Technical When did batterie$ get ridiculou$?

Right around the time Don Schumacher expanded his Top Fuel and Funny Car teams.

 

Have you been living under a rock? Pretty much everything in life has gone up in $. Welcome to 2016.

 

Battery tenders are your best friend, I've had them on batteries that are 5 years old now, as soon as I pull in the garage the tender goes on.

 

I save old batteries all the time. The best test is to touch a wire on the terminals, if you get a good spark the battery is usually good even if discharged. I find Delco batteries about the strongest although any brand can be discarded for no good reason.

I used to trade 2 batteries for 1 off the junk pile, take it home, pry the top off and top up with distilled water if necessary. Give it a slow charge and it was usually good for several years. They don't like to trade batteries anymore. Too bad.

 

As I found out a while back they aren't cheap anymore but nothing else is either. I buy mine from the tire store that I deal with that is one of a lot of stores in that chain in the Pacific North West. I'm a bit different than most guys as I always get the best one they have for the rig I am putting it in. Looking at the one in my daily driver the other day that was put in long before I bought the car I saw that it appears to be ten years old. That company has warrantied one of my batteries in the 48 at 07:30 in the morning when I was on the way to Bonneville and the battery failed. Even billed the difference to my account at my home store so I didn't have to spend my road trip cash. Same outfit loaned me a tire for my daily and arranged for a new tire to be shipped to my home store when I was on a weekend road trip in the daily and killed a 3 day old new tire hitting a chunk of scrap iron in the middle of the road. Some times it isn't how cheap something is but how well you get taken care of if you have a problem.
That said the battery in my sailboat is a Sears Die Hard boat battery that is 12 years old, sits in the boat year round and only gets used a few weeks out of the year but knock on wood has held up great in all that time.

 

I go to the farm coop and buy a power unit battery for $40 exchange. they brand them as blems. No guarantee. and they last a long time. The brand name on them is USABLE

 

If you have a boat you really know how to get bent, $300 for a marine battery at the marine store.

Had my truck in for service and was walking around looking at new trucks. Fully decked ford F250 with a 4" lift , fancy wheel package & everything else you would never need. $80K.

 

What are you going to do? My 32 sedan battery is under the floorboards, I didnt think out my battery tray when I built it so I had to use a battery from a buick(there under the back seat) because of the height. $170, Like I said what are you going to do?!

 

the cheapest ones at the wally are $90 around here ( BCI 24 )

I just replaced the DD's batterys in both , the car was 5 years old and my truck was 6 years old ( it went into the other OT ) and the 2 were $300 ( 147 and change ) but they are both Deka AGM batterys ( 9 A 78DT ) ,been a Deka ( east Penn ) user for years as we used them in semis and the tugboats and they hold up longer specially in the trucks .

 

Groucho turned me onto those rebuilt batteries and I have been using them exclusively for years. I think theyre $25 exchange...last time I got a brand new looking Interstate battery. Besides the fact that their performance is indistinguishable from them fancy new ones....you'd have to buy 4 or 5 before you spent the same money as a new one.
For my '56 Cadillac I bought a new battery from a battery specalist store for about $100 about 6 years ago....only ever worked so so. Lately got a new battery that is Honda sized so it'll fit in the weird spot that the Caddy has...and that tiny size battery turns that Caddy over like nobody's business...I'm sold.

 

Blame the EPA, they shutdown the last US lead refinery in 2013 so the price of everything containing lead has gone up.

 

Walmart sells batteries everyday for 49 dollars . just ask

 

I have been getting batteries at Rural King lately.

 

I'd bet you and I shop at the same store for batteries. I know that all the LS batteries are made by Johnson Controls. I use to work for LS and buy a set of tires a month from them still. I'm on the good old boy discount because of that, which makes batteries actually pretty cheap! I'm also the same. Always buy the biggest and best battery I can. I rarely have battery troubles. I just turned in one of theirs that was dead, it was 11 years old. It still held a charge for a few days. But if you didn't drive it every other day you needed a jump. That's a good battery if you ask me!

 

DAMN! The battery in my Rocky Goodtime Van [TM] wore out and to save money I whipped down to my local Walmart for a new one. [7 years ago!] It was a common GM-style side post battery and when the guy quoted me $109 I damned near swallowed my gum! Yeah, I paid it....had to get to work the next morning. grumble grumble.

 

Started buying batteries at walmart a while ago, I travel quite a bit, seems there's a walmart in every town I go to if I need an exchange. I pick out the highest CCA that fits the vehicle, put it in the cart and go check out up front. You know what, the ladies at the regular check out don't even think about punching out the service date on the battery sticker.

 

The closing of the last lead smelter in America a year or so ago, at the order of the EPA, is largely to blame for the doubling of battery prices in the last year.

 

Damn, where are you guys living that a battery lasts 5-8 years? I buy the cheapest possible here, 'cause living in Phoenix means that at least every two years you are buying a battery - cheap or expensive.

 

Ask a guy with a 20 year old Harley how many batteries he's bought and if it's under 15 he's lying.

 

I bought a 59 Chevy with a rebuild battery, it would start the car one time for any given day. The battery look brand new, but you only got one start out of it per day. I ended up changing the starter, and a bunch of other parts before pulling out the brand new looking battery and throwing in my neighbor's boat battery, and the old 59 started right up. I guess you can say, the seller saw me coming. Other than that is was a pretty nice car.

 

Follow up - $#%*(&) While I am getting my new battery for the DD, wife calls up, our daughters Mustang battery is dead. $#%^&* and I had used it to jump mine that morning ! Can't win some days.

 

Ok who sicked the bad juju on us with this ,,, My sister called this morning the bomberville has a dead one , get dressed , go out and lo0k , check it with the tester , its holding a charge ( not shorted ) , look at the terminals after I take them off and the green muck from Hell !!!!

clean terminals and battery off , get out the anticorrosion spray , ( let my truck do a little charging first , got to love a Big alt vehicle ) , then jumpstarted it , her alternator was making good noise ( heavy charge whine ) and the tester said all was good , let it run for 10-15 minutes at high idle ( 1500 rpm ) gauge on dash back down to 13 , tester said battery at 13.6 , the combination of the green crud and she only drives 5 miles to work and back is what did it in , as shes a jump in and run person , no warm up and half the time the air or heat is on full blast so that alternator gets a work out and the battery doesn't see hardly any recharge cycle, told her she better take a once a week long trip ( 20-miles ) to keep it charged it up . I give the battery and alternator 2-3 year before it has to be replaced , now to get her to let me see why the change engine light is on ( or as she say cost money light )

 

http://www.ubergizmo.com/2016/04/researchers-create-long-lasting-batteries/
I guess there is always hope on an everlasting battery as above. But I think with fuel alternatives and such batteries the big companies say hey if this happens we will be out the door. So they buy the patent ,end of story.

 

My Nissan factory battery went just short of 10 years.If you can get the non sealed ones,they last longer.

 

I'm going to try a 360 CCA lawn tractor battery for $38 from Tractor Supply in my next project

 

$1.00 per month and still going . Not bad.

Ben

 

I have 2 in my truck (Duramax). Price those bitches! I just replaced one of the originals over the winter, just under $150 with my auto parts discount. Ouch...

 

You think the price of batterys went up you should see what the price of lead for reloading shot gun shells has done.

 

The inflation on battery's is not near as bad as that on paint.

 

I just buy the battery that a Honda Civic requires from oriellys under my account for like 70 bucks, they are tiny...I put them in everything. They crank over small block chevys daily in -10 degrees just fine, and they fit anywhere, perfect for hot rods.