Your Battery Brand and Price Topic is solved

[theWIFES_S70]

.... I looked all around locally on line and finally, it hit me that I had some points at Sears so I ended up getting their last Die Hard 48 series battery w/ 720 Cranking Amps that they had in stock for local pick up. This battery is rated 5 stars by all who left feedback about it. Anyway, with discounts and taxes, etc. this battery cost me $111. I think I did pretty good considering tax here in TN is 9.25%. Sure, they'd like to charge $10 for installation but that's something that takes like just a few minutes. This car is my run-around car at this point in time but I still want it to run well and be reliable.

I was checking out their batteries just yesterday since Sears emailed me a $25 off automotive stuff coupon. The cheapest battery (600) CC was coming in under $90. Not bad if you ask me. I've always used Sears batteries in the past. Our car currently has a four year old Interstate that I took out of the Saab I scrapped last year. It's been great but it's always good to be prepared...The real test was today when we went to crank it after four days of sub -30° weather and ice all over the car, it fired right up.

[abscate]

Autozone sells silver gold platinum batteries here for about $100 and I always have a $25 buck off coupon
I'm pretty sure the difference. Is just warranty, so I roll the low price actuarial gamble. I get 5 years plus per battery. The low use cars are 1 amp trickle charged in garage

[850 LPT]

I started buying batteries from Costco a while ago when they started selling Interstates. They are $119 if I recall correctly with a $15 core charge included, so the battery ends up costing $104.
In fact I will be picking one up this weekend because the one in the 850 is dead as a door knob. I tried to move the car yesterday for snow removal but the battery wouldn't even take a quick charge from the charger to start the engine. I guess the cold temps just did it in.

[850 LPT]

silver gold platinum

That's a lot of precious metal in the Zone right there

[MadeInJapan]

LOL- unfortunately, I did not see anything at Autozone for a reasonable price yesterday. I'll just have to be happy with my Sears Die Hard purchase. when we got rid of the broken down 850 last year- had to roll it to where it sat, I should have been thinking and grabbed the battery. It had a less than 6 month old battery in it.

[wizechatmgr]

Mine has an interstate battery. I have cranked on this car for quite some time (~5+ minutes total over an hour - can you say blown fuel injection/pump fuse?) and it stood up just fine. My battery was replaced in late December so we'll see how it ages.

I've also used the Optima red tops - they were okay - I think they charge quicker than anything I've seen when used as a starting battery. My personal favorite is the AC/Delco brand.

When are we going to start using LiFePO4 batteries in cars? ~10 year expected design life on average.

[mecheng]

For those living in Canada, Cdn tire no longer has their 8 yr warantee, my battery lasted 6 years so I got it for $80 instead of $130, they now have 3yr warantees. There are very few battery mfgs, just get something with a decent warrantee, they will eventually fail.

[MadeInJapan]

Read yesterday where you open the caps up on the 6 cells of a dead battery- drain the acid out, fill with a baking soda mixture, let it bubble, rinse this out real good, then add Alum and Epson Salt solution and charge, charge charge! Changing the liquid in the cells and converting it to basic pickling solution allows a battery to be rejuvenated. Evidently, charging up with a 2-3 Amp trickle charge for 24-48 hours and then "cycling the battery" by putting it on a load several times and then charging it again increases the cranking amps, restoring them to what they once were (if you're lucky). Of course, salt is highly corrosive so the plates in the battery aren't going to last like they normally would, but if this works, you might get another year or maybe even more out of a typical lead acid battery. Any thoughts on this? Anyone done this?

[850 LPT]

I started buying batteries from Costco a while ago when they started selling Interstates. They are $119 if I recall correctly with a $15 core charge included, so the battery ends up costing $104.
In fact I will be picking one up this weekend because the one in the 850 is dead as a door knob. I tried to move the car yesterday for snow removal but the battery wouldn't even take a quick charge from the charger to start the engine. I guess the cold temps just did it in.

Slight correction on the price for the Interstate at Costco. I picked one up yesterday and it cost $109 + $15 core + $7 tax. Final price: $116.

[abscate]

Read yesterday where you open the caps up on the 6 cells of a dead battery- drain the acid out, fill with a baking soda mixture, let it bubble, rinse this out real good, then add Alum and Epson Salt solution and charge, charge charge! Changing the liquid in the cells and converting it to basic pickling solution allows a battery to be rejuvenated. Evidently, charging up with a 2-3 Amp trickle charge for 24-48 hours and then "cycling the battery" by putting it on a load several times and then charging it again increases the cranking amps, restoring them to what they once were (if you're lucky). Of course, salt is highly corrosive so the plates in the battery aren't going to last like they normally would, but if this works, you might get another year or maybe even more out of a typical lead acid battery. Any thoughts on this? Anyone done this?

Yeah - Unless you have the right safety equipment to be fussing with 1 liter of sulfuric acid, I think I would pass.



One note though - if you have a good scrap metal recycler in town, you often get 2-3x more for your dead battery than the core charge for recycled lead. I recycle shipping materials for scrap at about $190 a ton, rather than paying a guy $100 to haul, and last time I paid for dinner with lead credits.