Firefly Batteries

[Submariner]

In the past several months it's been nearly impossible to find Oasis Firefly Carbon Foam (AGM) batteries for sale.

Fishery Supplies in Seattle, Pacific Yacht Systems, Ocean Planet Energy... all no longer carry them.

Rod Collins, who founded and owns marinehowto.com posted this yesterday on FB in the "Boat Electrical Systems" group that he also runs.

"The US distributor for Firefly batteries (the only carbon foam battery made) is no longer importing them due to quality control issues. At this point in time I would not spend your money on Firefly until they can get their QC issues sorted. They were amazing lead acid batteries when they were made in the USA. It all went down hill when the current owner moved production to India". - Rod Collins, March 15, 2022, Facebook Boat Electrical Systems private group.

 

[Annie Time]

Glad I did my upgrade last year. I’ll be interested in chatting with you about your latest upgrade. At this point I’ll pass on that one. Very happy with the Firefly upgrade. Need to get my money out it before moving on.


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[Martin610]

I was interested in these too. Going to Lithium is a lot of work, you essentially have to re-engineer the electrical system. Fisheries was the first supplier I saw back off on these.

Doesn't seem to be any real alternative. Are premium AGM batteries like North Star and Grayline really better or are they just more expensive?

-martin610

 

[Chimo]

I was interested in these too. Going to Lithium is a lot of work, you essentially have to re-engineer the electrical system. Fisheries was the first supplier I saw back off on these.

Doesn't seem to be any real alternative. Are premium AGM batteries like North Star and Grayline really better or are they just more expensive?

-martin610

A good question. I was happy with the Universal batteries that came with the boat but I confess that I abused them a couple of times and that probably contributed to them only lasting 4.1/2 years. Last year batteries were hard to find and I couldn't get the Universals here in Canada. I got convinced to go with 3 x Lifeline and 1 x Optima for the starter. Whether the Lifeline were worth the extra r if the warranty is worth anything I won't know for about 5 years. Check back with me then.

 

[Submariner]

I asked Bruce Schwab at Ocean Planet Energy what he'd recommend as an alternative to Firefly's.

"We're selling quite a few of the Victron Super Cycle AGM's, which in our testing seem to have great PSOC (partial state of charge) capabilities. However, they have a max charge rate of only .3C (37A each) and Victron says they prefer .2C. So...recharging from a deep discharge can potentially take a while..." Bruce Schwab

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-AGM-Super-Cycle-battery-EN.pdf

 

[FlyMeAway]

One of the more reputably yards recently recommended the West Marine brand AGMs (if you can find them) -- "the only West Marine product we will recommend." They're made in the USA and are just white-labeled (I can't remember which well-known manufacturer).

 

[Chimo]

I asked Bruce Schwab at Ocean Planet Energy what he'd recommend as an alternative to Firefly's.

"We're selling quite a few of the Victron Super Cycle AGM's, which in our testing seem to have great PSOC (partial state of charge) capabilities. However, they have a max charge rate of only .3C (37A each) and Victron says they prefer .2C. So...recharging from a deep discharge can potentially take a while..." Bruce Schwab

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-AGM-Super-Cycle-battery-EN.pdf

Interesting. So on an R5SC you've been on the hook for a couple of days and you fire up that D3-150 with a 160A alternator, how does the current to each battery get limited? I'm a mechanical guy and this stuff intrigues me.

 

[Submariner]

I asked Bruce Schwab at Ocean Planet Energy what he'd recommend as an alternative to Firefly's.

"We're selling quite a few of the Victron Super Cycle AGM's, which in our testing seem to have great PSOC (partial state of charge) capabilities. However, they have a max charge rate of only .3C (37A each) and Victron says they prefer .2C. So...recharging from a deep discharge can potentially take a while..." Bruce Schwab

https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-AGM-Super-Cycle-battery-EN.pdf

Interesting. So on an R5SC you've been on the hook for a couple of days and you fire up that D3-150 with a 160A alternator, how does the current to each battery get limited? I'm a mechanical guy and this stuff intrigues me.

External regulator for the alternator, such as a Wakespeed. It monitors and has programmable max current settings.