#12v deep cycle batteries full#

You expect this battery to provide consistent power all day long, so a deep cycle battery must be used. If you’re like most users, you wait to plug your phone back in until it is completely dead – the DOD is 100%/SOC is 0%. You tell the battery when it is time to be used by turning on the phone or unplugging it from the charger. This battery, depending on age, is designed to last all day on a single charge and to be used every day. The battery needs to provide consistent power for a long amount of time, meaning this is a deep discharge use and therefore needs a deep cycle battery.Īnother example of a deep cycle battery is the battery inside your cell phone. It will be used every single day for many hours each day. In this instance, the nurse or doctor tells the battery when it will be used by turning on the medical cart. In general, deep cycle batteries are cyclic applications where the user tells the battery when it needs to be used.įor example, a medical cart used in a hospital will be away from an electrical outlet and need battery power for the entire time it is unplugged. Different lithium batteries will have different levels of protection, so make sure to check the technical documentation and specifications for further information.Īs well as different types of chemistries, deep cycle batteries can come in variety of voltages and capacities, most popular voltages being 12V deep cycle batteries and 24V deep cycle batteries.īefore selecting a battery, you will need to have a clear idea of what needs to be powered, for how long, how often, and how much power it needs. In addition to the cell makeup inside a lithium battery, the circuitry also matters as the protections may set limits to how much current can be drawn from the battery. Energy cells are designed to deliver sustained current over a long period of time, making them ideal for use in cyclic and deep cycle applications. In a lithium deep cycle battery, energy cells are used. The mat is what makes the battery non-spillable and optimizes the surface area of the plates for better electrolyte distribution over conventional batteries.

In AGM batteries, a glass mat is placed between the negative and positive plates to keep the electrolyte in place. The gel is better at heat distribution and off-gassing than the AGM, and therefore has better performance throughout its life. Gel batteries use a substance that turns the electrolyte acid inside the battery into a thick gel, therefore making it non-spillable. Two subcategories of deep cycle SLA batteries would be deep cycle gel and AGM (absorbent glass mat) deep cycle. If the plates were thin, like they are in high-rate and starter batteries, the lead plates would degrade very quickly and would not hold up to multiple deep discharges over time. In deep cycle batteries, the plates are thicker than those inside a high-rate battery because the energy-inducing chemical reaction goes into the plate and therefore needs to be thick to be able to handle the reaction. In high-rate batteries, there are many thin plates to allow for more surface area for quick generation of energy. In SLA (sealed lead acid) batteries, the electricity is generated in the plates. One or two deep cycles will not hurt the battery (if maximum discharge and charge rates are strictly adhered to), but this is where the design of the battery matters because a high-rate battery would break down severely over time if it were continuously cycled in a deep manner. Does this mean high-rate batteries can’t be used for a deep discharge? Yes and no. This answer may seem obvious, but a deep cycle battery is a battery that has been designed to continuously handle deep discharges of 80-100% DoD. A deep discharge is classified as 80% to 100% of capacity discharged from the battery. With this understanding of DoD and a battery’s cycle, you may be left wondering what truly classifies as a deep discharge.

#12v deep cycle batteries full#

A full discharge is 100% DoD.ĭoD is inversely related to state of charge (SoC), which is how much charge remains in the battery. What is meant by a full discharge? Discharge is measured by the capacity removed from the battery – the depth of the discharge (DoD) is used to indicate how much of the battery capacity has been used during a single discharge.

One full cycle is considered a full discharge and recharge of a battery.

Before we dive into what is a deep cycle battery, it is first important to understand a few battery basics of what a cycle is, what depth of discharge means, and what it really means to deep discharge a battery.