Tim,

Small world, I have an alarm company in Vallejo, CA (Morgan Alarm), though I
seldom visit, as my son and daughter-in-law are allowing me to mostly
retire.

We experienced the same QC issues with both Powersonic and Yuasa. Now, with
most of the small AGM sealed lead-acid batteries coming from China, I
suspect several brands are coming from the same factory. Cases and fittings
appear identical. We've had good results with ELK brand, but even so, when
you use 200+ per month, there's the occasional early failure.

We replace our customers batteries every 5 years, though they can go longer.
For glider use, I suggest replacing them at 3 years. Cheap insurance.

bumper

"Tim Ward" wrote in message
link.net...

wrote in message
ups.com...
All,
I purchased an 8 Amp-hour battery for use in my ASW-20 about 6 months
ago. I had been running a radio, ELT, 302/303 combination, and IPAQ
3800. With that combination my battery would last longer than I wanted
to be in the air; generally more than 5 hours.
I recently removed the 303 and added an SN10B with one meter, so the
electric instrumentation suite is now a radio, ELT, SN10 with one
meter, 302 and IPAQ 3800.

At first I didn't notice any difference in
battery performance, but lately it seems the battery has been lasting
progressively shorter periods, and this past weekend the SN10 gave me a
low battery warning after only 2 hours in the air, and that was without
arming the ELT.
snip

The progressively-shorter periods would indicate to me that the battery is
deteriorating.
Yep, even if it's pretty new

PowerSonic is a pretty good brand, but when I was in the alarm industry,
we
went through a period where the PowerSonics were being sworn at by all the
techs, because they were being replaced so often. Six months later, it
wasn't a problem anymore. Probably just a single bad pallet. It could be
you just got a battery that didn't live very long.

Tim Ward