The same people will be complaining later when WM or Costco changes their warranty to combat warranty scams
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Car battery
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The same people will be complaining later when WM or Costco changes their warranty to combat warranty scams
Menards $99 24f 3 year free replacement
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My very seldom used Sams Club Duracell 36 mo. Group 58 battery was maintained on with a BatteryMinder 12117 its whole life, but died suddenly & totally at 44 months (>1 ohm internal resistance). I couldn't get it open to check the electrolyte.
Yesterday (11/7/25) I bought a brand new Walmart Everstart Group 58 24 mo. battery dated 9/25. The serial number begins with JC, suggesting it was made by Johnson Controls.
This new Everstart has easily removed caps; and I found low electrolyte levels in all cells that barely cover the plates. The level is far too low to suck a sample into my hygrometer.
Is it better to add more battery acid, distilled water, or just leave it be?
Yesterday (11/7/25) I bought a brand new Walmart Everstart Group 58 24 mo. battery dated 9/25. The serial number begins with JC, suggesting it was made by Johnson Controls.
This new Everstart has easily removed caps; and I found low electrolyte levels in all cells that barely cover the plates. The level is far too low to suck a sample into my hygrometer.
Is it better to add more battery acid, distilled water, or just leave it be?
Take it back, you paid good money for it and you should get one that's not compromised from the get-go.
The largest Walmart in our town has a rusty, battery acid eroded shopping cart at the CS area with a carbon pile tester in it. If Walmart wants to test them before accepting a return, they can. My local auto parts distributor happily tests and replaces my batteries every 34 months, if not sooner. Walmart is free to do the same.
I see no ethical problem with taking a battery back within warranty, even if has never failed to start the car. If it tests below the listed CA rating within the warranty period, it's a bad/failing battery and should be replaced. I purchased the battery at their asking price and we both agreed the battery would meet specification through the warranty period.
It depends on the wording of the warranty. When I worked at a tire shop Exide and Midtronics had an agreement where the Midtronics tester qualified warranties. 60% of new rated CCA was a warning and below 50% was a failure. Incidentally a brand new battery would test about 10-15% above rated CCA and I may have occasionally implied that our batteries were "really, really fresh."
Here we go again, something that could be an honor system is taken advantage. Lets blame WM for being generous with their warranty and not realizing some individuals will take advantage of it.
That's fine by me. The store having a metric is fair, as long as the battery at that threshold will actually start the car. The OE specified a battery for my vehicle with some margin for degradation, so that seems reasonable. However, CCA rating is at 0 F. If a battery can't meet 50% of a CCA rating at storefront testing temperatures, that's pretty bad.It depends on the wording of the warranty. When I worked at a tire shop Exide and Midtronics had an agreement where the Midtronics tester qualified warranties. 60% of new rated CCA was a warning and below 50% was a failure. Incidentally a brand new battery would test about 10-15% above rated CCA and I may have occasionally implied that our batteries were "really, really fresh."
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I think you read the part you wanted to read and snipped out the important part. My car is not a battery tester. It is a battery user. If the aged battery fails to meet required criteria on the tester, it's on the road to failing in the car.
I don't advocate returning a battery within warranty purely to freshen up, without some sort of test criteria to back up the claim. @The_Jeff learned me that there is an industry criteria, of which I was previously unawares.
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Any Black Friday updates?
Just because a battery will crank the vehicle doesn't mean it's in good shape, not by a long shot. If my battery's just shy of the warranty expiration and it's cranking the engine over, but noticeably slower than usual, it's going back for a warranty claim. It's only happened a couple times, both with Walmart Everstart batteries, and the replacement batteries were given to me with no pushback at all. Last time it happened, I was a couple weeks shy of warranty expiration, no issues with warranty replacement.
This is a legitimate reason for warranty claim, we are talking about people that do this at the end of warranty even when their battery is perfectly fine.
There are 2 entirely different scenarios at play here, but somewhere along the way the lines got blurred. You responded to johnmyster’s post quoted above by implying he was taking advantage of the warranty by getting a battery replaced when it would still start his vehicle but tested below the listed CA rating. He’s right, there is no ethical problem taking a battery back under those circumstances. But you responded with this:
Taking a perfectly good battery back for warranty replacement is taking advantage of the retailer, no doubt about it. But that’s not what johnmyster was talking about doing. He’s talking about replacing a battery that still starts the vehicle, but is on its way out. Which I’ve done myself, and you said it was a legitimate reason for warranty claim. And I agree. But you (perhaps unwittingly) contradicted yourself.
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Thanks for the suggestion, but I have had very poor experience with Walmart service guys. After buying tires, they refused to allow me to back my (stock) Jeep 5sp out of their bay; made me wait 30 minutes for them to find a guy who claimed to be able to drive a manual. He ground the gears for minutes (the worst I've ever heard}, and then claimed that the factory clutch pedal was in the wrong place - apparently he confused the brake pedal with the clutch pedal. I don't think I couild trust Walmart staff to be able to top off a battery properly.
I consulted a retired Ford engineer and followed his suggestion to fill the battery to the correct level with new battery acid, but he thought that as long as the plates were covered, it shouldn't be all that important and that adding distilled water would not be a good idea.
We'll see if this battery lives out its warranty period. Thanks again.
So, I need a battery for my 2nd vehicle I see Walmart has the best warranty, i do need something like a Group 25 but I have been recommended a Group 25 "AGM" battery. I searched a little and I see its a "newer" tech, and actually walmart does carry the same battery, ill post below what do you guys think? I am a big fan of Costco but not so much their new policy.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/seort/1377056785
https://www.walmart.com/ip/seort/1377056785
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If you don’t have start/stop, an AGM battery is probably overkill.
I have one of those in group 24F. Its 2 years old - so far so good.
i don't have start stop on my 2020 q50 but i live in south florida and our weather has been ranging from mid 30s to 90s, which is wild so i might just bite the bullet plus i see other q50 owners having other issues just because of insufficient juice some actually recommend Optima but i dont wanna go that route.
What’s your charging system like in your car? An agm isn’t a fan of a charge below 13.5 being applied. In my Nissans the system will start out at 14.5 and settle in well below 13.5, often 12.9 and stay there for many miles on a long trip. That’s why I use flooded batteries in all my cars but 1. That was only because the dealer installed an agm when the efb flat out died at 6 months old. I do charge all my cars daily, or at least 3-4 times a week. So far so good. I have watched our fully charged agm become depleted to 65% after an 800 mile trip. Not good. I’m sure infinity uses Nissans cafe minded alternator.
Depends on the car. Start/stop is one reason to use AGM but some cars are more aggressive on turning the charging system off to save gas. So they also need a AGM.
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