I've been doing my research on a new leisure battery with a constraint of fitting under the passenger seat so a maximum height of 190mm. I'm trying to keep to a sub €200 budget including delivery if there's no bricks and mortar option. Shipping from the UK is either expensive or not available depending on the website so it's looking like a local purchase.
The Varta LFD90 and Bosch L3 013 appear to be a pair of badge engineered identical twins, both 90AH and NCC Class B.
The Varta is available for €130 from marineparts.ie and I can collect in Dublin, so a strong contender.
EuroCarparts have the Bosch priced at €155.60 with todays special discount code but delivery is not available and there's no stock for collection at any of their outlets AFAICS, they have a somewhat similar Lion Leisure 100AH for €120 available but zero technical detail makes me think it's sh*t and the Bosch is only listed to get the search hits in an attempt to bait and switch to the sh*t Lion alternative.
MarineParts.ie also have a 95AH NuMax with a 3 year warranty so slightly higher capacity than the twins above and a longer warranty at €145, also NCC Class B. NuMax is not a brand I'm familliar with but a little research tells me its a brand of a Korean battery maker that also makes Lucas and Hankook batteries, not sure if it's a simple case of badge engineering that differentiates them. Lack of detailed recommendations probably means I'd stick with the Varta over this.
Monbat have been recommended above, the only one I've seen that meets the size requirements is the
Monbat XLM110LB leisure battery- Low Box coming in at €120 from cosycampers. It claims 100AH but an NCC Class C rating and a weight of just 16.6kg v's 23.7kg for the twins makes me think it's a little lightweight and without a big enough price advantage to tempt me away from the Varta.
Banner also seem to have a strong reputation there's a
Banner 100AH NCC Class B option available for collection in Dublin for €180, they seem to be priced comparably with NuMax on UK sites but more expensive here, shipping would make it more expensive to order from tayna.co.uk than batteries direct. The slightly higher capacity could be good but not sure if it's worth the extra? I'll keep it on the list.
When reading some reviews on the Varta/Bosch I found the following blog, it may have been linked here previously too...
http://www.aandncaravanservices.co.uk/battery-technology.php
They evangelise about the Varta/Bosch but they also have tested the Yuasa L36-EFB and found it to be even better.
No Irish stockists seem to have the Yuasa, online anyway, Micksgarage carry Yuasa leisure batteries but they're all too tall for my needs, they look to be the older range. On tayna.co.uk the Yuasa L36-EFB comes in at about 20% more expensive than the Varta. Now here's the twist, I'm sure it's been mentioned on this site in places and I've definitely read it elsewhere, Halfords own brand are made by Yuasa. The Halfords HLB700 appears to have all of the same specs, size, weight, output, NCC class, etc... and comes in at €113.40 with the AXA discount, if it's identical to the Yuasa L36-FEB, that's a steal.
That got me thinking about a step up in the Halfords range the HLB-800, which specs wise reads the same as the Yuasa L36-AGM, both NCC Class A, size, weight, output etc... are identical. The Halfords one comes in at €156.60 with the Axa discount.
Is the AGM really worth the price differential v's the lesser spec'd Yuasa/Halfords or the Varta? As I understand it, the AGM can tolerate being discharged to a much lower rate without losing capacity. It seems however that both the Varta/Bosch and the Yuasa FEB have moved the game on significantly v's traditional wet batteries while AGM seems to have been significantly oversold in terms of its longevity in some quarters. Anyone have direct experience of moving from traditional wet lead acid to AGM or vice versa? Better still, anyone move from AGM to a Varta or Bosch? Was the AGM worth it?