Dynasty Group 31 AGM (was Battery Cycle Life/Cost)

["Thomas Shay" <tshay@ix.netcom.com>]

I'd like to hear more about these batteries.  Are these
Dynasty group 31 AGM batteries deep cycle batteries
comparable to Optima group 31 yellow tops?

Tom Shay   1983 Ranger pickup

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Chancey" <evtinker@evalbum.com>
To: <ev@listproc.sjsu.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2002 9:12 PM
Subject: Battery Cycle Life/Cost


> Hi folks,
>
> I have been wrestling with long term battery life issues,  trying to come
> up with an affordable way to get my Civic back into regular daily commuter
> use.  Unfortunately, all I am really discovering is this was the kind of
> analysis I probably should have done before building the car in the first
> place.  Here is what I came up with:
>
> My commute is roughly 25 miles round trip, but charging is usually
> available at work.  On weekends I probably put about 20 miles on each day,
> mostly in little 5 or 10 mile hops, so we are looking at about 165 miles
> per week, or about 8580 miles per year.  Assuming I recharge once at work
> and once at home every workday, and at least two charges per day on
> weekends, that is about 728 cycles per year.  Considering the current
power
> consumption of my Civic, roughly 350 watt hours/ mile due to hills and
> heater use, the 12.5 miles of each workday commute leg uses about 28% of a
> charge.  So, the battery pack is asked to deliver about 728 cycles at 28%
> depth of discharge.  The question is, how many cycles can I expect the
> batteries to deliver before failure?
>
> Currently, I have the Civic equipped with a set of 13 used Dynasty group
31
> AGMs (12 volt 100AH).  Due to numerous failures, I have discovered a $20
> used battery probably really isn't cheap after all.  Before I even
consider
> investing in 13 new ones though, I feel it might be wise to look at the
> chances of them lasting 1 year under my service demands.  I suspect there
> is little chance of getting a year out of them at all.  If they did last 1
> year, at roughly $1700 a set, my 8600 miles is going to cost about 20
cents
> per mile just for battery replacement cost.  Ouch.  Another alternative
> must be found.

(stuff clipped off)