My backup battery setup died 3 days into last week's outage, here's what I learned

I've been telling everyone for years that those cheap $40 lead-acid batteries from auto parts stores are fine for emergency power. Well last week we had a 4 day blackout after a storm rolled through here in Missouri. Day 3 my battery bank was dead flat even though I only used it for LED lights and charging phones. Turns out those batteries can't handle repeated deep discharges like a proper deep cycle battery can. I wasted $80 on two of them over the past year. Now I'm looking at getting a single $120 AGM battery that's actually rated for this stuff. Has anyone else had those cheap car batteries fail on them during a real outage or was it just me being dumb?

2 comments

2 Comments

knight.mason24d ago

Man that's rough. I went through something similar a couple years back when my deep freeze thawed out during an outage and I lost a whole deer I'd just gotten processed. Those starting batteries just aren't built for that kind of cycling, they're meant to give a huge burst and get topped right back off. You're smart to go with the AGM, I switched over and it handles the slow drain way better for lights and small stuff.

david_rivera424d ago

Did the AGM handle the deeper cycling well enough for that, or still wish you'd gone lithium?