Need to replace serpentine belt - opinions on brands? OEM or aftermarket?

[9050lx]

If you buy autozone belts it would be rational and prudent to carry a spare.(just buy 2)

[--weezl--]

did anyone mention dayco? i've used dayco belts many times, never had an issue... except for one time when it exploded... i think it was a dayco...

i had straight water in my mustang, when i moved from a place that saw it's coldest day of the year, around -7 celcius, to my current home, where i have seen -44... anyways, i went out in -22 and started the car up, a weird whirring/screech noise came out from under the hood, followed by a *whack whack whack whack* at a high speed, i shut the engine off and looked under the hood, i had bits of belt EVERYWHERE! as it turned out, the waterpump was frozen solid, (because it was full of water with no antifreeze) and the belt was stiff as a board, trying to go around the pulleys, it had shreaded sections of ribs off in long pieces, the whack noise i heard was pieces of belt hitting the hood, as it came around the alternator!... so i did what anyone who was broke and late for work would do... reached in, pulled the little belt off one of the smooth pulleys, and un weaved it from the rest of them, started the car up with no belt, let it run for 5 minutes or so, shut it off, let it sit, pulled all the little dangly pieces off of the belt, turned out i had 2 ribs that were undamaged, put the 2 rib belt back on the car, (after freeing up the water pump by chipping through the ice inside, by hand) started the car up, and went to work