Whether searching for a means to power your trolling motor or an energy storage option to work with your home solar panels, a deep cycle battery is a solution. These batteries are made to be charged and discharged several times throughout their useful lives, giving electronics and appliances battery power for many years.
Deep cycle batteries have crucial properties that should be understood, including their numerous varieties, how they differ, and the applications in which they excel. So let’s go right in and start doing this!
Deep Cycle Battery
A deep cycle battery can provide a consistent stream of electricity while discharging and is designed to be charged and drained often. Despite coming in various sizes, they resemble a typical 12-volt automobile battery and are housed in robust rectangular boxes with positive and negative connections.
However, lithium batteries are gaining popularity. Deep cycle batteries, like car batteries, frequently use lead-acid technology, with lead plates connected to the terminals and suspended in an electrolyte solution containing sulfuric acid.
Deep Cycle Battery vs. Car Battery
The 12-volt battery in gasoline-powered vehicles is used for the ignition switch, starting and powering the starter motor, and operating the lights. The starting, lighting, and ignition (SLI) battery is another name for an automobile battery.
An SLI battery has to pull a lot of electrons from its electrolyte solution to supply the starting motor with the highly intense burst of energy it requires. An SLI battery does this via several tiny metal plates linked to its terminals. Because of the increased surface area in contact with the electrolyte, the battery can draw large amounts of power simultaneously.
On the other hand, a lead acid deep cycle battery has thicker metal plates. This implies that, unlike an SLI battery, it cannot pull a very high current through its terminals. Instead, it can deliver a continuous stream of power, and since its plates are thicker, corrosion is prevented even when the battery is drained. Deep cycle lead acid batteries are also available in various sizes because they are not required to fit inside the typical vehicle battery box.