Discount/wholesale batteries

[dguy]

Does anyone know where 12v deep cycle batteries can be had at sub-retail prices?

I'm looking for a sealed 12v 100aH (deep cycle) battery.

Vented batteries which meet this spec are easy to find and can generally be purchased for $100ea or less; as soon as the word "sealed" enters the conversation however, the price triples.      

[aaron88]

Have you tried Total Battery or Canadian Battery?

100 Amp Hour is a big battery.  How many are you looking for?

Aaron

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[dguy]

Total Battery has what I'm looking for, to the tune of about $350ea taxes-in.

These things are typically used as storage batteries for residential wind & solar rigs, but I'm looking for one to use as the source for a UPS for our pellet stove.

I explored hitting Princess Auto's surplus section and running a number of 3-5aH batteries in parallel, but there are no gains as far as cost goes, and space rapidly becomes a problem.

[aaron88]

There are very specific limitation as to charge and discharge cycles on a lead-acid (or like) battery.  Basically you should never discharge a 12V battery passed 10.5V (or it will never recover fully).  So what are your amp-hour calculations based on?  Typically you only get about 2/3 of the rated capacity of a battery before you damage it.

Also you can get 3 to 10 times the charge cycles out battery if you never discharge passed half.

Aaron

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[dguy]

The UPS manages the charge/discharge cycle, which given the manufacturer's reputation and the battery life I've experienced with other UPSs of this brand, I suspect  is handled reasonably well.  The user manual for the thing doesn't go in to specifics, and they do not appear to supply this information online either.

I made no amp-hour calculations; simply selected the battery capacity based on what appears to be a commonly available deep-cycle battery intended for indoor use.


It's easy to cut the price by a 1/2 to 1/3 if a non-sealed battery would do.  Marine deep cycle batteries are a dime-a-dozen by comparison.  I'm not willing to take a chance on electrolyte vapor or hydrogen being vented in to the room however.

[aaron88]

Wear a mask