Little comfort to you to say this, but the batteries I have got from Alpha have always been good.
I'm not stating this is the case now, my experience was a long time ago and I think they were relatively new on the scene.
It does make you wonder what the policy is with old stock batteries?
I know when I was in the military computer world, domestic equipment was not really tested as it was too expensive to do so.
So when you send your board back with all it's packaging purchased from a premier supplier it is then passed on to a B grade supplier.
If it fails again it's passed further down the line. That said most of the time it has nothing wrong with it, I guess the customer either didn't like it or had installed it wrong. Cheap customer based testing!
The military testing gave the kit one hell of a hammering and generally cost much more than the kit itself.
I am leaning more towards unsealed wet batteries next. Though I'm using another pair of Varta's I removed 18 months ago as I was unhappy with the low voltage. These are still better than the ones in question.
I ran the air blown 2kw eberspacher last night for two hours to see how greedy that was. Initially 10amps quickly dropping to about 6. Shortly to 0.9 amps including it's standard drain. Shocked at how little it uses. Well within by 45amp hour at C20 budget of 2.25 amps per hour for 20 hours.
Even two of the high power LED strips I used to replace the fluorescents drew only 0.5amps.
So new batteries, 190mm high or under. I'm thinking must be NCC class A as every thing under seems to just be a starter battery.
At least with wet your able to do more checks. Just would have to check that the insulation under the seat has not covered the vents.
