James,

I think the quality of the battery is paramount.  I've been playing with solar recharging, and accumulated (!) a number of SLA batteries over the 
years.  I had a couple of 12V 80Ah batteries that were fine when I left them, but after a couple of years' inattention are completely useless - reading 
about 7V.  Even a "recovery" battery charger doing a "desulphate" cycle can't make them hold a charge.  Conversely, some 6V 100Ah Yuasa 
"Endurance" batteries that were treated just the same were showing over 6V each, and with a half-hour top up charge were pronounced "Strong" by 
the charger.

All of them were left charged, and ignored for about the same time, so quality will out!  To be fair, Yuasa's "Endurance" range is designed more for 
long-term storage than deep cycling, but even so it means I can use those now, while the others are going for recycling as soon as I get up the 
energy to carry them out to the car.

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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