Any decent Batteries left in this world? Diehard? Optima?

[Roert42]

Motorcraft batteries are great.

Half the price of the Napa Gold and they last 10 years instead of 10 months.

I think the one in ‘11 may be original.

 

[Brain75]

hmm motorcraft battery in a pontiac... that aught to look cute.

 

[Brain75]

....All of my batteries come from Autozone anymore. I buy their “Gold” series with the three year warranty. I get a discount with my account and when they’ve died in 3 years, they send me down a new one. No prorate crap.....

Anyone else have that experience with Autozone or is lil_blue an outlier since he used to work there...? If they really do honor warranty without prorate that is beyond amazing. Even Costco (which had the best prorate when I kept my membership) dwindles down to little at the end - better than most, but in the last 6 months it is about the same as the $10 core charge/value.

Fairly sure my '48 has a costco battery and that thing might be going on 20 years now, course for every fall/winter I unhook the battery completely and it is stored where it gets real cold but doesn't freeze.

The Ranger currently has a Napa, but the family abused it, every winter they would just park it and leave it all winter till it needed to do grass clipping duty again in the spring... Battery is 3 years old, but I bought that one when I borrowed it to use it as a landscaper - they insisted I buy Napa cause that is the only one thing you can get in 45 mi radius.

I flat killed it one trip to the junkyard, brake lights stayed on all day while I was picking, and after a jump it got me to Napa where they tested it with a real test and said it was good, been taking me where I needed to ever since. For a battery that was killed dead flat 3 times (2 winters and my oops) I got to give it kudos.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

Not sure if they are still good but i got 10 years out of both my interstates. First one i bought in 2014 for my 77 then it went in my ranger until last year, the one i bought for my 97 in 2015 is just now starting to get slow enough for concern

 

[Terrys87]

I stopped buying Walmart batteries about 10 years ago. About a year is all I could get out of them, might relook at them again. Just can't justify the cost of the AGM batteries unless I just absolutely knew it would last. I have tried several other batteries. Just like everything else, one company makes several different brands. I need to buy a battery again in the near future and will compare comments to the list that was posted and make my best guess.

One thing my dad taught me was to buy the highest Cold Crank Amp battery that you could afford or get. I have lived in several places where temps got below 0 and never had a cranking issue in cold temps. Even if the manufacturer suggested 400 amps and I could get an 7-800 amp I would. On the newer cars and trucks, I don't know if that could cause an issue as of all the technology on them but for what I drive, I am safe.

 

[John97]

I have a high-dollar X2 AGM in the truck and a slightly less expensive Duracell AGM in the wife's ride. No issues with either so far. Warranty is good on both, just in case.

X2 is same as Odyssey except for the colors of the plastic.

 

[Brain75]

Anyone running an Energizer (car battery) - a little research says that is one of the last ones made in the USA - mfg by East Penn Manufacturing.. apparently their DEKA (truck/tractor) is supposedly good..... Not on a "Buy American" soapbox, but seems the quality of american stuff is at least half ass there unlike the overseas crap.

 

[Shran]

I use AGMs in my off-road vehicles because they don’t spill acid when the truck is off camber or on rough trails. It also is my appropriate for my 12v fridge.

East Penn does make good batteries. IIRC they used to make batteries for AutoZone, Walmart and a couple other brands.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Is there an auto-parts chain that carries Energizer car batteries?

 

[Brain75]

Is there an auto-parts chain that carries Energizer car batteries?

My bad for not even checking that first...
according to this page:

Dealer Search

www.energizerautomotivebatteries.com

They don't even have a drop down for america on the homepage, only europe, asia, oceania.... and searching for a dealer using a Denver zip (hey it's the capital and biggest city) - zero results (it doesn't have distance filter just put in a zip and hit search).... so no idea if they exist back east of the Miss, or none what-so-ever, or...
I know I have seen them online somewhere but not recently - probably in 2018 the last time I searched for and bought a non-walmart one...

 

[Blmpkn]

Isn't there a way to rig up a giant capacitor that's charged by the alternator to act as the starter battery?

 

[Curious Hound]

Isn't there a way to rig up a giant capacitor that's charged by the alternator to act as the starter battery?

Ok. I'll be the silly one here and ask "Why?"

I wouldnt recommend it. Yes. Batteries are devices that store electrical energy. And Capacitors are devices that store electrical energy. But they both do it in different ways for different purposes. I haven't done the math. But I'm pretty sure the physical space used by the capacitors would be larger and I dont6think you would get as much cranking time. So, in a situation where you are troubleshooting an engine starting problem, you may not get many tries. Most capacitors are meant to charge and discharge quickly. Slowing them down requires the use of resistors. That would be wasted energy and excess heat that would need to be dissipated.

Could it be done? I'm sure the answer is "yes". But SHOULD it be done? Probably not, or you would see a lot more people doing it.

 

[Blmpkn]

Ok. I'll be the silly one here and ask "Why?"

Heard about the concept at one point and just thought it sounded cool lol.

 

[Brain75]

As to why DieHard is dead.... turns out there was a big mess with the mfg behind the curtains (Exide) pushing Sears employees to re-sell used batteries as new. I never had or heard about that happening, but turns out to "keep the name good" DieHard severed all ties with Exide - which means the battery's new mfg behind the curtains (Johnsons/Clarios) isn't the long running one from way back... This all happened in 2001, and apparently Johnson manufactured to the Exide standard for a little while, but then spun off Clarios and went overseas and and and - we all know the story.

A little deeper dig and I find Clarios makes "hundreds of brands" - which is why they are all the same and they all suck, they are all made by one mfg (at least it looks like everything except Optima with the unique spiral design, and maybe a onsie/twosie few others).

That Energizer being made by East Penn looks like it is still current, and for a while Sams Club carried Energizer but as of right now all Sams sells is Duracell.

 

[JoshT]

Isn't there a way to rig up a giant capacitor that's charged by the alternator to act as the starter battery?

Ok. I'll be the silly one here and ask "Why?"

I wouldnt recommend it. Yes. Batteries are devices that store electrical energy. And Capacitors are devices that store electrical energy. But they both do it in different ways for different purposes. I haven't done the math. But I'm pretty sure the physical space used by the capacitors would be larger and I dont6think you would get as much cranking time. So, in a situation where you are troubleshooting an engine starting problem, you may not get many tries. Most capacitors are meant to charge and discharge quickly. Slowing them down requires the use of resistors. That would be wasted energy and excess heat that would need to be dissipated.

Could it be done? I'm sure the answer is "yes". But SHOULD it be done? Probably not, or you would see a lot more people doing it.

From my understanding that is basically what those small jump packs do. Have internal batteries that charge up capacitors, then the capacitors provide high discharge for cranking.

To add to what Eric said, batteries also serve an important function for providing clean power for onboard electronics. If the battery wasn't there the power from the laternator would be very dirty and potentially cause all sorts of issues with the various computers onboard. That's why sometimes replacing a weak battery can cure a lot of other issues.