Let me confirm what William has shared about Deka/MK 8D AGM batteries; they
have a very high failure rate. We saw over 40% fail within 2-3 years of
installation. Deka would not own up to the problem and offered no compensation.
Fullriver has been the finest AGM we have ever sold. All DC models are
excellent. We especially like the 2 volt L-16’s for high capacity systems. We
had one failure, and I know of one other, where L16 batteries went into thermal
runaway. The cases welded together. After fully testing the power system that
we designed and installed, we found no problem. Fullriver would not offer any
help or replacement.
Our installations are 100% battery based. When I do see failures I have many
other identical power systems to compare with (in the thousands, we do 5-8 per
week) and this helps me make sound judgements about our findings.
Larry Crutcher
3 year old Deka 8D
1.5 year old Fullriver L-16
On Nov 28, 2018, at 11:43 PM, William Miller <[email protected]> wrote:
Allan:
We have had poor luck with the 8D AGM batteries (MK/Deka). Many of them have
had short life spans along with swelling, heating and even exploding. Your
point about the inefficient footprint is right on.
I have minimal experience with Full River. I have seen a set fail, but heck,
anyone can do that in a hurry.
When footprint is an issue, we have gone to racked AGMs, like the Deka Unigy.
Now to get higher voltages might require custom racking, but the cells come in
lots of sizes and shapes, physically and in capacity. It may be worth checking
into the size of a 400 AH Unigy cell and see how they rack up. I don’t have
but a smattering of drawings for the models we have purchased, but my cursory
look indicates you won’t save on volume or dollars, but you may gain a smaller
footprint with some Unigy racks in series.
William
<image002.jpg>
Lic 773985
millersolar.com <http://www.millersolar.com/>
805-438-5600
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