Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | ED, my best recent(last 20 years) battery life has been with the "6 pack", spiral cell, AGM batteries like those built by Optima and Exide Orbital. They have great cranking power, are very slow to self discharge when unused for a long time, and do not corrode terminals and battery boxes. deep discharge cycles or freezing seem to do much less damage to that spiral cell design.
Most of my cars, pickups and medium trucks, and farm equipment now have that style battery. (25+ units) Their pretty much an install it and forget it unit for the life of the machine. ( I have only had one fail, and that was worn out at 16 years.)
They do have a down side, they cost $140. Also they are a tough rugged battery with one exception, they can not stand overcharging.
A defective charging system that continuously puts out in excess of 14.6 volts, or an owner that connects a big unregulated battery charger and leaves it charging at a high rate for hours, Will dry out the little excess electrolyte in an AGM battery and destroy it.
Edited by Jon Hagen 7/9/2011 16:29
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Batteries
