What battery type is best wet cell, agm or lithium? Who makes the most reliable battery for atv's?

[Otter9099]

What battery type is best wet cell, agm or lithium? Who makes the most reliable battery for atv's? I need to replace a battery on my qtv. It had a wet cell lead acid. What doe you recomend for a replacement battery that is not a fortune and that is reliable?

[Okiechoctaw]

Agm are what we used in the military there pretty rugged and God forbid if you flip you won't have to worry about it spilling. I couldn't tell you anything on lithium 

[davefrombc]

For ATVs and snowmobiles the  AGM  has the advantage in cold weather.  They are also  a lot less expensive.

Lithium  shines in solar applications and where very deep cycling is wanted without service life suffering as badly , and of  they have a weight advantage when used in a battery bank in a motorhome.

For  motorcycles,  ATVs and  Snowmobiles where you want  cold weather starting and charging far more than  need of reserve capacity, go with AGM or SLA. They're rugged,  better in  the cold and are far less expensive than Lithium

[Autismdad956]

Ive never had any problem with agm. 

[KansasKodiak]

I literally just bought a new AGM battery two weeks ago and it's worked out great. Everything I've read about them talks about reliability and how you'll get years of use out of them. 

I know for my other small equipment around my farm I use small solar panel chargers (8 watts) to direct charge batteries during cold months or when stuff has to sit a long time. Those panels are cheap and easy to use and seem to do the trick so far for years.

[Avery Johnson]

Hell, I have to replace mine every year. It sets alot. 2007 Suzuki King Quad 700. 

[davefrombc]

 

3 hours ago, Avery Johnson said:

Hell, I have to replace mine every year. It sets alot. 2007 Suzuki King Quad 700. 

When   your quad sits  a lot , especially the new electronic ignition,  computer controlled ones they should be kept on a battery maintainer. The  small trickle  used by the electronics even when  the ignition  is off   will  drain the battery.  SLA and AGM  batteries also always have a bit of self discharge so  the combination  of the electronics  and self discharge  means they must be kept up topped up.  They  do  not like to  be deep  discharged  and quickly lose capacity  if they are ..  Totally flatten  either type  and you  are pretty much guaranteed the battery is toast..  A small maintainer is a lot cheaper than a battery and  will eliminate  the   buying  of a new battery every year. I  have one on  my  truck, another on  my quad and a third on my  riding  lawnmower. 

[KansasKodiak]

You are on the money with small rechargers. First year I owned both my lawn tractor and HD Road King I replaced the batteries. The winter drained the batteries charge down below it's capacity to recover. I learned my lesson on that and now keep all batteries on some type of trickle charging system; whether it's solar or electric. It's definitely cheaper in the long term since most batteries that are taken care of will last around five years. 

[Curtis Underwood]

On 10/3/2021 at 2:45 PM, davefrombc said:

 

When   your quad sits  a lot , especially the new electronic ignition,  computer controlled ones they should be kept on a battery maintainer. The  small trickle  used by the electronics even when  the ignition  is off   will  drain the battery.  SLA and AGM  batteries also always have a bit of self discharge so  the combination  of the electronics  and self discharge  means they must be kept up topped up.  They  do  not like to  be deep  discharged  and quickly lose capacity  if they are ..  Totally flatten  either type  and you  are pretty much guaranteed the battery is toast..  A small maintainer is a lot cheaper than a battery and  will eliminate  the   buying  of a new battery every year. I  have one on  my  truck, another on  my quad and a third on my  riding  lawnmower. 

 

47 minutes ago, KansasKodiak said:

You are on the money with small rechargers. First year I owned both my lawn tractor and HD Road King I replaced the batteries. The winter drained the batteries charge down below it's capacity to recover. I learned my lesson on that and now keep all batteries on some type of trickle charging system; whether it's solar or electric. It's definitely cheaper in the long term since most batteries that are taken care of will last around five years. 

You both are correct.
Here is something you might consider. They make a charger that will recover a AGM that has been completely discharged and set up for a while. These chargers have a battery reconditioner in them. What this does is to put out a low frequency pulse that takes about 48 hrs to break up the solidification that happens when these batteries set up and completely drain. But I have found on a good battery they will tend to try to recondition them if the battery voltage is below 11.8 volts and it will not charge it until the battery recovers to above 12 volts.. If you use your lights and say your winch it will drain the battery below this point.
So I have about 4 chargers lol one I use to recharge a low battery, couple I use for as a maintainer and this reconditioner that will recover some of the batteries but not all of them. It has recovered 3 out 4 I have used it on. The fourth one I think may have had a dead cell(meaning the plates were worn out from use) and it was 5 years old  and  the others were like 3 years old and less.

 

[fox2boost]

ive had goodluck with the yuasa brand batteries

[KansasKodiak]

I never knew you could recover a dead battery. I'm going to look into buying one. Can you recommend a brand?

[Curtis Underwood]

I bought a Everstart Max from Walmart. Think it was 39$. It does the job but like I said if the battery gets too low on voltage, instead of recharging it will try to recover it. What I do when this happens and I know the battery is ok I use my old charger to fully charge it. Then I will let battery set for a day then put the conditioner on it and if something is wrong then I let the reconditioner stay on it for 24 hrs then recharge and test it again. If the battery is solidified it will lose charge pretty fast just sitting on a table.

 

[JustRandy]

An AGM left me stranded on top of a mountain and I swore I'd never use another.  I had to walk 2 hours back to camp to retrieve a lead acid battery.  Lead acid is better except for the fact that all the bouncing around on an ATV makes it impossible to keep the acid in it which corrodes any metal on the ATV and destroys the battery.  I'm currently using gel batteries which are somewhere between AGM and lead acid.

[davefrombc]

Except for Lithium batteries  they're all  lead / acid. Flooded batteries are the worst and cheapest.  A very poor choice for an atv that sees lots of off camber travel,  bounces and shaking. The  leak  acid because of it  and wreak  hell on everything that acid touches ..  SLA ( Sealed Lead Acid ) batteries are  just that .  They  are sealed and vented;  built  better  to withstand all the shaking better than the cheaper batteries that can leak so easily. They still  must be mounted upright though.  AGM  ( Absorbent glass mat ) batteries have the electrolyte absorbed in a glass mat.  There is no free acid in it to spill so they can be mounted in any position and are the most resistant to damage from the rough environment  found in ATV use.  They all  must be kept  charged by a maintainer when  not in  use as they all  have some level of self discharge  and too deep a discharge can  reduce their capacity or destroy them.  For price and performance, in an ATV the SLA is the best choice of the three.

[RamzV]

My vote is for AGM , cheap enough to keep a few on hand