[Al Skierkiewicz]

This discussion comes up every year. I discussed this with application engineers at MK a few years ago. They do not recommend a general statement that paralleling batteries is OK. If the batteries are known to come from the same lot, and have the same age (charge/discharge cycles) and are charged to the same exact level, then it might be OK to connect them in parallel, outside of FRC use. Lead acid batteries are used in parallel applications all the time, battery/diesel submarines for instance and large UPS applications. In these cases, the specific gravity of each cell is monitored and maintained during operation. RV applications use parallel batteries as well and there are diode accessories that are available for these applications. In most cases these are high current Schottky diode arrays used for their low forward voltage drop.