Customs Are batteries just junk now?

Where have you bought a battery lately for $60? The cheapest ones I see anywhere are twice that.

 

Can you really compare between your electronically laden ot daily driver and your rarely driven sparsely equipped hot rod or custom? I believe there's a big difference.

 

One year ago we replaced the original battery in my wife's '14 Chrysler 300. It failed to start one day, the dashboard lit up like Christmas and we could hear relay's clicking everywhere. Replaced it, and it's transmission problems, which had been going on, and getting worse for a couple years, magically disappeared. Evidently, the battery had been marginally bad for some time, and wasn't able to deliver a constant voltage to the PCM, which confused it, lead to erratic shifting, hunting for gears, etc., with the transmission. New battery, drivability issues solved.

 

I have been using the Deka intimidator AGM batteries for many years, I dont even own a battery charger. Made in the USA!

 

I bought a new battery for my Corvette in July, it cost $70 at Walmart....the price went up from 60 that they cost last year. Before that, they were 50 for years.

The problem with the late model....yeah, you should have replaced the battery when it was 5 years old, as PM. Then you would not have had all those issues.

 

Gotta do what ya gotta do. The volume of responses reflects the need.
Jim, as usual, has it right.
I used to live in a colder climate than here now, and every winter was ready to expect a failure, regardless of age.
Most of those years I worked servicing cars, selling batteries, giving hot shots, on occasion blowing them up and warranties weren't discussed.
My StepDad, in his bedroom closet, kept a maintainer on a spare.
It appears that the diff now is the warranty and the extreme jump in prices.
Seriously, I feel attracted by the AGM theory. BUT in this moderate climate there ain't much strain.

 

Local farm store , $49 + tax last 3-5 years . 3 weeks ago( 2 day sale)

 

The topic of batteries can usually cause a polarizing exchange, but it’s not something I get all charged up about. Just ignore it for a while and it’ll die out.

 

All I know about batteries is if one goes bad in one of my cars I may as well plan or another or two going within a month. Same as a flat tire, got one will have more soon.

 

Wall mart had a center island battery display last week 24 series $69 also 48 series not sure if priced the same, 1 year warranty.

 

I knew there was something I liked about you! Frugality isn't a bad trait. But I object to the way that WalMart attempts to turn it into an obsession.

Didn't realize that Korea had become a big supplier for lead-acid batteries. I suppose they could be well made, but wonder if they are shipped pre-filled with acid. Which then leads me to wonder if we're now seeing some boat-loads of batteries that were just sitting for a year or longer, sulfating, on a freight container ship when Covid had shipments held up offshore at a freight dock somewhere?

Newer batteries seem to require a different approach to being fully charged. They have to be "pushed" pretty hard at a higher rate of charge, especially when they've been well drained. I suspect that many HAMB style cars or trucks are built with charging systems similar to what was found in most 60s and 70s production vehicles. And between that and not being driven as frequently and for shorter intervals, the charging systems just don't have enough "beans" to keep the batteries up to snuff.

Maybe we'd be better off using a more low-tech battery, like you might find at a farm and tractor store. Or do they even make any such thing as a "low-tech" wet cell battery any more?

 

No $60 batteries around here also. I get mine at Costco, Interstate battery, 3 yr warranty (no pro rate), plus the cheapy at Walmart doesn't last. Pay $10 or so more for a better warranty, BUT they only have a few group sizes. Also I have a few 4A Battery Tenders that I got on clearance/sale at Costco.

 

My wife's new-to-us 2020 daily needs a new battery. That's a shame.

As with everything else made of materials, corporate greed results in cheap materials being used in the construction of consumer products to save a few cents on each item and increase profit margins. As a result, we're lucky to get 5-7 years out of a battery. I can't complain too much, investigating the catastrophic failure of such products is what I get paid to do.

 

I wasn't making a comparison, other than the battery in my wife's car lasted almost 10 years, with a substantially heavy load. It continued to work, almost, for a couple of years before it finally failed. The battery in the Impala was only a year old, the car was driven maybe 20 miles in that time. No comparison was implied as to the use or the misuse of either. Some last, some don't was my point.

 

Good thoughts, you may be onto something

 

Interesting thoughts ClayMart,

Some good points to consider, I guess as far as sitting out on a container ship we would have to ask if the little date sticker is put on in China before it leaves or after it hits our shores & stores???

I respect everyone's opinion & we are all free to shop where ever we want, but as a transporter who is on the road a lot of the time.....I Love Wal-Mart! They are on every corner in every city around the country, so if I run out of pop, avacados, etc,etc on a long trip, I know I can get my stuff there + I can (for the most part) sleep in their parking lot for a few hours safely.

