Originally Posted By: supton
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?
Some battery testers are very sophisticated so if you want to get the most life out of the battery, then certainly head down to a Walmart and get the test print out so you can make your own decision.
A while back, I changed a battery which was pretty obviously needing changing but took it to a couple of places for testing to see what the print out would say before making the core return. At the same time, I had a less than 3 year old, so still in warranty, diehard tested that I had no problems with.
As expected, both places failed the battery that I had changed.
But O'Reilly said my diehard was good while Autozone said it had a bad cell. He advised me to take it back for warranty.
I didn't do it because it read fine to me, Sears was far away and a pain, and I expected them to say there was no problem.
Well, 6 months later, the battery almost failed to start the car. Voltage indicated a dead cell.
Took it back to Sears for pro rating the warranty. I got lucky with the assistant who mixed up the month and day and thought it was just less than 3 years old.
Anyhow, I mention Walmart for testing as I believe they have the top of the range tester since they're optimizing their returns and they're also the only outfit who gave me the print out. O'Reilly and AutoZone didn't have the paper in their tester!
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?
Some battery testers are very sophisticated so if you want to get the most life out of the battery, then certainly head down to a Walmart and get the test print out so you can make your own decision.
A while back, I changed a battery which was pretty obviously needing changing but took it to a couple of places for testing to see what the print out would say before making the core return. At the same time, I had a less than 3 year old, so still in warranty, diehard tested that I had no problems with.
As expected, both places failed the battery that I had changed.
But O'Reilly said my diehard was good while Autozone said it had a bad cell. He advised me to take it back for warranty.
I didn't do it because it read fine to me, Sears was far away and a pain, and I expected them to say there was no problem.
Well, 6 months later, the battery almost failed to start the car. Voltage indicated a dead cell.
Took it back to Sears for pro rating the warranty. I got lucky with the assistant who mixed up the month and day and thought it was just less than 3 years old.
Anyhow, I mention Walmart for testing as I believe they have the top of the range tester since they're optimizing their returns and they're also the only outfit who gave me the print out. O'Reilly and AutoZone didn't have the paper in their tester!
