How long should a battery last?

[crl]

I have a brand new 55AH deep cycle battery which I used last night to cool the fridge (40L) in my Disco. It ran all night at 8-10 Deg C and it was left on into the morning. I checked it mid morning and the temp had gone right up to 19 deg C. The night air temp was about 27 Deg C and the fridge would have run for about 19 hours from switching it on till I discovered it nice and warm in the morning. There were also two 15 min drives in there as well which should have boosted the battery a bit. The battery is only new and the altenator has been tested and works OK.

Is this about normal for 55AH batt or is it not up to par?

Thanks in advance,

crl



2000 Discovery II Auto TD5

[antichrist]

You don't say how much current the fridge draws.
Your question can't be answered without knowing that.

[p76rangie]

Assuming that it was an engel or waco, they draw about 3 amps per hour. But they have a cutoff when the battery gets low. It is designed to not flatten the main starting battery. On the Waco you can get it not to switch off as early, not sure about the Engel. So assuming that it it switched itself off due to low voltage and did not go dead flat, the time you mentioned sounds about right.

[Disco Mike]

What brand is your battery?

[antichrist]

The brand isn't going to make a significant difference. Unless a particular brand gives misleading figures for their AH rating.

[Disco Mike]

I was asking to see who made a deep cycle battery that had such a low rating. I don't have the numbers in front of me but my Yellow Tops have nearly twice that rating.
I have run my Engle 45 and my resperator for days with out the need of recharging the batteries.

[TerryS]

Originally Posted by Disco Mike

I was asking to see who made a deep cycle battery that had such a low rating. I don't have the numbers in front of me but my Yellow Tops have nearly twice that rating.

I'm glad somebody said something because I was thinking that was very small.

[Disco Mike]

Well, it will be interesting to see if we get a reply back.

[antichrist]

The Optima D34 yellow top has a AH rating of 55, RC of 120. For comparison the Diehard Platinum group 34 I just installed has an AH rating of 68 and RC of 135. Then the Platinum Marine 31M has a AH rating of 100 and RC of 205.

But really, still can't answer his question without knowing what his fridge draws.

[crl]

Originally Posted by Disco Mike

What brand is your battery?

It is an Exide ED4R.

It is a fairly small battery but I got my Dual Batt kit from ARB and that is all they fit for TD5 Disco's due to the limited space under the bonnet.

I have looked in the manual to see how much power it draws and it says a "low" amount of current.

The fridge is an Engel rebadged as ARB.