Howdy,
I've got a 27 class battery now. It's only about a year old, and already about had it. If I were to get a 31 class, will it last longer for me? I have a motor guide 45 lb. and a 17 ft. G3 metal boat.

Thanks

What voltage trolling motor? If it's 24 two 27's should be fine. There are good and bad battery brands. Anything from Walmart won't last.

With all due respect, this is why there is no "best" anything. I have been using Wal-Mart's batteries for years and have had great success with them. The worst I ever used was whatever Auto Zone was selling. JMO.

5 years and going strong on the Wal-Mart batteries in my boat... Will make an 8 hour day in the wind no problem....of all the years running them I have had one go bad with about 2 months left on full replacement... no problem they gave me a new battery and said have fun...it was a cranking battery...but is was a deep cycle

It's a 12 Volt motor. Thanks for the input everyone.

100% are Ive used the all no i use Walmart batteries.

Optima blue top

Got Walmart Everstarts running my Ultrex. No problema and their warranty is great.

What ever brand - consider AGM ( absorbed glass mat) type battery fully sealed, may lessen corrosion chances in aluminum boat Boat Batteries 101

My suggestion is to get a gel cell battery, blue top optima with high reserve capacity (140 or so)...IMO, you discharged the battery below 50% charge is one too many times...on a lead acid battery, to maintain maximum life expectancy of a battery you discharge it to 55%, then recharge it. A discharge to 5% or below, can ruin a brand new lead acid battery....so, your options are to use a couple lead acid batteries or one gel cell battery for your 12 volt trolling system. Hope this helps...

I agree 100%. I just replaced my cranking battery that went 8 years. It was a WalMart. I replaced my Auto Zone troll motor battery after two years last summer. I bought WalMart, because I have had good luck with them and the convenience of having A WalMart store in just about every town.

The Auto Zone batteries are more expensive also.

I've had very bad luck with Exide on several occasions. Google them and see what others say. Lasts less than a year. I've had good luck with Walmarts the ones that have a label that says "distributed by Johnson Controls". Get the largest yoou can fit that way it will discharge the least and last longer. The best came with my boat a Die Hard and it lasted 15 years, I can't even believe it but its true. Problem is that brands like die hard etc change their suppliers so as they say previous performance is no indicator of future performance. Johnson Controls is the actual manufacturer. Keep it fully charged with a trickle charger when not in use.

Generally, battery longevity is all about the charging. 90%+ of deep cycle battery early failure is caused by undercharging. This is true for all three types of lead acid batteries: Flooded(wet), AGM and Gel. They are all lead acid, with different characteristics.

AGM's like the Optima need different charging/floating voltages than conventional wet cells. Actual gel batteries are rare these days, but they require a different voltage and charge rate than AGM and wet batteries.

Any decent quality old school flooded battery will provide a service life of many years if it is taken care of.

With true deep cycle batteries, you can take them down to 10%-20% remaining charge. There is no hard-fast number, it is a curve.

Typical numbers for good quality true deep cycle batteries:
2500 charge/discharge cycles at 20% depth of discharge
1200 charge/discharge cycles at 50% depth of discharge
500 charge/discharge cycles at 80% depth of discharge
150-200 charge/discharge cycles at 100% depth of discharge

Lithium has better deep cycle numbers and very low weight, but the cost is still quite high. Certain racing sailboat and bass boat applications use them now, but they will become more mainstream in the next 2-3 years.

Marc

Lots of good brands: Interstate, Continental, etc., main thing, (if not sealed), is to religiously check/maintain the water level, use distilled water to add.

The best thing I ever did was to switch to a 24v trolling motor. I only have a 55lb motor so even if I use it a lot when I get home the battery voltage is still like 12.7 volts practically still full charge. Then I immediately slow charge them back to about 13.5 volts each. The more you let them discharge the shorter the lifespan.