I was at Costco laat night and the battery rack is almost empty.
I'm sure the battery manufacturers will be working overtime this winter.
Last edited:
Costco battery rack - almost empty
- Thread starter JC1
- Start date
- Status
I was at Costco laat night and the battery rack is almost empty.
I'm sure the battery manufacturers will be working overtime this winter.I wonder if my local WM just put the old Subaru battery I traded in to get my core charge back on display with a $200 price tag... ;^)
C(cold) is the season for B(battery) 
Originally Posted By: JC1
I was at Costco laat night and the battery rack is almost empty.
I'm sure the battery manufacturers will be working overtime this winter.
JHZR2
Staff member
That picture is up to date? I thought they stopped labeling them Kirkland, and changed to interstate?
Originally Posted By: bbhero
As you know... Heat kills batteries and winter is when that shows up.
A cold spell like this one will spur battery sales to be sure.
Costco will benefit from monitoring which batteries sold. Parts sales data bases include when the last item number sold.
A friend handed me a "flatter" oil filter (WIX) for an old Honda.
I brought it to a big WIX dealer to swap it and the lad told me they had one in stock and had sold one just 14 years before.
He said they couldn't swap it so I gave it to them. "It should keep the other one company", I said.
They charged me only $3 for the filter I bought.
Sorry for the long post but it's snowing out.
I wonder how many of those batteries are truly dead when they get replaced. Last winter I drained one battery; this winter it got drained again. But it's limping along after being charged up. Another battery took a deep discharge also. Both are probably end of life, but a bit of charging and they still are pulling their weight, even in the middle of their worst trials.
I don't blame those who want to proactively replace--but I wonder if they are a bit too quick to replace? One good charge and maybe another year's use?
Wish Costco still sold Kirkland batteries here, mine lasted 6 years and was still good when I replaced it.
I have a 10 year old Kirkland in the big Bronco and it still spins like crazy 
I'm told returned batteries are culled for obvious damage then sent to places where they are "supercharged" and again inspected.
One guy said he heard ~20% are returned to some kind of service.
I have no idea.
I'm all for squeezing the life out of anything but I do know battery materials recycling is an up and running business so just grinding them all up expediently seems a logical thing to do.
Maybe the taxi cab market uses them?
Most people drive like me, few blocks, lots of starts and not enough drive time at higher rev.
Alternator output is great at 2800 rpm, but driving to and from the ymca I don't hit that for any sustained amount of time.
Then temps hit -5F, the oil is gelled, the batts will barely crank, people will run to the hills and get new battery.
I am guilty also, I just replaced my 12 year old honda oem battery in my ridgeline with a wallys value batt.
Well yeah time you world champion short bus rider, you may not realize this but sometimes someone just doesn't want to carry on a super duper technical discussion or dissertation... I know.. A foreign concept to to people like yourself. I could well have added a lot more to what I stated there. I just didn't care to because I felt like I had been run over by a truck... Had to dig my car out after a major storm. I was completely exhausted this am... However has everyone knows that battery life is predicted by how far north or south one is. And yes capt there is much more science behind why certain things operate the way they do.
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: bbhero
As you know... Heat kills batteries and winter is when that shows up.
- Status
