Did this deep cycle battery manufacturer buy smaller batteries and made a case to make it look like a larger battery?
An interesting set of photos are making the rounds on car audio groups showing a deep cycle battery (allegedly made in China,) meant for standby emergency power and car audio applications, cracked open, showing its inner workings. Instead of thick, steel plates encased in pools of electrolyte, there’s a smaller battery surrounded by concrete inside.
Check out the photos for yourself below.
One funny comment says, “When you buy your batteries from Wish.com,” a fun jab at products bought for cheap and manufactured in China.
It’s not clear who’s manufacturer but, according to its specs, this is a Valve Regulated Lead-acid battery with 12 Volts and 65 Ah (amp-hour) reserve capacity. Inside, it looks like there’s a bog-standard car battery with its positive lead wired into a positive post and its negative lead encased in concrete as some kind of ground.
While deep cycle and car batteries can share similar specifications, like the ability to deliver 12 volts with a 65 amp hour capacity, there construction and overall capabilities couldn’t be more different.
Car batteries have fewer cells, are made with thicker plates, and overall weigh less than deep cycle batteries. They were also specifically made to provide short bursts of high power to a starter motor.
Deep cycle batteries have a lot more cells, have thinner plates, but are made to deliver moderate amounts of standby power for a long time or medium amounts of backup power over 15-30 minutes. They are made to withstand frequent charging and deep discharging (hence the name, deep cycle.)
Car audio enthusiasts, who beef up their audio systems with more amplifiers, subwoofers, and speakers, usually wire in one or two extra deep cycle batteries to handle the extra power draw load.
With that in mind, you can see why wiring in a battery with similar specs but for the wrong application might not be the best in the long run. Using a car battery as a deep cycle battery will ultimately shorten its lifespan.
You might save a few bucks, thinking this deep cycle battery (photo’d) is just as good as any of the others.
In reality, you’ll end up ruining a perfectly good car battery and will have to shell out even more money on a legit deep cycle unit.
