Best Marine Battery

[Jeepman]

31 minutes ago, LS1boarder said:

.. I think the “Ah” information seems to be important....

The amp-hour (Ah) rating of a battery is the single most important spec item if you are not starting an engine with it or recharging it using a very high current source.  So for a house battery in a boat, Ah is the number to use.  Make sure you are comparing Ah ratings at the same "rate".  Most manufacturers publish Ah values for different rates.  A 10 hour rate seems to be the most common.  If a battery manufacturer doesn't publish an AH figure at all, then you can make a conservative assumption it is not a great battery or they are not very proud of the rating or it isn't designed for long rate low current discharging.  I have no experience with the EverStart line from Wal-Mart but I see no Ah spec on the website.  You would have to know this rating to gauge what value you are getting for your money.

Do not buy a house battery based on Cold Cranking Amps (CCA).  That's not what you care about.

43 minutes ago, shawndoggy said:

I believe that yours is the very first post I've ever read about this exploding battery phenomenon. Which is not to say I don't believe you, but pretty much every single malibu that's ever rolled off of the assembly line has had SLA batteries installed.  Yours is a very uncommon experience.

If you re-read my post you will see that this happened in a Four Winns, not a Malibu, where the battery failure occurred.  It was an Interstate branded-Marine Cranking battery that failed.  The point I was making is that it was a cheap (albeit brand name) wet cell battery and not a quality AGM or VRLA battery.  Google around, it's not as uncommon as you might think.

 

[MLA]

1 hour ago, LS1boarder said:

I don’t mind spending $400 if it truly is going to let me play my stereo at high volume for long periods of time without having to start my engine or plug it into someone else’s generator

This will be all about the Ah, not the price, type or brand of any battery. 

[Jeepman]

1 hour ago, shawndoggy said:

I believe that yours is the very first post I've ever read about this exploding battery phenomenon. Which is not to say I don't believe you, but pretty much every single malibu that's ever rolled off of the assembly line has had SLA batteries installed.  Yours is a very uncommon experience.

I can't speak to every single malibu that's ever rolled off the line, but I can tell you the 2020 25 LSV I just received from my dealer that I custom ordered with the "Option 3" battery setup came with one Deka "Marine Master" model DC24 flooded deep cycle battery with removable fill covers for the house battery and one Deka model 24M7 flooded "maintenance free" battery for the engine battery.  So at least one Malibu, manufactured in March of 2020, was shipped with flooded and not SLA batteries.  Maybe they are using cheaper batteries in 2020 than in years past.  Deka is a brand owned by East Penn who is a major manufacturer of quality batteries.  

[shawndoggy]

3 minutes ago, Jeepman said:

I can't speak to every single malibu that's ever rolled off the line, but I can tell you the 2020 25 LSV I just received from my dealer that I custom ordered with the "Option 3" battery setup came with one Deka "Marine Master" model DC24 flooded deep cycle battery with removable fill covers for the house battery and one Deka model 24M7 flooded "maintenance free" battery for the engine battery.  So at least one Malibu, manufactured in March of 2020, was shipped with flooded and not SLA batteries.  Maybe they are using cheaper batteries in 2020 than in years past.  Deka is a brand owned by East Penn who is a major manufacturer of quality batteries.  

Sorry bad terminology on my part. Should have said flooded. You have the same kind of batteries 99% of Malibu owners get and I can’t say I have ever once read of a battery that blew up as a result of running through chop. Again not saying yours didn’t, but it’s not something that would keep me up at night. 

[LS1boarder]

Ok, I think I've narrowed down to these two....

https://www.odysseybattery.com/Batteries/Model_34MPC1500st

and

https://www.northstarbattery.com/product/nsb-agm24m

The Northstar has 76Ah vs the Odyssey's 68Ah. I don't know how to compare this to what I have now because I don't know the Ah. Are these numbers enough to eliminate my battery worries? I don't think it much matters between the 2 other than the negligible difference in Ah.

[MLA]

47 minutes ago, LS1boarder said:

Ok, I think I've narrowed down to these two....

https://www.odysseybattery.com/Batteries/Model_34MPC1500st

and

https://www.northstarbattery.com/product/nsb-agm24m

The Northstar has 76Ah vs the Odyssey's 68Ah. I don't know how to compare this to what I have now because I don't know the Ah. Are these numbers enough to eliminate my battery worries? I don't think it much matters between the 2 other than the negligible difference in Ah.

Why are you looking at a group-34? Are you going with more then one wired in parallel for your house bank? A single group 29 or 31 is going to be north of 100Ah since anchor play time is your goal. 

[LS1boarder]

29 minutes ago, MLA said:

Why are you looking at a group-34? Are you going with more then one wired in parallel for your house bank? A single group 29 or 31 is going to be north of 100Ah since anchor play time is your goal. 

I don’t know actually!! I really appreciate the help! I’ll look at those sizes! 

[MLA]

I would expect a 2016 with dual banks, to have come with 2 group-24 boxes and batteries. Going to a group-29/31 box and moving the battery blocks, and you can have 25% more Ah on the house side. 

[JeffK]

Apologize for the questions.  I am still learning the dual battery stuff. 

Would love to get a little feedback here as well.  I have a 2019 25 and think they went a little small on the batteries.  They are both Interstate SRM-24's.  I have added the stern thruster (have to back into our dock to make the lift work) and an inverter to power the lift(no electricity at the dock).  I have the upgraded alternator.  I also have a genius 2 bank smart charger and regularly pull the boat out during the week to charge it.  I know I need to get more battery in here as we do a lot of floating during the middle of the day.  The house battery will run the inverter and house stuff, the crank battery will have the thruster (wired to the hot post at the engine) and engine on it.  Should I upgrade both or just the house battery?  The thruster will only be run while the engine is on and likely only for docking.  And if I just upgrade the house battery, can I change it to a 29 while the other is still a 24?  Will that matter?