which Battery??

Agreed!. This will be interesting to hear. I personally think battery selection has alot to do with “success” through service of usage through the years. No different in cars, trucks, or boat or even parts. It all in wat ones had good luck with. Though Ive always run interstate wet cells srm 29 for all with extremely good success. I did opt for a optima blue top for my crankr this go around. Mainly to test my success with it. Ive searched and read many articles. The big plus for these gel types is for vibration. Guess its up for my own test know!2013 PANTERA 2MERCURY 200 PRO XSMINNKOTA 80LB FORTREX25 fury

Ill make this pretty simple to understand. Think of a battery as a electric fuel tank. For BOTH cranking AND deep cycle use the bigger, the better. Almost always the larger size will have more reserve just like a gas tank. Now for these late model motors they require a lot of cranking amps to fire them up so look for a battery with high cranking amps AND reserve capacity to run all the electronics that we all have now. Reserve capacity is normally listed as R.C. on a battery, and the better ones will be from 160 on up to over 200 minutes R.C.. Cranking amps is of no concern on a deep cycle trolling motor battery, and the main thing is R.C.. The better ones will be 160 on up to over 200 minutes. Now for the types of batterys, you have the old wet cells that you normally can add water to, and a few are sealed. They are the cheapest price wise and do a pretty good job. The down side is they can leak acid pretty easily and wont go thru as many cycles as a AGM. What I mean by cycles is the number of times you run the battery down and recharge. AGMs will normally have close to double the amount of cycles a regular wet cell will. An AGM is very similar to a wetcell, but is sealed, is better built by design, and normally will not corrode battery terminals like a wetcell will or leak acid out. They tolerate shock better than a normal wetcell will, so in like the marine environment they tend to hold up better. The AGM and wetcells are pretty similar in how they work and how they are designed. A Gel battery is a lot different, and they are really not that many on the market.Lots of people get AGM and Gels mixed up, but they take a different charge rate than an AGM or wetcell does. Most AGMs and wetcells can be charged with the same charger, but ALWAYS read your battery chargers manual to be sure. My opinion is its dang hard to beat a top quality AGM for either of the uses, but they do cost more than a conventional wetcell. Personally im not fond of the Gel batterys on the few Ive been around.And Redngoo, your Optima is a AGM, not a Gel, and Ive had really good luck with them myself.

BCB opinion for the last 15-20 years has eventually become the method or standard in many cases, having been embraced by Mercury and others publicly. We like HEAVY AGM batteries in cranking positions. We do not like spiral cells and lighter weight batteries. We feel trolling motor batteries in wet cell are fine, while AGM is much better though pricey. Size from 27 series up depending on your use patterns. Batteries become more necessary in quality and life as thy age. Most batteries suffer from long term user pattern more than their own demise. The battery is most often either good or bad the day you walk out of the store with it. Info. from a notable industry specialist company indicates that only 58% of new wet cells meet their published parameters new, thus 42% are below specs new. They indicate 23% are seriously below spec. from their testing and estimates. Obviously AGM batteries apparently have more quality focus and thus probably are higher on meeting the specifications listed for each brand. Then again some brands are better than others, and some private labels are also the companies own specs manufactured by one of those few actual battery manufacturers. Thats the info we know and we have posted all of this time and time again.

bwp777 wrote:Very sorry to beat the horse then. I should have refined my search a bit. there have been a few questions/responses about batteries but all I was trying to say is the need for a dedicated thread on batts.It is always Good Info! Even though I am sure it gets old to some it is necessary!Dan

Redngoo wrote:Agreed!. This will be interesting to hear. I personally think battery selection has alot to do with “success” through service of usage through the years. No different in cars, trucks, or boat or even parts. It all in wat ones had good luck with. Though Ive always run interstate wet cells srm 29 for all with extremely good success. I did opt for a optima blue top for my crankr this go around. Mainly to test my success with it….. all 3 were SRM27s?? 2 for trolling, 1 for cranking? I sell Interstate, and might make a decision like this in the upcoming season….