Gel vs AGM: Not Quite the Battle of the Ages, But Nice to Know

The fact that Gel batteries are more superior to AGM is not promoted in right way as AGM has many far superior working qualities which Gel can not offer. AGM batteries are fast recharge batteries and are availble easily worldwide. Gel batteries have very small market share. Cost per cycle is approximately same when AGM is compared to Gel.

Finally!! A no nonsense simple and unbiased explanation of the two different oft confused power sources.
Thank you.

Exactly what I was looking for! Thanks.

I am a long-term user of 12V batteries, having lived on a sailboat for almost 10 years. I concluded that gel cell btteries were the way to go for maximum life if discharged to the 50 % discharge point.

Now I am much older and in an electric wheelchair, a Pride Jazzy. I have used both AGM and gel cells in my wheelchair, finding gel cells marginally superior in longevity, if recharged at 50% or less discharge point, with three stage chargers.

1. Is there a difference between these two battery type in terms of longevity when properly maintained?

2. If not, which battery type/chemistry is better for long life?

John

Good read. My charger has 2 battery type selections. 1-AGM & WET 2- GEL. I didn‘t know mine was a AGM it ended up being charged as a GEL. Now charger just reads fault and battery is at 7.8 volts
Have I killed it?

Brilliant exchange – especially for a newbie. Many Thanks!
I have a Gel vs AGM dilemma. Just bought a sort of neglected EV – no gas engine in this baby.
The 6 battery bank is Gel but I have (at least)one bad battery. I realise I cannot replace the duff Gel battery with an AGM but AGM‘s are so much more available, etc.
My questions are: 1) If i have to replace the whole bank – I am thinking AGM – am I right? 2) Do most charging devices have that Wet or AGM/Gel switch on them?
Thanks Again….steve

Hi — I have an Optima 6-volt battery in my Model A Ford. Which charger do you recommend to recharge/maintain it? Thanks.

In the mid to late 90\\\‘s Gel Cells were state of the art. The ARE FAST recharge and offer charge and discharge profiles and life spans superior to lead-acid. Gel Cells are still premium choices particularly for “house” loads (slow discharge rates).AGM\\\‘s are technically not as great as sales figures would
indicate. Some charging systems sold in the mid to late 90\\\‘s which have a programmable setting for Lead Acid and Gel Cells will NOT work for AGM batteries. If the charger manual does not offer a specific setting for AGM don\\\‘t buy AGM, they will be ruined by improper recharging. Some technicians offer he advice of setting your programmable charing system to \\\“lead acid\\\” for an AGM battery. This does not work. If the equipment was not specifically designed to accomodate AGM batteries – don\\\‘t buy AGM batteries.

How do I know when my AGM battery is 60% discharged or 80% discharged etc?

if one is going to use a deep cycle battery for a trolling motor to putter a small boat around for a weekend, then reconnect it back to my diesel Suburban that already has two regular Interstate batteries, what would work best, AGM or Gell Cell, or Dry Cell?

i will never know how much it gets drained while i\‘m using it, but i figure it could get kind of low, like 30% or so…? (only a guess.) if the Gel Cells deal with this kind of use best, then i suppose i must go that route. but would i really have to have a special regulator installed on a Gel Cell?

i used to have a massive Optima marine battery on a powerboat for years, then i wound up using it as i described above for another couple years. it eventually died, but i think i got plenty of life out of it. are Optimas Gel Cell or AGM?

i\‘m so confused about which way to go. i wasted $90 on a cheap deep cycle battery from O\‘Reily\‘s which only lasted a handful of re-charges, and i don\‘t want to make the same mistake again.

thank you all so much for all the help — this is a great resource!

Which kinda batteries are best for a domestic/home windwill-energy solution\\\‘s battery bank?
THe installation is to be designed to function independent of the power grid. REcharging may have to be by a pms-run power generating set.
Tis for a cabin that may not be on the grid in the nearest future.

Thank you.

I have a battery backup system in my home consisting of eight Trojan 105 six volt, 220 amp hr. batteries connected to a Trace SW4024 inverter/charger. I am no longer able to maintain flooded batteries, so I need to replace with sealed batteries. From your article, it seems that gel cell is better for my use than AGM, but I don‘t know if I can set my charger to accomodate gel. I currently bulk charge at 28.8 volts, with a float set to 26.8 volts. Can you tell me what my settings need to be if I go with gel cell and/or AGM?

I have a motorcycle in which I would like to put and AGM battery, but it seems like all the regulator rectifiers I get for it have a voltage setpoint of 14.7V, and they usually see 14.9 or 15 on occasion. Is this too high for use with an AGM battery?
Thanks,
Anton

how do i determine how many amp hours i need for my 12v golf cart which contains eight batteries?

Excellent write up!! Its nice to have a simple explanation. I bought a scorpion AGM a couple years back and have had no complaints. My only issue is something I did not know I caused until reading this. I eneded up installing a motorcycle alarm on my bike and not thinking I parked it in my garage for a couple months with out dissconnecting the battery. Needless to say the alarm discharged it and not thinking I figured I could leave a normal 2 amp 12 volt charger on it overnight. Well next morning my garage smelled awful, it was due to the battery being overcharged and boiling out what im now sure was the little amount of liquid in it. I admit this was all my fault as I did not think when charging it or parking it. Anyways looks like ill be buying another scorpion AGM and this time a battery tender to avoid this issue. Thamks for the write up! I now finally know what I did wrong.

