Battery C&d Agm Battery Clones?

L

Les Izmore

Junior Ranger
We will shortly be on our third AGM battery. The death of the first was covered in our $500 Breakaway Cable post (clearly our own fault). The second was a combination of lots of hard use, plus a blown fuse on the charge line from our van's battery, which meant we had prolonged periods over a period of a couple of months where the Dometic was relying on an underfed camper battery. Result: running on low voltage for too long means we now have a great boat anchor, but no boat.

We opted for an OEM replacement both times, and both times when we shopped around there were many bait-and-switch websites that claimed to be selling you a C&D battery, but in fine print they state they will send you a generic if the exact item you requested is not in stock. The first time we went shopping for a battery we shied away from the clones, because the dimensions were slightly different, as were the battery connections. Currently it looks as though the clones are identical as far as dimensions and the size of the post holes, threads, etc. But with the high cost of shipping an $80 battery, we were reluctant to pull the trigger on buying a close, which leads to why I am making this post.

Has anyone with a camper equipped with a C&D AGM battery replaced the same with a clone brand? If so, it would be very helpful to share your experience, good or bad, with the forum. We could have saved about $70 by buying a clone, but since we rely on the battery as much as we do, we aren't keen on learning of any shortcomings on the road and while at the mercy of Murphy's Law. Thanks in advance for sharing!
 
our 2014 550 came with a C&D battery. When it went bad early, primarily due to poor charging (documented elsewhere in these forums), I replaced it with a Trojan AGM 24 deep cycle battery. Fits perfectly.
My less-than-fully-informed opinion is that any group 24 battery would fit well. The trojan didn't have *exactly* the same dimensions but the basic battery case size was damn close.

r dickson
550 #645
 
C&D makes both deep cycle AGM batteries and their High Rate Max series (which came with our Camp Inn). Did CI switch to a different battery style for your model year, or was there another reason for choosing a slightly different style of battery?

It's good to hear that a slight variation in dimensions isn't necessarily an issue. And the stud terminal would work well enough with the existing ring connectors used for connecting to the battery.
 
I really don't know the answer to your question. We paid for the AGM battery upgrade in 2014 and it came with the C&D dynasty, which is described as a UPS battery. I thought that was a curious choice but I expect if I'd known how to properly charge it that it would have lasted just fine.
I'm pretty sure CI now uses another brand of battery.
And the differences in group 24 battery dimensions seem to be in stud height and whatever sort of protrusions on the ends. These did not interfere at all with how the battery fir into the existing enclosure.
 
Thanks for the reply. If Camp Inn has changed batteries, it would be interesting to know if that was just a cost saving measure, or if it is a slightly different type of battery that might work better with the loads that the Dometic puts on the battery. I would ask, but hopefully I won't be in the market for a new battery for at least a few more years...
 
Sourcing issues. The C&Ds had gotten hard to get in qty so we switched to Enersys batteries. Equally good battery, about the same price.

Cary
 
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