Deka 8v195 batteries discontinued

[northshoreone]

I have a dead cell in one of four 8v195 batteries used to fire up my Detroit 16v92 DDEC engines. Deka has stopped making them. I have sourced four at a exorbitant price. The batteries where only two years old. Has anyone come up with a solution for a 32v system as a replacement for the 8v195 as at some point the other four will need to be replaced. I see Rolls has them but no dealer anywhere near me. Suggestions?

 

[wndsr]

I just bought 4 under the brand “Astrolite” which I have always used. Also Baltimore Battery also supplies them at a similar price under the name Best Battery.

 

[Scarlett]

Don’t know if you guys have Powerstride battery’s back there but that is what we use out West. Seem to be pretty good Batteries so far. Available in the large size 8 volts. John

 

[carolinacoast]

Call DC battery in Miami. They have shipped to me in SC far cheaper than I could buy locally.

 

[mike.s]

I needed to replace my batteries last winter. There was no way I was paying the insane prices people are charging for the 8 volt batteries. I made a lot of calls and ended up talking to St Lucie battery. They recommended using 8 crown 8 volts per side. When I told him I needed 8 8 volt batteries his reply was let me guess this is for an old Hatteras. He said they have been using these Crowns in 32 volt boats for a long time and typically see 7-10 years before replacement. They charged me around $1,500 for the batteries and the cables to hook them all together. The only down fall I see to this is all the extra connections to hook the batteries up in pairs. I’m about 7 months in and all is good so far.

 

[davidwigler]

The purists will disparage 8v GC batteries but those who have tried them always seem happy. Mine are 5 years old and still working well. I never had any problem starting the Detroits with them.

 

[Boatsb]

High usage separates the GC from the real starting batteries . If your drift fishing and starting 6 or 8 times a day you need the real thing. Starting batteries and GC batteries are very different internally.

 

[northshoreone]

Thanks one and all... I will make a few calls around this week. I do have the four coming that I found locally. $400 each!! The other bank works fine at the moment so I was going to let them go for the time being as they are only two years old. My concern with some of the other suggestions is cranking over those 16v92s takes allot of juice!

 

[mike.s]

Thanks one and all... I will make a few calls around this week. I do have the four coming that I found locally. $400 each!! The other bank works fine at the moment so I was going to let them go for the time being as they are only two years old. My concern with some of the other suggestions is cranking over those 16v92s takes allot of juice!

I wouldn't worry about not having enough juice to crank over the 1692's with the GC batteries. I have 1292's and when I bought my boat one side had the big Deka batteries and the other had 4 GC batteries. The Deka batteries were 9 or 10 years old, and the GC batteries were 6 years old. The 4 GC batteries never had a problem cranking over the 1292 I was worried about that when I saw them, figured I'd be hitting the parallel switch a lot. But that never happened, those 4 little batteries crank her up every time. One of the big batteries failed so I figured I was going to start fresh. Putting in 16 of the GC batteries gets you close to the power 8v195's had. If 4 of them could crank a 1292 with out a problem I don't see any reason to worry about 8 of them on a 1692. The other nice thing is all though you have to lift twice as many batteries in and out, moving 16 65 lbs batteries doesn't seem as hard as moving 8 130 lbs batteries.

 

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Call DC battery in Miami. They have shipped to me in SC far cheaper than I could buy locally.

Two things. First, don't know where you looked around Charleston. This morning, Santee Industrial, N. Charleston, quoted me on four (4) 8V195's $1,186 ($294.37 ea.) plus tax delivered to boat; AC Battery today quoted on four (4) $1,299.72 ($324.93 ea.), (probably no tax) delivered. Seems easier to me to trade locally, especially if you have a problem with a battery--I did last year and they handled it instantly.

Second point, there seems to be availability. No one has said get them now or else. Maybe they're going away, who knows? But, my last battery purchase, last year, was about $249 each; they are now $295.

 

[northshoreone]

Local is $395 per. I called the factory and they told me that they were discontinued. Interstate Battery can no longer get them. I called DC Battery in Miami and they called someone that is their contact and said they were not aware that they were unavailable at this time...said there were plenty of them at the moment (flag post model). They quoted $285 ea plus freight of $285 up to MI for 8 of them.

 

[miboatnutz]

Just an FYI.

We went to order the same battery from a source who I buy a LOT of batteries from and he was told by the distributor that they were showing "ten on the shelf". After paying for eight batteries, we waited and waited and waited.

Finally after a month my battery guy calls the distributor and was told that the inventory count was wrong, they were out of stock and offered no indication as to when they'd be available. This was two years ago. We gave up and bought Fullriver AGM's instead. Placed the order and had the batteries a week later.

I did learn several things though. Apparently Deka only manufactures that battery a couple of times a year and it's mostly for the locomotive market. Also we heard that they were getting out of the eight volt battery business because they sold certain product lines to other companies.

Based on my experience, I'd give it less than a fiddy fiddy chance you're ever gonna see those 8V195's

FWIW.

 

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

E. Penn warehouse in Winston-Salem has them come n stock.

 

[Boatsb]

Look for the 819 batteries. Those are the ones that were originally on most of the boats.