of the lead, but it is inevitable due to the nature of the expansion/contraction of the the lead sulfate in the positive plate (one reason positive plates are thicker than the negatives.

Keeping your batteries fully charged is great, but use them. Use them hard - just like a diesel, they like to be worked. Never leave them in a discharged state for very long. Those crystals can harden and be very difficult to return to solution. When batteries are fully charged an in the 90-100% state of charge the disassociation of hydrogen and oxygen (gassing) stops. With no gassing, the electrolyte will stratify, causing additional problems. The best battery chargers use multi stage algorithms. At a minimum, a bulk charge (high charge-constant current rate), a final charge (constant voltage), and a float charge (slightly less than final charge-just below gassing threshold). Even better controllers will raise the charging voltage every 30 days or so and cause this gassing to happen (aka "equalization) which stirs the electrolyte and returns any sulfate crystal that formed back into solution before they get too hard. A charger with this type of algorithm is https://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/sunsaver-duo/
How do I know this... see attached file....By the way, 6 years on a golf cart battery is not bad, I would expect 6-8, maybe 10 in a cycling environment. The most important part is how you charge them in the off season and keep them watered. I use LTH batteries and I am very happy with them.

artboas · Jul 7, 2019

Genesis V said:
How long should a house bank of 4 Trojan T105 wired in series/parallel last.
I got 6 summer seasons and this spring they are not able to come up to spec in voltage and ample hydrometer readings, also my battery charger won’t go into equalizing mode till it detects they are fully charged. When disconnected they fall in voltage rather rapidly, from being on battery charger for 24hrs output (13v-14.8v) down to 12.22V in 2 hrs with only a 7amp load. I felt I should have gotten 8-9 years given my careful treatment of them over the years. So today I have bought 4 new T105’s and wanted to see if the lifespan I got was normal.
Given that they are: In service for only 6 months per year and winterized for 6 months fully charged to 100% then fully disconnected and left onboard over winter.

Other info:

Each year batteries are rotated “one” spot as per photo below . Is this a no-no.

View attachment 166544

Wired correctly (as per Mainsail recommendations).

Proper bow/stern orientation.

Kept at the dock most of the time under a Xanterx 40amp smart charger (12v Refrigerator running but batteries at 99%-100% charged).

Equalized once over summer (but hydrometer readings were always ok).

Away from dock and Xantrex charger 4 weeks per year (1 week at a time) but charging supplemted by 300 watts solar through Tristar MMPT 30amp controller and in addition and also when motoring a Balmar 110 amp alternator with a MC-614 remote regulator. (Mounted outside the engine area, no extended wiring).

Never allowed to fall below 225amps 50% of rated amperage.

Alternator wired directly to House battery Pos. Bus bar.

Balmar MC-614 regulator programmed as per mainsail detail article “Programming a Balmar External Voltage Regulator”.

Start battery charged through Balmar Duo-Charge.

My 2 cents....
I’m a big fan of 6 volt batteries, mainly because you don’t need a crane to lift them.
I found with my second set I was getting a bad acid odor during the charge cycle, which is common to these batteries after 4 years (apparently)
Btw, my charger is Magnum Energy, and all settings were correct.
So, when I switched this year, I went with 6v AGM. Yes, they cost a bit more, but I’m not venting the boat during bulk charging.
I know this will attract various comments. Just saying it worked well for me. I have a total of 8 house & 1 start battery.

artboas · Jul 7, 2019

Genesis V said:
How long should a house bank of 4 Trojan T105 wired in series/parallel last.
I got 6 summer seasons and this spring they are not able to come up to spec in voltage and ample hydrometer readings, also my battery charger won’t go into equalizing mode till it detects they are fully charged. When disconnected they fall in voltage rather rapidly, from being on battery charger for 24hrs output (13v-14.8v) down to 12.22V in 2 hrs with only a 7amp load. I felt I should have gotten 8-9 years given my careful treatment of them over the years. So today I have bought 4 new T105’s and wanted to see if the lifespan I got was normal.
Given that they are: In service for only 6 months per year and winterized for 6 months fully charged to 100% then fully disconnected and left onboard over winter.

Other info:

Each year batteries are rotated “one” spot as per photo below . Is this a no-no.

