Superbatt Leisure Battery Review
Welcome! Today, in Off Grid Power Geek land, we’re doing a Superbatt leisure battery review.
It’s comfortably the top-selling deep cycle battery (ie. leisure battery). We’ll take a look at whether it’s worthy of that billing.
We’ll look at what applications its best for, how well it fits those applications and then you can decide if it meets your needs.
Introducing the Superbatt Leisure Battery Review
The battery we’ll be reviewing for you is the Superbatt DT120 12V 120Ah battery. It’s a leisure battery, or deep cycle battery. But it’s also Dual Purpose, as we’ll discuss later – so it can also be used as a starter battery.
Superbatt DT120: What We Liked
Here’s what we liked about it…
It holds charge well (relatively low self-discharge)
All lead-acid batteries self-discharge over time. You don’t want to let any lead-acid battery lie unused for several months. It’ll get sulfated and its ability to hold charge and deliver power will fall significantly.
If you are likely to spend several months without using the battery, you’ll need to either give it a top up charge once every few weeks. Or you can get a Gel battery, which has lower self-discharge. Or, you can go one step further and get a Lithium battery -which has extremely low self-discharge (leaving it unused for months won’t damage it at all).
We’ve heard several times from users that the Superbatt DT120 holds charge well. Lead-acid leisure battery can have a self-discharge rate from 5-10%, so the Superbatt battery is on the lower end of that scale.
That’s a direct result of the advanced Calcium technology used in this battery. That means Calcium is present in the battery plates, along with Antimony. Calcium’s presence means that the battery self-discharge rate is lower.
The Superbatt battery recharges well
A crucial aspect of lead-acid batteries is how easy and adept the battery is at taking on charge. That stems from the construction and materials used for the cells in the battery. The better the reaction between the lead plates and the electrolyte (made of a mixture of sulphuric acid and distilled water), the more charge the battery can hold.
The cell materials of this Superbatt Leisure Battery are good quality, so it takes on charge well.
Charging from solar panels, for example, it’ll take on the charge well.
That’s important for many leisure battery users – that the battery can recharge well from a trickle charge, such as that from solar panels.
If you want faster and more efficient use of power, consider a b2b charger (or DC to DC charger, or battery to battery charger). It’ll charge your leisure battery very efficiently from your alternator and/or solar panels. And it’ll even trickle charge your starter battery from solar, when the leisure battery is fully charged. This CTEK b2b charger is the best on the market.
It’s Dual Purpose
The Superbatt DT120 can work as a starter battery or auxiliary battery.
So it has enough starting power to start your vehicle. 800CCA is pretty good. CCA stands for Cold Cranking Amps. That’s a measure of how much power the battery can deliver to start your vehicle.
Or, as you’d expect for a leisure / deep cycle battery, it can be used to power devices, for example in a motorhome. Either directly (for 12V appliances) or you can hook up to an inverter to power 230V appliances. And therefore, it’s also great for use in boats or for solar application.
Delivers good power output (but make sure you know what you need)
Make sure you know how much power you need before you get this battery. For example if a device needs 1000W of power at 12V, it should be fine. But if they need 1200-1300W plus, then it may be that you’d need a battery with 200Ah of power.
Some people have bought 2 Superbatt batteries and connected them in parallel, so they’ll get 240Ah of power.
What Didn’t We Like
The DT120’s Depth of Discharge Capabilities
This is a traditional lead-acid battery. It’s highly recommended that you don’t let it discharge below 50%.
Of course, many people will let it discharge to 60% or more on occasion. That’s fine, it will survive, but just be aware that every time you discharge significantly more than 50%, it’s shortening your battery lifespan.
If you take nothing else away from this Superbatt Leisure battery review, take the following advice about Depth of Discharge: the closer you stick to 50% Depth of Discharge, the more likely you are to get 4 or 5 years out of the battery. In other words, you’ll maximise the battery’s lifespan.
If you’re regularly letting it discharge to 70% plus, you may be lucky to get 2 years.
If you want to allow higher discharge, consider a Gel battery – they can cope better with more discharge. The best Gel leisure battery (see our UK review), the Photonic Universe 100Ah battery, which copes very well with higher discharge, and has very low self-discharge (ideal if you will leave it unused for extended periods of time). For those reasons, as well as being more resistant to vibration, it’s likely to last several years longer. But… of course, it costs more!
Then again, you can also go one step further and get a Lithium (LiFePO4) leisure battery, particularly the Renogy battery reviewed. You can easily discharge it to 90% with no harmful effects, it has extremely low self-discharge. It’ll last you quite possibly 10 years, if not more. Again, though, it’s higher cost.
For more information, we’ve gone deep on how long leisure batteries last.
Anything else I need to know about this leisure battery?
Check the dimensions fit your van/campervan etc.
It’s super important to make sure the battery will fit before you buy. So check the dimensions of the space you have and make sure it’s bigger than this battery’s size.
Dimensions: L 330mm, W 172mm, H 242mm (including terminals).
Remember, with traditional lead-acid batteries, it can only be fitted in a upright position. Check out Gel, AGM, or Lithium batteries, if you need another orientation.
Weight
It weighs 22.5kg. Make sure that’s okay for your application of the battery.
Summing Up The Superbatt Leisure Battery Review
We hope you’ve enjoyed reading our Superbatt Leisure Battery Review.
It’s clear that it’s a good quality traditional style lead-acid battery. It can hold charge well, and take on charge – those are the key elements you’d want from this type of battery.
Just be aware that you’d get longer lifespan and higher depths from discharge from Gel batteries and still more from Lithium batteries.
Weigh up the cost vs. benefits and make your decision. Good luck!
Is it for you?
If so, here’s the best place to get it, on Amazon.