[rdunk]

Well Ron, I would not even try to change your decision to go with the liquid acid cell batteries, but..............., I do have one more thing to say about why I would never have that type of battery(s) again in the same "room" I was living and sleeping in. And neither especially would my DW!!

Yes, the liquid cell batteries are mainly cheaper, as several have pointed out! And yes, they do give some of the fulltimers "something to do" relative to the required regular maintenance checks. lol lol But there was/is a huge safety element that we had the unfortunate opportunity to experience, and just absolutely would not put ourselves in a position to go through that again.

We took delivery of our new 2005 Mobile suites in April 2005. In late October that year, and on the way to the RGV for the Winter, we were spending a week at Buckorn's RV in Kerrville Texas. Late one evening, we at once notice a hugely offensive gaseous smell, and all of our alarms started going off. I mean this was extremely offensive!!! We had to get out of the 5er, and I quickly made a call to a 24 hour mobile service guy, that got to us in about 10 minutes. He quickly assessed the problem, and determined that the converter had failed, and was drastically overcharging the batteries. So, he quickly got the battery "outgassing" stopped, but the fumes inside the 5er were still so bad that we had to spend the night in a Kerrville Motel.

Long story short, the factory guys were great. They overnighted a replacement converter, took care of the on-sight labor requirements for the change out, and later reimbursed me for the comparable cost for replacement batteries. It was at this time that the RV Tech strongly recommended that we go to the AGM non-liquid acid cell batteries, which would drastically reduce the possibility of such a heavy outgassing if we had a similar reoccurrence/converter failure.

And that is how we came to install the Lifeline AGM batteries. Yes they were very expensive, and there are many AGM's available that less expensively deliver the AGM product. But.........................to not have to go through the above very traumatic experience again, almost no price, WITHIN REASON, would be too much for the assurance that we were in a far better situation, in our tiny fulltime home, with the AGM batteries!!!!!

Again Ron, I am not trying to change your mind, but there may be others who are still trying to decide on their next batteries, or on optional batteries for their "New Suites" order. And they may decide for personnel reasons, to go with the more safe AGM batteries!!

Good luck!!