Marine Batteries!

At least one event photographer has driven their Range Rover into our car park this year to open the boot and show us their new toy - a deep discharge marine battery with AC inverter. These things are huge and weigh a ton. They will power your kit for quite a while, but there are drawbacks and dangers. One danger is in the gasses that most of these batteries can vent during operation - they're poisonous, not ideal in the confines of a vehicle. And one photographer told us he planned to ditch his Range Rover's starter battery and just rely on the marine battery instead. This may not be a good idea. Deep discharge marine batteries are designed to supply steady continuous current over a long period of time. They're able to completely discharge and then recharge again over numerous cycles. Auto batteries, on the other hand, are primarily for starter motors. They're designed to deliver a lot of power for a short period of time, and recharge straight away afterwards. If you routinely start your vehicle from a deep-discharge marine battery, you'll find it becomes exhausted quite quickly. It's not designed for that task.