Hello,
I've bought a leisure battery but since noticed that the seller is doing at the same price 2x batteries of a higher capacity than this one that i've bough but they are not describes as 'leisure' but are deep cycle.
Is there a difference between deep cycle batteries if they are described as 'leisure' or are they one and the same?
There is a difference in construction of lead acid batteries intended for very heavy short duration discharge, such as a car battery, and those intended for standby operation where a light or moderate discharge needs to be sustained for a number of hours, such as in a UPS, although wet/flooded Ni-Cads are still preferred for such applications. The Ni-Cads in particular can withstand deep discharges and not be damaged by being left if a discharged state for a period of time.
I assume "leisure" batteries are more akin to those intended for for light/moderate sustained discharge and therefore probably deep cycle.
That does not sound right to me, surely those intended to sic high currents must have a more robust construction. I mean deep cycle is really big discharge and fast charging,is it not, the reverse of leisure?
Brian
"Deep cycle" means you can run it flat then recharge without too much damage. A car battery will suffer if you don't recharge it when it drops below 12 volts, especially if you leave it there for a while, even without further use.
No, "deep cycle" and "leisure" are (sort of) synonyms aimed at applications where the battery doesn't have to supply heavy currents but does need to be able to be discharged quite deeply.
Car batteries on the other hand need to be able to supply heavy currents for a short time (hence the CCA rating to indicate what sort of current they can hadle) but cannot manage deep discharge without rapid deterioration.
If I remember the right way round car batteries tend to have plates (electrodes) which are perforated and (quite) flimsy to maximise the surface area to handle high currents. 'Leisure' and deep cycle batteries have more robust solid plates which don't sulphate and/or disintegrate so easily but have less conducting area and thus can't supply such high currents.
Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote
No, just doesn't mind having most of its charge used.
Nope.
Counter intuitive then, since the starter of a car is much more likely to completely flatten a battery, than a couple of tvs and a charger. Brian
Perhaps the idea though, is that you charge the leisure battery, use it up, charge it again.... Whereas a vehicle is constantly topping up the battery and you should only flatten it if something is amiss.
In my case though i'm putting a solar panel on it so maybe it's pointless getting a deep cycle one?
Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote
But wouldn't normally be left flat if it is deeply discharged.
Very few use lead acid batterys like that.
Really depends on how often it is fully discharged.
Plenty of situations at the latitude the UK is where the battery is fully discharged most nights in which case you will get a much better life with a deep discharge battery.
A car battery shouldn't be anywhere near flattened by starting the car, that will only happen if the battery is already knackered or there's a problem with the engine that it won't start (which will also at least partly knacker the battery because it doesn't like going below 12 Volts).
Many leisure batteries are simply large starter batteries. They often have a CCA specification.
Some constructions are more rugged but are still limited to a discharge to a minium of 50% charge to aid life-time. Others have materials alloyed into the electrodes material that helps to limit sulphation, look up lead carbon batteries as an example.
Listing price has changed to over double, plainly an error.
Please note that neither of these are suitable for a normal car battery ... i.e Starter battery On those it is high Cold Cranking Amps is the measure to judge by.
Many, many batteries called 'Leisure' batteries are often semi-traction batteries. They will typically have a CCA specification.
By way of example:
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