Back to the topic at hand.....

I used to buy Wal-Mart dual post batteries for decades as my transport trucks always had dual batteries, they lasted a good long time. At some point they phased out dual terminal batteries, so I had my Local Advance Auto Parts store deliver batteries to my business as needed. I had some good luck & some bad. I feel like the "tell" is when they changed the free replacement from 3 years down to 1!!! Then they had the gall to raise the prices of a battery that used to last 5-7 years & now maybe lasts 3!

Nowadays I feel like it is a MUST to keep a battery tender on every battery you have. I am one of the worst offenders, because I always forget, but this year I am going to have one on every battery in every car that will be stored for the winter.

God Bless
Bill
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/

 

And now the want to go and make all cars battery powered. And to make matters worse you can’t even change the batteries! Yay! Technology!

 

Electric car batteries start at 5 figures. We all saw the replacement cost for a late model recently, yes? $24,000. No, that's not an extra zero In the big picture us old car fuckers have it made.

 

Never had a problem with battery life.
I always buy budget brands.
I AM meticulous about battery maintence and i think that helps, especially charging during periods of storage.

Lots of things can kill a good battery from overcharging to alowing prolonged discharged state.

Always check charging voltage with the motor at highway speeds

 

I buy my batteries at the local pick your part. Fifty bucks out the door, includes core charge, tax and the fee they charge for the privilege of coming to their business. If it quits, so what.

 

I have done this too, for many years, but I bring my $30 load tester, and it will pick a dud from the rest.
I also go to the local scrap metal place with my tester, and go through the battery pile, and find a couple that come up good, and buy them for a bit more than scrap price. A clean up and an overnight charge, then I install them and give them a blast. Sometimes I get 6months, sometimes a couple of years or more. I had a friend who had an auto electric shop, and I would go there looking for used batteries. He would point out a couple in the corner, and I would buy them for scrap price. Some were from fleet owners who would change batteries every 12 months.
I did get a surprise from an Interstate battery (Costco I think)- it was in my pickup which sat unused for more than a year while being imported from the U.S. When I finally got to working on it, the battery was completely dead- just a few millivolts on the meter. I charged it up, thinking it was toast, tried a load test, and it came up good. I put it in my daily, and it hasn't missed a beat. Never had a battery come back from the dead like that!

 

One thing no one has talked about is whether or not the battery has been properly activated. That makes a big difference in battery life. Back in the late '60s/early '70s I worked for Standard Stations (Chevron now) and all our batteries came 'dry' and required activation. As we were doing 'fast charge' activations, two things were required; you had to reach or exceed a minimum of the specific gravity AND the temperature of the electrolyte. And 'fast' was a relative term. Depending on the battery size (not only physical size but plate area) it would take anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour and a half at a 40 amp charge rate.

Even this isn't the ideal. That method is to divide the Ampere-hour rating (NOT the CCA) by ten to get the charge rate then charge it for 10-12 hours and/or until the battery gets warm to the touch. Since I started doing this with any new battery, my early battery failures have been near-zero, I typically get 8 to 9+ years out of them. The one in my DD just passed 11 years in August and hasn't missed a beat yet. This works exceptionally well with lead-acid garden/motorcycle batteries but not the glass-matt ones. Those last a bit beyond the original warranty then fail in my experience.

Somehow I doubt the battery manufacturers are charging their products like this. It's up to you to finish the process.

 

How you got by charging 40 amps for 90 minutes without blowing up the battery is beyond me !

 

That was the official method, although they did have a proprietary charger designed to do this. It's been 50 years, the details are a little fuzzy....

 

I see a spark of humor here, so let's amp up and charge ahead, with more re volting humor for those who get wired out of this shocking nonsense. Plus... most new batteries will not pass the acid test!

 

Sure batteries are junk, if you find them revolting. He he.

 

I usually get 3-5 years out of the cheapest ones Walmart has

 

Our OT modern cars/trucks have a lot of “electronic stuff” that stays hot all the time. Most of may have incountered this when we bought our first digital radio. I was told when I didn’t use my 2013 pickup much to put it on a charger at least once a month.
I think batteries are not made as good as they once were.

 

When I was trucking, it was nothing unusual to replace batteries every year. Batteries don’t like vibration or hard jolts, which trucks get plenty of both.

I’ve gotten good service out of both the cheap and mid price range Walmart batteries. Also have used the ones from Tractor Supply, but their usually limited on sizes.