View attachment 166544

Wired correctly (as per Mainsail recommendations).

Proper bow/stern orientation.

Kept at the dock most of the time under a Xanterx 40amp smart charger (12v Refrigerator running but batteries at 99%-100% charged).

Equalized once over summer (but hydrometer readings were always ok).

Away from dock and Xantrex charger 4 weeks per year (1 week at a time) but charging supplemted by 300 watts solar through Tristar MMPT 30amp controller and in addition and also when motoring a Balmar 110 amp alternator with a MC-614 remote regulator. (Mounted outside the engine area, no extended wiring).

Never allowed to fall below 225amps 50% of rated amperage.

Alternator wired directly to House battery Pos. Bus bar.

Balmar MC-614 regulator programmed as per mainsail detail article “Programming a Balmar External Voltage Regulator”.

Start battery charged through Balmar Duo-Charge.

Umm...
On your drawing you are showing the bus bars as RS232 serial connectors.
Respectfully, I don’t think D subs are rated for 200 Amps.

Whatfiero1 · Jul 11, 2019

There is like hundreds of you-tube videos on how to bring an old battery back to life. None of them work but everybody has the problem with battery dying

Maine Sail · Jul 11, 2019

We recently capacity tested a bank of Trojan T105's and the batteries are 9 years old (March 2010). When new we commission charged them in parallel, then EQ'd them, and carefully matched them for internal impedance at our distributor during pick up. (I know not everyone has this capability). Today the are still producing 78.4% of the original rated capacity or 176.4 Ah's. While this is technically below the 80% industry standard threshold for end of life, it is darn good compared to most batteries we test at just two years old. How you use, charge and care for them can make a difference. This owner is pretty darn picky.

Usage Data:
This owner cycles them to no more than 35% DoD / 65% SoC (bank was specifically sized for this) and he has a fully gourmet charging system with all charge sources temp compensated and carefully programmed.

The batteries started out on a LINK 10 battery monitor but the owner added to a Smartgauge when they came out. FWIW the Smartgauge, before the batteries were removed, had them at 97% SoC and when we tested them here in the shop they wound up actually being at 95.8%. Pretty good SoC accuracy for 9 year old batteries.

Absorption voltages are; 14.7V (solar) & 14.8V (alternator) & shore charger. Float voltage on the solar is 13.6V and float on alternator regulator is 14.1V. Minimum absorption duration for solar is 120 minutes (due to the low charge current) and minimum absorption duration for the alternator is 240 minutes (due to the higher charge current) with a "high float" at 14.1V. Alternator rarely runs long enough to get to float though.

The batteries have been equalized for approx two hours, every four weeks in season, and then once before fall lay up for 4 hours, and again in the spring at 15.5V - 16V for two hours (temp dependent). The batteries reside on-board the vessel all winter 100% disconnected from each other and the vessel.

Charge controller is a Morningstar TS-MPPT-45 with temp sensor and full custom programming through MSView. Alternator regulator is an older Balmar MC-612 with battery temp sensor and programmed using full advanced programming menu. The rarely used charger (boat is on a mooring) is a Magnum inverter-charger which is also custom programmed.

The batteries also have Water-Miser caps. We will pull these from service, for coastal cruising, when they drop to about 65% of rated capacity. If he was going to Newfoundland again, we'd likely swap them now even though they are still fine for coastal use.

We find the difference between 5-6 years and 7-12 years is in the use, charging and care details....

jssailem · Jul 11, 2019

Great summary MaineSail. I think that is the first time I have heard a from start to finish model reported.

It gives us all a base line to examine and emulate if we are so inclined. Sure there was up front costs and a maintenance regime not often expended but look at the pay back.

Thanks.

Don Lucas · Jul 12, 2019

In the big picture it's best to just replace T105s when you get worried about them. It seems expensive at the time, but they are so cheap in the total boating picture for the cost/life cycle. I replaced my last set when they were only 3 years old when I got concerned as it was better to do it on my schedule. That met they were an "expensive" $148/yr cost. I since have increased my charge voltages and time in absorption and my current set is 3 years old and seems to still be full capacity.

Trojan T105 expected Lifespan.

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