Best battery, opinons and experiences, please

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last week, I was reading in google group about best battery. Here I will prefer.

1. odyssey but Too clostly 0ver $150
2. Red top Optima from costco but costly OVER $100
3. Kirkland from costco about 1000 CA and 900 CCA for $63
4. kirklan from costco about 850 CA 700 CCA for $45


Over reading comsumer report, Kirkland battery was best rated by them.........

Good replacement for 3 yr no question asked from costco.
 
We had a Diehard in a Honda Civic for 7 years, and it was still working fine when we donated the car. We've had an Interstate Megatron (?) in a '93 Taurus for six years now, and it still seems to be holding up well. It was a 'police special', rated for something like 875 cranking amps. We still have the OEM battery in a '99 Taurus, and I'm a bit surprised that it's still holding up. I try to keep the terminals clean and greased, and the water topped off. I'll probably get a Diehard or Interstate when I need another.
 
I would stay away from exide. (I believe the new Autolites at Kragens are exides) I had a premium one fail after it was one year old. It couldn't handle the hot weather.

I have had good luck with AC/Delcos, and Die Hards, and have seen an Interstate go about 8 years.
 
I have yet to see an AC Delco fail in under 7 years. On all my dad's cars (all GM), the original battery has lasted at least that long, sometimes longer. The Delco on my car is still very strong after 4 years. The one on my wife's Honda is working well after 5 years.
 
I've had a Diehard in my Pathfinder for almost 10 years now with no problems. I put it in the truck in 1995; I know that. If I had to replace it I would probably buy another one.
 
After the not yet three-year-old Panasonic in my wife's vehicle recently failed (finally, something went wrong with the Sequoia...), I put in a Die Hard, and decided that from now on, given the relatively low cost, I'm going to start doing pre-emptive battery changes every two years. One hundred bucks every two years seems worth it if I don't have to worry about my family being stranded somewhere when I'm out of town, an unpleasant recent experience I don't intend to repeat.
 
I'm with Whimsey- the best battery I've used inrecent years has been the OEM Motorcraft batteries. The battery in my '97 F150 was nearly seven years old and had over 163,000 miles of use on it, including a dead alternator for a short time, and still cranked like a champ at -25F. My '99 F150 is at five years and 107,000 miles, no problems to report. The local dealership has them competitively priced with other high quality batteries. Not a bad choice, though sizes may be somewhat limited...

I agree the Die-Hard weatherhandlers are junk. In college and strapped for cash, I went that route. End result, three batteries in six years - not a good track record, though at least one of them was one of the Exide Die Hards.
 
I havent bought anything but interstate batteries for years. I killed one after seven years by leaving lights on but figured I got my money out of it by then.

Dan
 
I worked at Kragen auto about 10 years ago. They sold Exide batteries. We had lots of trouble with them. We had several that were doa right on the shelf.


My dad had 3 cars with Kragen/Exide batteries and he got so fed up with them that he brought them in and asked for a refund as they failed. He went to sears and bought Die hards and all has been fine.

Maybe Exide just builds bateries to the customer specs and Kragens specs suck?

I had an ACDelco battery last 11+ years in my Scout! It was working when I replaced it but I was afraid of getting stranded. I replaced it with a GNB battery from A-Zone.

I sold the Scout last year and that battery was 5 years old and still working.

I have an Exide spiral battery in my truck. Same thing as a Optima but looks to be made by Exide. 3 years old and seems ok so far.
 
Wow my 2000 camry battery is at 12.07 volts today, I noticed it has been cranking slow for the last 2 weeks.

I drive the car like once every 2-3weeks. It's the original Panasonic Factory Battery. I guess 4yrs been ok.
 
I had a 2 year old AC Delco battery die of heat a few years ago. It must have been +35C for a week, it was brutal for just about everything. This was on a leased 3/4 ton truck so I'm sure it was a freebie, I don't recall. VW/Audi and Interstate batteries are both very good. Are the Costco/Kirkland batteries made to the same specs as the real Interstate batteries? My diesel Golf killed off a Kirkland in 2 years but she had issues when I bought her, and they were all charging related. hehe

Cheers, Steve
 
My favorite batteries are ac delco and interstate megatron and any johnson controls mfg batteries good luck with all of them.
I never have had any good luck with exide batteries. Do you guys know that sears sued exide back in the late 1990s for knowingly sending them bad batteries? And sears won too and that is why diehards are made by johnson controls now.
Sears->
twak.gif
<-exide
 
Just bought a size 35 with 550cca at Costco, Hmm looks like my original Panasonic is about the same size as group 34. Should I have gotten that? I think the group 34 battery had 650cca or something. I wonder if the alternator has to work harder to keep the battery charged with a higher capacity?
 
My Car specs for group 35

Break down of price and power from Costco

Group 35 - 550CCA $37.79 $0.068/CCA
Group 34 - 660CCA $42.99 $0.065/CCA
Group 34/78DC - 720CCA $58.99 $0.081/CCA

Well looks like the Group 34/78DC isn't worth the money per CCA, unless the car needs it
 
I had a 98 Ranger with 120K miles and the orginal battery. All hwy miles, if that matters. I sold it to my Brother-inlaw, and it now has over 150K and the orginal battery.

I have a 96 Accord with 85K miles and it had a Interstate when I bought it. It recently died and replaced with a Diehard Gold. I told Sears I wanted the best they had...it was about 90 some dollars.
 
I had a 98 Ranger with 120K miles and the orginal battery. All hwy miles, if that matters. I sold it to my Brother-inlaw, and it now has over 150K and the orginal battery. And we live in Michigan, cold weather and hot summers.

I have a 96 Accord with 85K miles and it had a Interstate when I bought it, 1 year ago 62K miles. It recently died and replaced with a Diehard Gold. I told Sears I wanted the best they had...it was about 90 some dollars.
 
quote:
If there's a way to check/add water to Delcos newer than '96, I'd like to know about it. My '96 Accord's Delco as well as the Delco-made Wal*Mart replacement in '99 were
S-E-A-L-E-D with NO entrance to the innards. Same with the "DelKor" battery in my '03 Sonata - which looks suspiciously identical in outword construction (little molded-in vents at either long end of the top cover) to the Delcos - Hmmm... Does
"DelKor = Del(co) Kor(ea)?
Click to expand...
I do believe that the DelKor batteries are made in a joint venture with a korean company.

I aparrently was wrong about the delco batteries having lids that you could pry off. It turns out that they were just vents and not pry tabs. I am going to try to pry them up anyway, since I believe the battery is dying.

Conclusion:

The first honda/delco battery I had was awesome and the one on my newest car is dying after 4 years. Oh well.

-----------

Should I use dielectric grease on the terminals? What is that yellow stuff that comes on them from the factory?

Why do the advance auto brand batteries leak through the terminals?

[ January 04, 2005, 03:35 AM: Message edited by: seotaji ]
 
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