Single battery setup vs Dual battery setup

[rruff]

Specs say 69800 mAH (am I reading that right? 70 AH?) You know, for $80 I might just be willing to take a chance on that just to see if it works. I'm skeptical, but it would be interesting to see. A 70ah battery has more capacity than the starter battery on my Suburban (55AH.)

It ain't so. No one is getting 800 W-hr out of a 1kg battery. If they are Li-ion 150 W-hr would be typical.

Lithium batteries can be drawn down to low levels and partially charged without damage.

 

[yonah]

FWIW I've been running a large Group 31 X2Power SLI31AGMDPM from Batteries+Bulbs. I created a thread on Tacomaworld to document my experience with this set up - so far no complaints. I too keep a Microstart in the truck in case of an emergency, but have not used it yet to jump my vehicle, however I've used it a few times to jumpstart other vehicles. It works very well and is a compact unit.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-31-battery-long-term-user-experience.454781/

 

[rruff]

FWIW I've been running a large Group 31 X2Power SLI31AGMDPM from Batteries+Bulbs.

Expensive. ~2x the price of "cheap" deep cycle AGMs. Maybe worth it?

As I mentioned earlier you can just set up a pair of deep cycle batteries and they will start your vehicle fine and handle other loads. No need for separate DC and starting batteries and isolating circuits.

 

[OCD Overland]

better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.

I have my start battery,
I have my 94 amp hour lithium house battery,
I still have my old house battery kinetik khc2000 agm (102 ah)
I have a fullriver 28ah agm battery (which can replace the start battery in an emergency)
and a small 17 ah agm battery

I keep them all charged up and ready to go in case of an emergency. I never go camping to the middle of nowhere but if I did I would be carrying even more batteries just in case.

I wouldn't rely on the small jump packs, when you need it will probably be dead. Why risk being stranded anywhere with just one battery, nothing is failsafe and batteries do go bad. That's the law of the jungle.

Yes I can save gas by removing some batteries but then I would not have peace of mind.

I hate to ask how many spare tires you carry.

 

[Martinjmpr]

It ain't so. No one is getting 800 W-hr out of a 1kg battery. If they are Li-ion 150 W-hr would be typical.

Lithium batteries can be drawn down to low levels and partially charged without damage.

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That makes a lot of sense, but any idea where they might be getting that 69800 mAH number from? Some kind of extrapolation or just a blatant lie? It's interesting that I see no reviews of the product.
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At the price I have to admit I'm sorely tempted to try it out just to satisfy my curiosity. As long as there is a solid return policy I'd try to see how many AH it really has and if (as expected) it turns out to be way lower, I'd leave a nasty review and demand my money back.
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Nevertheless, as technology in this area improves I would expect to see larger AH capacities and lower prices.

 

[rruff]

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Any idea where they might be getting that 69800 mAH number from?

They pulled it out of a place where the sun doesn't shine.... or are just off by an order of magnitude. Just guessing, the battery is probably no more than half the weight, so .5kg, and 6980 mAH would be sensible.

 

[GXWagon]

Here's the US Amazon link. Around $65.00:
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https://www.amazon.com/Starter-Curr...-1-fkmr0&keywords=lithium+jump+pack+69800+mah
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Hmmm...this one's got my brain buzzing. It's almost too good to be true. 70 AH in that small package? How is that possible? And for that price?
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You know, I have probably $500 invested in my dual battery system (though to be fair almost $300 of that is just the battery.) Of course, I wasn't trying to save money, it was more of a hobby thing for me - I wanted to see if I could do it.
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But I have to admit that if I'd known about this at the time I might have gone a different route. For the person on a budget, the person who doesn't have the skills, the work space or - most critically - the TIME necessary to do a dual battery project this could be a viable option.
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And given the trends in the electronics world, I can only imagine that capacities will continue to go up and prices will continue to go down. Just for reference, for the price of my ONE additional battery I could have bought 4 of these Lithium jump packs and still gotten change back!

