# Advice on mixing old and new batteries please



## tviall (May 1, 2005)

I need some advice on mixing old and new batteries.

I bought my van nearly 3 years ago and just started to have battery problems (not holding charge as well as it did). 

The van came with 1 battery and I requested a second to match the first. The battery they installed alongside the original was an Elecsol 110ah battery. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the original battery is. It's the same size and shape as the known elecsol 110ah battery but it doesn't have any stickers or anything on it. So, of course, I assume that it is also an elecsol.

Anyway, today I find that the original and unbranded battery is losing 100th of a volt about every minute. The elecsol battery seems absolutely fine. Overall, it dropped from 12.2v to 11v in approx 36 hours.

Obviously, I need to replace the original battery and I thought that I would buy another elecsol 110ah. But here's the question.

It is OK to pair a new battery (specifically an Elecsol 110ah) with a nearly 3 year old Elecsol 110ah battery (that appears to be in OK condition)?

Thanks for your help

Tony


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## IanA (Oct 30, 2010)

The experts will give you answer or direct you to the old topics, but I think the answer is no. The older battery will pull the new one down which may affect the life of the new one. There will be issues over charging as the old one will probably accept a higher charging voltage, again damaging the new one. I would suggest you either buy two new ones or discard the old one.


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## boringfrog (Sep 22, 2006)

*Battery*

You've got three years out of your "old" battery, bite the bullet and get 2 new ones.


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## spatz1 (May 19, 2011)

I ve been looking into this and if you research the telecoms companies you ll learn they change banks of batteries coupled in parallel (new one side old the other ... They also mix unmatched banks in parrallel and all with no reported ill effect...

It flys against the wind of all we re told, but for a £180 spend on two batteries its hardly worth thinking about for the guarantee of an unspoiled trip ...


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## tviall (May 1, 2005)

I bite the bullet and bought 2 new batteries to replace my existing ones.

I used Tayna.co.uk. Very good price and excellent service.

I would whole heartedly recommend them to anyone.

Tony


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## clive1821 (Mar 27, 2010)

there are views that there's no reason why you can't mix batteries.... me included!!! only to find 4 months later all 4 batteries were faulty...... so this time I replaced all the batteries within 2 months of each other and all's fine so far...... so I favour replace all batteries at a similar time.... as already mentioned they are cheep...... the telecom batteries are in the order of £800.00 per cell if I recall and they are able to mix and match, also they also wash out the batteries and renew the acid etc...


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