Boat Battery Recommendations

[amateurfishing]

Need to get 2 or 3 new batteries this year for my boat, 1 for 70 hp motor, 1 for trolling motor, & possibly 3rd for accessories (cooler, radio, phone, etc). Any specific brand out there anyone recommends or stores to get them from...thx.

[highlife4me]

Interstate

[311Hemi]

Interstate

Did a lot of research and it's tough to beat these for the money. Check out Capra's for a decent price on them, I just picked up a couple from them!

Cables's does have a good price on their AGM's in the bargain bin though.

[amateurfishing]

@311hemi, do either take bad batteries for core charges?

[311Hemi]

I am not 100% sure. Capra's did not require a core charge, so I doubt they would take batteries in. Don't know about Cabelas.

[gdog]

I'm sure I'll get killed here but I have had good luck with the Energizer batteries from Sams club. No core charge. Super cheap.

[amateurfishing]

are these batteries from sams club, capras, or cabelas deep cycle marine batteries, sorry for dumb question but did not think they did anything other than lawmover, auto, motorcyle? and how much did u pay?

[FM_Mike]

+1 on interstates

Mike

[trolloni]

Interstate Mega Tron!! down here in illanoy we have to turn in an old one or its 10 more bucks to the price ,ioway to.

[hanson]

I really don't see anything wrong with Interstates. I've got a deep cycle that I've had for 4-5 years that has shared starter/accessories duty in the boat and carried and tossed around for my ice shack lights, its finally giving out.

Since then I've added a 24v Minn-Kota and put 2 more Interstates in the boat although the starting battery is now almost shot for me. I am thinking of putting an Optima in for my starting battery as I am running all the accessories off of it as well.

[gdog]

At Sams they have deep cycle batteries. I believe that I payed right around $70 each for Series 29 batteries.

[Rivernut]

I've had great luck with the Werker batteries from Batt. Plus

[Gordie]

Ive had really great luck with my natuilus batterys and interstates have worked well for me also.

I have went cheap on a spare from F&E and it seems to hold its own

My brother had an optima for his trolling motor and starting but went bat to the interstates as the optimas kept failing for him dont know if it was the batteys or the charger but he had tons of problems so he got rid of them

[Hula_Grub]

Cabela's has a $5 core charge...

[swampbuck]

I would spend the money and get optima blue tops, I am running on my 6th year with these and have had no issues! I charge them 4-5 times a week and they get a lot of use!

They are not cheap, but after 6 years of hard use and still running strong they have paid for themselves vs buying more less expensive batteries numerous times

[tonkapat]

+1 swampbuck. My optimas have made it to year 7 and work the same as day one. My batteries are always plugged into the charger unless I'm fishing.

[311Hemi]

Only problem with the Optima's is their biggest blue top only has 155 reserve capacity.

[drippinwet]

I recently bought Xtreme Marine batteries from Battery Plus. One starting battery for the motor and accessories and one deep cycle for trolling. Great deal on them with 10 dollar mail in rebate for EACH. It was 130 minus the mail in for both.

[311Hemi]

I recently bought Xtreme Marine batteries from Battery Plus. One starting battery for the motor and accessories and one deep cycle for trolling. Great deal on them with 10 dollar mail in rebate for EACH. It was 130 minus the mail in for both.

I saw your other post on remodeling your boat. What size batteries did you buy? I assume they were the SLI24MDC?

[amateurfishing]

so whats the difference between a $90 interstate or $65 battery plus? longevity, power, make of internal core? are all batteries made the same?

[311Hemi]

are all batteries made the same?

No....but I am not sure there are too big of differences between the more well known wet cell deep cycles. Actually, if you look at the batteries at Batteries Plus and then go to Autozone/Oreily (Superstart batteries) or NAPA, you will see the deep cycle batteries at these three stores are all manufactured by East Penn and all have pretty much the same specs and outside casing.

And the answer to your question depends on which batteries your looking at. The Batteries Plus SLI31MDC is around $105 and has a reserve capacity of 185min. I got the Interstate SRM29 for $99 and it has a reserve capacity of 210. Since I am running two of these the Interstates will last almost an hour longer when used at 5-6 (half power) on my Minnkota powerdrive. The Interstate 29 has the same size/weight as other series 31 batteries like the one at batteries plus. Now, I'm not sure if these differences are really all that much to most people. For me, I will looking for the biggest low cost battery I could find.

[RebelSS]

Interstates. I run SRM-27's. Deep cycle marine. 750 Amp, 600CCA. 30 month warranty.