6Volt are ALL designed for deep cycle use...commonly known as golf cart batteries... so you have no worries about dual purpose v. deep cycle manufacturer's labels. A pair gives you about 210 amp hours which is the equivilent of a pair of 12V deep cycle Group 31's....but they can generally be gotten cheaper and so are popular.
If one deep cycle 12V fails...the other can be used to run things. Not so with a pair of 6Vs...so I prefer to recommend 6V's in groups of 4 (2 pairs of 12Volts) but many don't worry about a single battery failure.
There ARE significant differences between different brands of 6 volt batteries EVEN WHEN the amp hour ratings are similar. You can get the bargains at the Costcos and Sams and they offer good performance at a helluva price...But...there are other brands that offer better cases/resistance to vibration and significantly more cycles to 50% depth of discharge. To be clear...you are buying amp hours delivered over a lifetime of the battery. If a $100 buck 200amp hour battery delivers 300 cycles to 50% (100amphours) then you get 30000 amp hours for 100 bucks or 300 amp hours per dollar invested.
Now if a $200 buck 200amp hour battery delivered 1000 cycles to 50% ...100000 amp hours .... you'd be getting the way better long term deal by far.
Unfortunately...the cheap batts never quantify their expected performance and you even have to dig a bit to get the same info from the premium brands.
I personally think that the various models of Trojan batts are a good balance between construction, long life and reliability ...while being a bit more expensive than the warehouse brands. That said...I wouldn't fault anyone for buying the cheaper spread from the clubs.
There are also high end solutions like AGM, TPPL/AGM, CarbonFoam and Lithium ...which range from 200% to 1000% higher than the equivilent size wet cell. We'll save those for another day!
"MACK"
Linear Mode
