Batteries

[Gr8tewhite05]

What's the current best replacement battery on the market now?

 

[goodguys75]

What's the current best replacement battery on the market now?

that is a very open ended question... you can find this somewhere on here already im sure, but if not you will be confused by all the answers... I just bought some kirkland batt from costco... . but not the interstates that they sell now... a least that is the case in vegas... they have been good so far

 

[seafish]

Deka is my favorite brand right now... they still are made in this country, use a proprieatry plate design that is supposed to resist shorting from sulphation, and are still oem supplier to CAT diesel equipment. They make both a lead acid and an agm design. I have a pair of the lead acids in my JD350 crawler/loader that are over 10 years old and still going STRONG, despite that they run only 6 months out of the year and sit quietly (unfortunately NOT on a trickle charger) the rest of the wet season. My second favorite would be the Diehard Platinum AGM batteries, which are simply a rebranded Odysseys. . they have an excellent reputation, and LOTS of CCA, but you are going to pay for it. Optima seems to be mostly OUT of favor since they moved manufacturing to CHina... many people are reporting troubles with them, where they used to be trouble free. For bang for the buck, many people say that you can't beat the replacement warranty from either Cosco or Walmart.

 

[SHobbs]

I don't mind paying for quality on the important things. Batteries are one of them and after a little research seafish is correct, EnerSys ( Odyssey ) does infact make the Diehard Platinum. My seven year old Optimas are getting tired and I can tell they might not last much longer. Looking on the Sears website they list the DieHard Automotive Battery, Platinum P-1 - Group Size 34 for around $209 with a 4-Year Free Replacement; 100-Month Prorated Limited Warranty. Might have to look into a couple of these.



From a search on these batteries:

Sears did their homework when they searched for a battery manufacturer to work with them on their new Diehard Platinum battery line. They obviously were searching for the next generation of ultimate Diehard power. Enersys the worlds largest industrial battery manufacturer was capable of exactly that. Enersys and Sears worked together to bring the next generation of Diehard power to another level. The new Diehard batteries would turn out to be AGM(Absorption Glass Mat) composition. These new AGM batteries made up of a composition of lead paste absorbed into fiberglass matting. This new design did away with free acid inside the battery. The new Diehard could be punctured, and still not leak any acid. The new design was also very resilient to extreme vibration. Cold and hot temperatures were also not much of a issue with this new bullet proof design. Sears accomplished exactly what they had set out to do.

 

[RCook]

Deka Intimidator is East Penn Mfg's g34 starting-oriented AGM. I replaced a pair of 7-year-old Optima's in my diesel boat with these 2 years ago, and am quite pleased. Much less expensive than $209 - I paid $125 at an industrial battery supplier. When I need to replace the 9-year-old Optima's in my truck, I'll get another pair of Intimidators.

 

[drag racer]

Optima Yellow Tops...

 

[seafish]

Deka Intimidator is East Penn Mfg's g34 starting-oriented AGM. I replaced a pair of 7-year-old Optima's in my diesel boat with these 2 years ago, and am quite pleased. Much less expensive than $209 - I paid $125 at an industrial battery supplier. When I need to replace the 9-year-old Optima's in my truck, I'll get another pair of Intimidators.

Yeah... while researching the Deka Intimidator as a replacement battery for a JD450, I noticed that MANY people in the boating crowd were extreemly pleased with its performance and longevity... that's a pretty good indication of the reliability of DEKA, where I figure that ALWAYS starting counts even MORE then on dry land!! :-laf



That's a great price, by the way, if you did not have to pay shipping... I got a discounted price of $175 plus tax when I picked it up at my local parts distributor.

 

[Skydiver]

Honestly Rick, When a battery fails you want and expect an easy warranty transaction. I buy batteries that give the most months warranty for the money and has stores located all across the Southeast such as Sams club.
Most all 12 volt batteries that I have owned since I started driving 34 years ago have failed early with the exception of the batteries that are rarely used. I have a 8 year old Mercedes 300 diesel battery that has been in my Ford tractor for 6 years. It just keeps working. Used about 25 hours per year and gets a trickle charge about every 3 months.
At one time I did buy the high dollar batteries.

 

[jhenderson]

Skydiver is right. Warranty is very important. I have been purchasing Wal-Mart batteries for my personal vehicles as well as my business equipment for several years now. That is until 2 weeks ago. I had a Wal-Mart battery in a 15,000 lb dump trailer go bad. It wasn't dead, but had no reserve capacity. I brought it to 2 different stores, and both of them told me it was still good, just needed a charge. After it stranded me twice in one week, I brought it back a third time and got the same story. I went to a local auto elec. shop and had them check it. Sure enough , 1 cell was bad. I bought an Interstate from them, and have had no more trouble. I wrote Wal-Mart an e-mail and explained everything. I'm still waiting for an answer. I will do no more business with Wal-Mart, Ever. I bought a battery with a 3 year free replacement, but their warranty was worthless. Convenience is nice, but there is nothing convenient about 3 trips to try and have something warrantied, and have to deal with people who don't know and could not possibly care any less. By the way, the local shop charged me only 5 dollars more than Wal Mart gets for a comparable battery.

