# Which Battery should I buy for a Varrox....



## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

I've got two Varrox. I've got two, so I'm getting one ready while the other is heating.
My battery went bad, so I thought I should ask this time. Should I get high cranking amps to heat the varrox faster (or does that even effect the heating) or should
I get a deep cycle. Last time I bought a smaller battery with a built in handle to make it easy to move between hives. 
Thanks for the help...


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

The thing you should be looking for is the Ampre Hour rating. Most of the standard car batteries don't carry that rating. Mostly Deep cycle batteries and those used for power backup batteries. Your Varrox is using about 150 watts of power over the 2 +- min of use. The battery is going to supply about 12 volts or so and when you do the math you come up with about 12.5 amps being used during that time. An Ampre Hour is the measure of ampres used over the course of an hour. Formula being in this case 12.5 amps x 2 min or .0333 hours = .41666 ampere hours per use. So multiply that by how many hives you intend to treat and look for that rating. I myself would look for one that is larger in Ampere Hours than what I needed so that I didn't deplete the battery completely. I hope this helps.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

Get one that's meant to be re-charged. Deep cycle marine would be good for doing a lot of hives but they're big, expensive, and heavy.
The big box lumber yards have small 12 volt rechargeable batteries meant for emergency lighting. That would work for doing just a couple hives between charges. Getting a charger for it at the same store is possible.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

anybody ever use a " jump pack " they come with a charger, I don't use OAV but it's a though.


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## awm (Apr 21, 2014)

I am in the same boat as you. A buddy of mine has several of these and I was wondering if they will work. If not I think Im just gonna bite the bullet and get a deep cycle marine battery.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Harley Craig said:


> Anybody ever use a " jump pack " they come with a charger, I don't use OAV but it's a thought.


I use it regularly ........ works just fine for about 8 hives. It's cheap and easily rechargeable...


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## agastache (Jun 27, 2013)

I'm using a 12 V,18 Ah battery I got on Amazon. it did fine through 8 cycles--I haven't tried more.


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## kerryq (Jan 27, 2014)

How many amps on your jump pack?


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## Haraga (Sep 12, 2011)

Buy the battery that your vehicle would use.


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## wallyblackburn (May 5, 2015)

I got a lawn tractor battery and put it in a cheap little soft-pack lunchbox, which has a handy carrying strap.


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## Robbin (May 26, 2013)

Haraga said:


> Buy the battery that your vehicle would use.


I like that idea....


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## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Haraga said:


> Buy the battery that your vehicle would use.


What I did was buy a new battery for my pickup and brought the old one home to use with the vaporizer. 

Wayne


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## dudelt (Mar 18, 2013)

I use the battery in my riding mower. It takes about 20 seconds longer than the car battery but I don't have to carry it to the hives. Just drive it to the hives and park. Works great.


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## Arnie (Jan 30, 2014)

I use this. I have one in the car anyway. Has an on/off switch and can do a bunch of treatments on a charge. 

http://www.harborfreight.com/automo...2-volt-jump-start-and-power-supply-38391.html


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## jvalentour (Sep 4, 2014)

I use a Duralast 900 amp Jump Starter.
No problem for my 13 hives.
Recharges pretty quick.


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## chas1 (Feb 22, 2016)

Haraga said:


> Buy the battery that your vehicle would use.


Normal car and truck batteries may not be the best idea for those that have a lot of hives to treat. Car batteries do not like to be discharged much or often. When you start a car it may only discharge 3-5%. Each time they are discharged more that that, such as when you are having a very hard time starting a vehicle, it shortens their life. If you may need to almost completely discharge the battery completely sometimes (you have a lot of hives), you should use a deep cycle battery, such as those used in golf carts or marine applications. If you have only a few hives, a car battery, or even a lawn tractor battery, _may_ be OK. It may be difficult to determine the total capacity of a car battery since they are not rated for that (amp hours). So I'm going to wing it a bit here: Assuming that the capacity of a car battery is similar to the same size deep cycle battery it will be around 35-50 amp hours. 5% of that is about 5 amp hours. The Varrox unit consumes about 0.41 amp hours in 2 minutes, so the car battery, fully charged, might be able to do about 12 hives before possibly damaging it. (You wont know it's damaged until a number of sessions of doing that results in a battery that will not take a charge at all).

It might be better, if you have more than a few hives, to consider a deep cycle battery where you wouldn't have to worry about over discharging it. eBay and Amazon list lots of them, for your reference. Take the maximum number of hives that you will need to treat and multiply that times 0.41 to get the amp hours of the battery that you need. Actually you need to pad that number some to make sure that you will always have enough. It could very well be that the deep cycle battery that you need will be significantly more portable than a normal car battery.


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

dudelt said:


> I use the battery in my riding mower.


:thumbsup:

I have the Heilyser unit, and do exactly that. Drive the mower out to the hives and park it in front of one of the stands, then do all the colonies on that stand. Start the mower and move to the next stand.


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## SouthTexasJohn (Mar 16, 2015)

Deeeeep Cycle.


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

I used my lawnmower battery for a couple of seasons. Worked fine except it would only do about twenty between charges. I bought a deep cycle marine this year. I'm using two vaporizers. I've done fifty treatments without any noticeable loss. It would surely do more between charges. It is heavy...but at least it has a handle. I use a small utility wagon to haul all the stuff through the beeyards..
Nothing fancy....but it works.


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## camprn (Feb 16, 2012)

snl said:


> I use it regularly ........ works just fine for about 8 hives. It's cheap and easily rechargeable...


I am not familiar with these, but I assume there are a variety of settings for the power output. What setting should be used?


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

_Camprn_, "jump packs" _don't_ come with multiple settings for power output. They are meant for helping start a car with a dead battery. Electrical devices (like a vaporizer) designed for a given voltage (in this case 12 volts) are generally self regulating in terms of power drawn from a source. It doesn't matter how big an oversized battery/source is, the vaporizer (or other device) will limit the current coming from the battery. 

Of course, if the battery/source is _undersized_ in terms of current output, the device isn't going to work. Stacking up 8 "AA" cells does equal 12 volts, but that won't have enough current available to heat a vaporizer.


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## camprn (Feb 16, 2012)

Thank you!


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## Pooh Bear (Jun 19, 2015)

As an FYI, I bought a small portable engine starter battery for use with my varrox wand. I draw down about half the battery for two treatments (takes about 2:30 mins to fully vaporize the acid). So I'd say you could get 4 treatments per charge. Not fantastic but extremely portable and good enough for the hobbyists out there. Also useful as a jumper battery for your car and for charging iPods, iPhones, tablets, laptops etc

Nekteck Multifunction Car Jump Starter Portable Power Bank External Battery Charger 600A Peak with 16800mAh - Emergency Auto Jump Starter for Truck Van SUV Laptop Smartphone USB Device and More https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MG687JW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_8iy5wbT7S94R7


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## Colobee (May 15, 2014)

I recently had to replace the original 10 year old battery in my truck. NAPA told me that ALL of their car/truck batteries are now "Dual Purpose" the designation is DP - meaning they are of hybrid "Deep Cycle" construction. A properly sized car/truck (tractor, etc.) battery with the DP designation should do the job. The size of battery needed is dependent on how many hives one intends to treat. 

It would be helpful if this oft repeated question were asked "I have XX hives to treat. How big of a battery do I need." Then those who are treating approximately that many hives can give some more relevant responses. 1-2 hives, 5-10 hives, 20-40 hives? That makes a huge difference in how much battery is needed.


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