Good info, thanks! I have a question. . . I put a gel cell in my 2003 HD Road King. Initially it did not hold a charge more than 3 days and I‘d put it on a 1 volt trickle charger overnight. It has worked fine like this for a year or so. After a few months I noticed the charge beginning to last a little longer, say, 4-5 days. Is this normal? Am I damaging the gel cell by trickle charging it with 1 volt? My ‘74 BMW needs a battery. I‘d like a gel cell for the maintenance free aspect but again wondering if I would damage the cell with a 1 volt trickle. All feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have contracted to install a Generac 27kW liquid cooled emergency generator at my home in Virginia. Should it have an AGM or Gel Cell battery? The Generac automatically comes on for 1/2 hour once a week to check all systems (to make sure it is ready for use when an electrical outage occurs).

Confused if I can have a AGM house battery and a marine starting motor on the same 1/2 marine battery/charge switch…being charged by a decent size outboard motor.

thanks

I have an Class B motorhome that I have used a 5 watt solar panel with no controlor to maintain the \“chassis\” battery when the RV is not in use. It is parked facing south and the battery has successfully been maintained for since 2007 without needing water. I hookup to power prior the departure for recharging the \“house\” battery which have been disconnected during storage. I also have a \“cricket\” (smaller that a golf cart) with 2 gel cell batteries in series for 24 volts. It has an onboard charger that charges the two batteries separtately (at the same time) when the indicator on the dash shows about 50% charge. It takes about 6-8 hours to charge the batteries. Your comments, please

starting battery is a standard west marine wet cranking battery. I was under the impression you can‘t charge a wet and AGM together…Is this true? My starter battery is only a year old and works fine, but I want to add an AGM pure deep cycle for the house battery.

thanks

Thanks for the info you have been a great help I learned things I didn\‘t even know I needed!!!

Hello,
Can a gel battery be missed with Agm.
thanks

I have four sollar pannels, rated at 15 watts each tied together going into a 7 amp regulator. There are four deep cycle 12 volt batteries that I run a 12 volt TV and a 100 watt inverter that runs my lap top. I now can not run my lap top off the 12 volt to 120 inverter. I have trouble with the batteries having dead cells. Is it something that I am doing wrong or is it bad battery? I would like to hook up a 30 volt wind turbine to the batteries, can I – should I? What should I do for this system so that I can have 12 volt power for the inverter and 12 volt TV to last through the night? Or to last a couple of days without sun light??

Hallo friends,
some of your comments are not compatitable with my experiences. Let me tell following
story: A user installed an AGM-battery into his emergency devices and after 15 years the battery was still working. He told it to his Golf-friends and every body installed
such a battery into his caddy. But the life of this batteries was lower now than 1 year. What was the reason ? This user did\‘nt tell his friends, that the emergency-case never happened and the caddyuser discharged and recharded every day.

The lowest point of discharge should be 70 % from 100 %, because the deeper you discharge the shorter is the life of an AGM-battery. I try to explain this as follows:

Real AGM-batteries are made with the same thin plates as for starting purpose. Very clear, because it is a Starterbattery which shall give high power and for this high
power you need surface.
Why do you want to pay for something, which you do\‘nt need. For Semitraction purpose
it is not neccessary to get high power. You need Ah, nothing else. If you have to chose between starting application and Semitraction applications than you should decide only between normal lead/acid and a GEL-battery. AGM is designed only for many electrical users and for start/stop, not for Semitraction. But this is, as many other things, mostly a question of experience. Who has the big pocket, can make expensive experiences. (Excused my bad english, I am only a German.
regards
Klaus Stratmann
GELBatt GmbH
Germany

Looking for some help. I work for a company that sells commercial cleaning equipment and many of the machines use deep cycle batteries like the ones being discussed here. We have a customer who purchased a machine that came equiped with 2 12v \“wet\” batteries and a digital on-board charger. They would like to upgrade to AGM batteries. The machine has a dipswitch in the control handle that can be switched to \“wet\” or \“gel\” and the charger has a sequence of dipswitches that can be adjusted for either as well. Since there is no AGM option, would I be better off leaving the machine set to operate/charge \“wet\” or switching the settings to \“gel\”? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I have just purchased a new caravan which is fitted with a 80AH wet cell and an MX25Charger (240V), a solar regulator that can be adjusted for different types of batteries, and is charged from the tow vehicle alternator when travelling directly. I am thinking of putting the wet cell in the car and purchasing a Gell or AGM for the van with a higher AH capacity. Would I have to change the MX charger (240V) and/or fit a regulator of some description between the alternator and battery?
Regards/John

So long as 5 is the top rating as the stuff here is great and the tech excellent. I am just trying to work out what type of battery to put into my Moto Guzzi Le Mans. At the moment it is a Hawker Energy ODYSSEY – made in the USA. The Guzzi is getting a little slow to crank over so i want to know the best type of system to get. This has helped me greatly but if i could get some further guidance it would be great. The bike gets a reasonable amount of use and normally 100km/ride.
Cheers,
Andrew

I have 2 100w solar panels with a 30amp charge controller. I was wondering if it‘s ok to connect it to a 31-AGM 12volt 100ah battery? will the charger controller be ok to charge this battery

What YTX9BS battery is recomended for my Honda EU3000is Generator ?

Thank You LJD

Folks. My battery application is mostly for solar remote lighting and power back-up in Nigeria. As discussed by some people earlier. AGM being more fluid in nature, responds better to high power draw than Gel that is more sluggish. However, for slower discharge like constant current (solar lighting for eg), Gel battery is far more superior, from my experience. But generally, Can those of you who think that AGM and Gel batteries have similar lifespans explain to me why the cycle life vs discharge depths (say 50%) reported by most manufacturers show a much shorter lifespan for AGM batteries than Gel?

Can you mix GEL and AGM batteries in the same charging system? Ie Can you link 2 104aH batteries in parallel ?

Thanks

hi,i am installing hydropower in my camp and in winter time i cant use but temp goes down to 20 to 30 below.wich type of battery would be best form my app.can i let them sit useless on low temp???

Very Helpful.