 

[seafish]

I don't know guys... while it MAY be true that if you are on the road and a battery fails, it will be easiest if you have access to the brand/name store that you bought it from, the fact remains that as long as a you buy a well known brand of battery, there ought to be a distributor at least relatively close by, or maybe even closer, to any place where there is a wal mart or costco. For example, you don't have to have an Interstate battery replaced at the exact place you bought it from, only from an Interstate distrbutor and they are all over the place. Of course, A NAPA battery does have to be replaced at a NAPA, but they are also very prevalent.



All that being said, I personally would MUCH rather have a battery that is well built and less prone to fail so that I am NOT stranded and being forced to have it replaced under warranty in the first place!! All batteries will at some point eventually fail after they have given their months of warranty service... . the important thing in my mind is to find one that with proper maintenance gives you years of service AFTER the warranty is up!! A better made battery is certainly going to do that more easily and with more assurance of NOT leaving you stranded in the first place, then a cheaply but easily warrantied battery.



Just my . 02, but that is whay I plan to go with the Deka or Diehard Platinum when my OEMs give up the ghosts. I would even consider buying another oem battery, as they has given me good service, but oem supply contracts being what they are, there is NO way for me to tell if the current mopar replacemnt batteries are still made by the same battery manufacturer that made the one in my truck!!



Deka and Oddysey (thus the rebranded Diehard Platinum) are reknowned for the quality of their batteries. While any battery might fail prematurely due to manufacturing defects, or MUCH more likely vehicle charging system problems, it seems to me that right now people who depend on batteries for a living are VERY satisfied using the Dekas or Oddyseys or Diehard Platinums for reliable starts, both before AND after the warranty period.

 

[Skydiver]

jhenderson, they tried to deny me a swap on a 15 month old 27 group deep cycle. Said it just needed charging. I remained firm and explained that my camper light inside would not burn for more than 1 hour. The battery was not quite as bad as I said it was.
I started using Sams batteries 14 months ago.
Remember that sulfuric acid is flammable. Almost caused my late father his eyesight when he stopped to help a stranded motorest and their battery exploded in his face.

 

[seafish]

Just before winter started I was going around checking all of the heavy equipment batteries befoe I put them away for the season. I also checked the Diesel backup generator battery. . it looked fine and started fine, BUT had one bad cell when checked with a hydrometer. I ended up replacing it even though it still worked fine, cause I figured that with one bad cell, it is likely the others cells will OVERcharge, eventaully causing the battery to fail or explode and maybe take my backup generator with it I don't remember what battery I pulled out, but it came with the geneartor, already used, 6 years ago, and was no longer under warranty...

I'll bet you can already guess that I also used a Deka Intimidator in the generator, cause where I live, if it's storming out... it's better not to have to drive 1. 5 hours to replace a battery under warranty... it's actually easier to buy a high quality battery and then check and maintain the battery AND charging system to get as long as life as possible from the high quality battery.

 

[Gr8tewhite05]

Thanks all---Great information!

 

[wlowe]

I've had the group 34 Diehard Platinums for two years now with no problems. Lots of power when cold. I paid about 10 percent less than what they cost now. No battery acid or corrosion to worry about and one of the best warranties around.

 

[Barry]

OLD WIVES TALE:



I have revived several boat batteries by dropping a plain Bayer aspirin in each cell and waiting about 15 minutes. I now carry a bottle of aspirin in the glove box and before I give a jump start to someone, I do the aspirin trick to their battery to get them home.



Keep it in mind, in might get you home someday... ... ... ... ...

 

[Matt42]

OLD WIVES TALE:

I have revived several boat batteries by dropping a plain Bayer aspirin in each cell and waiting about 15 minutes. I now carry a bottle of aspirin in the glove box and before I give a jump start to someone, I do the aspirin trick to their battery to get them home.

Keep it in mind, in might get you home someday... ... ... ... ...

I have also done this, as a last ditch. I cannot explain why it works, just that it does. Do not use buffered aspirin. It has calcium carbonate in it, which makes it worse. I suggested this to a dingbat once, who later told me it didn't work. Dingbat was out of aspirin so used tylenol.

For a long discussion on what is the best battery, see this ongoing thread:
https://www.turbodieselregister.com...-discussions/227103-7-year-old-batteries.html

Note that the thread and a linked thread is very heavy with my own opinions. For what it's worth, I like AGM batteries for length of service and because they don't cause corrosion.