Seriously... but they must be full of garbage. There is no way that batter has that much Ah

 

[e60ral]

Expensive. ~2x the price of "cheap" deep cycle AGMs. Maybe worth it?

As I mentioned earlier you can just set up a pair of deep cycle batteries and they will start your vehicle fine and handle other loads. No need for separate DC and starting batteries and isolating circuits.

X2 is made by Northstar, its the best battery you can buy. It's up to you if you need it.

I decided that I did not, I bought a Duracell Ultra Platinum made by East Penn/DEKA instead for about $225 with a coupon. Northstar and Odyssey are the best batteries, East Penn/DEKA would be the next tier below.

 

[dwh]

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That makes a lot of sense, but any idea where they might be getting that 69800 mAH number from? Some kind of extrapolation or just a blatant lie?

Most likely they are using the USB rating. 70ah@5v is less than half of 70ah@12v.

Even if so, it still sounds too high.

 

[1Louder]

Single battery with a monitor. X2 Group 27
100 Watt solar suitcase by Renogy
Jumpbox by Anti-Gravity

Done....

I have an ArkPak I can take if I feel like I need it. For those that are so worried about killing their battery you could easily save lots of $. Buy a basic starting battery and keep it charged up with a battery tender. Just keep it in the back of your vehicle. Then drop it in as needed. Of course some say my InReach is overkill so everyones opinions vary as you have seen in this thread. I think unless you winch a lot you don't need dual battery setup. I removed mine and simplified things after a year and change of having one. Even if you go the dual battery route do yourself a favor and keep things charged up and happy with a good solar panel setup. Your batteries will thank you....

 

[yonah]

X2 is made by Northstar, its the best battery you can buy. It's up to you if you need it.

I decided that I did not, I bought a Duracell Ultra Platinum made by East Penn/DEKA instead for about $225 with a coupon. Northstar and Odyssey are the best batteries, East Penn/DEKA would be the next tier below.

Yes they are. They also come with a 4-5 year warranty, depending on the model, with a nationwide dealer network for warranty claims (Batteries+Bulbs).
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I opted for one large battery with substantial CCA and amp hours over two smaller batteries. I've run dual battery setups in the past and they work. However, for me a single Group 31 AGM fits the bill. With the additional battery comes additional costs (another battery mount, cables, relay, etc.).

 

[Theo85]

I'm debating this as well. I'm currently putting together my fridge/solar setup.

Let me know what you guys think:

I am only powering my fridge via the solar setup. I have 100watt solar panel, 45qt fridge, charge controller and the plan is to place a deep cycle battery (90-100ah) in the rear of my 4runner.

Thats going to be isolated from everything else. Is it overkill?

 

[rruff]

Is it overkill?

I don't think so. Refrigerators take a lot of juice. Do you know how much? Very important.

Figure your battery is only good for half it's capacity (~500W-hr), and an average sunny day you will get you ~500W-hrs as well from the panel (if facing the sun). So you can barely draw 20W for 24hrs on a cloudy day before the battery is used up. If it's sunny then you've about broken even.

 

[e60ral]

I'm debating this as well. I'm currently putting together my fridge/solar setup.

Let me know what you guys think:

I am only powering my fridge via the solar setup. I have 100watt solar panel, 45qt fridge, charge controller and the plan is to place a deep cycle battery (90-100ah) in the rear of my 4runner.

Thats going to be isolated from everything else. Is it overkill?

I only have the 100ah starting battery and my fridge never draws it down beyond about 70% charged with daily driving

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[BigSwede]

Given that most fridges draw an average of 3 - 5 AH (depending on temperatures and other variables) that pack would be good for, at most, a few hours before it would be dead.

FWIW Engel told me my 40 quart fridge would draw about 1 ah... of course Engels have a different compressor than most of the fridges out there, so maybe that is why.