27F AGM battery option (1 Viewer)

[ZREM]

@jLB - Yeah, I took it in to them back in January, I believe it had a 3 year warranty. They charged it up and said it was fine. I'll be taking the truck in to the shop to make sure there is no parasitic drain and the alternator is functioning properly before messing with the battery.

I have a cheap charger at home, and after an overnight charge, the battery only shows 12.3 volts, so I am pretty sure it's the battery.

 

[Otter]

I have a X2 group 31 as my main, but I also have solar. It's worked pretty well for me for a few years. Seems to keep it topped up to the right voltage.

 

[ticoman]

Why not the Optima redtop battery, 1000 cranking amps and very reliable. I ran one in my JHD-80 for 5 years. Normal batteries only last 2 years here in Rural Costa Rica, Heat and the horrible roads destroy them. I run dual Optima redtops in my 06 !00 series too, love them.

 

[SmoothLC]

I'm convinced that our trucks charging circuits can't properly maintain an AGM battery. They are great as an aux battery with dedicated charger designed for AGM, but don't work well as a simple replacement starting battery. If you choose AGM, you either need to regularly put it on a charger to bring it up to full capacity, or you need to modify the charging circuit, even one of those voltage boosting diodes is better than nothing at all. The AGM batteries simply require a higher charging voltage than lead acid, and anything less will only charge the battery to maybe 80% and will sulfate much more quickly.

I can't argue with your logic since I've often wondered the same thing. But, I haven't experienced any hiccups w/ the 27F AGM B+.

Purchase date: 2016

 

[Ager Venator]

I went whole hog and blew (probably wasted) some of a tax return on a Northstar 27F AGM batterty. It was 360$ shipped, but it fit, has 930 CCA or something ridiculous like that, and 200 minutes of reserve capacity. Might be psychosomatic (very possibly considering what I paid) but it seems like everything just works... better over the 9 year old Interstate.

 

[archerwolf]

I have a X2 group 31 as my main, but I also have solar. It's worked pretty well for me for a few years. Seems to keep it topped up to the right voltage.

How does that Group 31 fit? Did you need a new tray? Also, are the terminals on the wrong side?

 

[Otter]

How does that Group 31 fit? Did you need a new tray? Also, are the terminals on the wrong side?

I used the Slee main battery tray. It fits, terminals are correct. I had to remove terminal adapters on the battery because they were too tall. Once you remove those and screw the posts back down, it's fine.

 

[jLB]

Just a follow up on my experience.

I purchased a X2 Power 27F battery, from Batteries Plus, 12/2016, for my 2006 LX470.

I’ve had the battery just a hair over the 5 year warranty period, and while I could probably “limp along” with it for a while longer, it seems to only take a little under a 75% charge at this point, so I’m getting ready to replace it.

I did not use one of the “voltage boosters” with this battery. Prior to the pandemic I would put it on an old “Die Hard Platinum” AGM compatible battery charger about once a quarter. During the pandemic, it’s been more like once a month, and often finding it “flat”.

The coronapocalypse has been hard on the car batteries in my household, with our limited driving. We’ve tended to take whichever vehicle in back, and most of our trips have been relatively short. I’ve never used my battery charger as much as I have the last two years. It seems like one of the three vehicles is on the charger every weekend.

I suspect that I probably would’ve gotten another year or two out of it w/o the pandemic, and could probably get a little more time as it sits, but I’d rather replace it now, instead of waiting until I get stranded somewhere with a dead battery.

(Edited to add)
My cheap Amazon battery tester says that the old battery is down to 630CCA (from 930CCA). If this is accurate, it still exceeds the typical CCA of a new 24F flooded battery that is recommended for our vehicles. Out of curiosity, I'm going to try the NOCO battery charger's "recovery mode" to see if it makes any difference.

Nope, recovery mode didn’t do Jack s***.

Also trying the “cheap flooded” vs “expensive AGM” comparison. I’ve put another X2 27F in my daily driver, and two Interstate MT-24F in the other two, within days of each other.