Morgans Cloud has been working with Justin an engineer at Lifeline and they've reported it all in their blog (http://www.morganscloud.com/2011/02/10/eleven-steps-to-better-battery-life/ ) Basically; Lifelines (and this is now found on their website too) need to be conditioned once / month. That is run up to 15.5 volts for 8 hours. Anyone on the hook can have fun doing that. Further, then you need to vent the batteries to the outside. Both difficult on a boat. In Morgans Cloud site they actually have the batteries on the boats centerline (as we do) and they run a hose with blower out of the boat! For me that is just going to far. I cruise for freedom from the insanity. Having to do that with Batteries is insane. Hope any reading this check our their extensive conversations with Lifeline and their experience. That conversation has steered me away from AGM's for deep cycle. Maybe when Optima comes up with some larger batteries then I'll switch back to them. Right now we carry about 400 amp hours in our house bank and that is a little thin. To match I would need 6 Optima's and that's getting a little crazy in wiring and also knowing if one battery is going bad. I've a friend on a cat that has 1300 amp hours in his house bank of Optima's. He has a Cat and the floor space but that too is beyond what I would ever want.

If I was tied to a marina year round and maybe cruising once a year for a month I might consider Lifelines again. Maybe when, with a DC gen set I can push a button on the regulator control and it will in a short period of time (not 8 hours) "condition" as Lifeline calls it the batteries I'll go back.

Right now IMHO Lifeline is making batteries for the RV market and figure why not sell a few to boats. I don't think they've got the boat on the hook system figured out; at least not yet.

My 2 cents

Go Slow
Sail Far
Stay Long