Crown Brand Batteries

[TWG1572]

The parts store I use is a small local chain - Weaver Auto for any of you in the area. I ran into an issue last winter where I had to buy a battery on the fly, and the Crown brand was all they carried. Their sales pitch was that they were not an off brand battery, and they've had great luck with them. And they said Crown makes their own batteries in house, and uses some sort of pouring process with their plates that makes them better than other batteries.

With a dead truck a mile down the road, kid in tow, and wife out of town - I didn't have many options so I bought one.

I thought battery manufacturing had pretty much consolidated down, but their website seems to indicate they make their own batteries in Ohio. I'm just curious - has anyone had any experience with these batteries, or know much about the company? I typically buy my batteries through Costco, so this is a curiosity thing more than anything.

 

[PeterPolyol]

Crown that name seems familiar. They're respected in the golf cart industry IIRC. Wouldn't hesitate to use them. Really nice to see a real-branded, US-made battery too rather than licensed uses of trademarks by conglomerates, though there's nothing wrong with JCI.

 

[blupupher]

I think I had one in my Grand Caravan around 2008 or so.
150 miles from home at a lake house. Battery died and nobody around.
Luckily there was a cheap battery charger there they used on 4 wheelers and such. After an overnight charge, it was enough to get it started and drive into town 10 miles away.
Some little hardware store had the right size battery, and I do believe it was a Crown.
Had never heard of them, but needed it, price seemed OK, so I got it. Lasted till I traded the van in at the end of 2012

 

[stephen9666]

Here's their website. I don't know that I've ever heard of this company.

Their website seems to indicate they do manufacture stuff, but I don't know if they manufacture every single thing they sell. Many companies manufacture some things and then also sell products produced for them by other companies.

http://www.crownbattery.com/about-us

 

[spk2000]

Wonder if these are related to the Crown Forklift company. Build them in USA out of foreign parts so really should say assembled in USA.

 

[Food Scientist]

Originally Posted By: spk2000
Wonder if these are related to the Crown Forklift company. Build them in USA out of foreign parts so really should say assembled in USA.


I drive right one of their locations where they have a forklift on display. My guess is their bread and butter for batteries are for forklifts.

 

[BironDanmum]

Crown. Now that's a brand I haven't seen in YEARS. Like 50 years.

That was all that my dad used to run on his cars. He only ever kept a car about three years before trading it in, so it wasn't often that he had to buy a new battery, but if he did, it was a safe bet that he would go to the Gulf station and buy a Crown battery.

I was under the impression that they were a Johnson Controls-manufactured battery back then, but I don't know if that's still the case now.

 

[Jarlaxle]

The service guy for the power jacks at work replaced the batteries (four 6V deep-cycles) in one recently. The replacements are Crown; like others, I had never heard of them. (I assumed them to be a "rebrand" for whoever the repair company buys from.)

Amusingly, the power jack is not, in fact, a Crown.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I've deep cycled 2 pairs of group 27 Crown 12v marine batteries. They are cetrtinaly better than the group 27 marine batteries wal mart sells.

Mine were unfortunately compromised as I did not check the water levels in time. This pretty much destroyed the first pair at about 2 years and ~600 fairly shallow cycles.

The second pair had less of their plates exposed earlier in their life and lasted closer to 3 years and abot 700 slightly deeper cycles.

Have faith in crown. Have more faith in the quality of that battery brand, than your vehicle's ability to fully charge it.

A cool fully charged battery is a happy battery which will last a long long time.

Sitting less than fully charged is hard on any lead acid battery. The lower their average state of charge and the longer they sit there the less they like it

it takes a long time to squeeze in those last few %. Think hours to get from 95% to 100%, and while 98% is good, it is only half as good as 100% state of charge.

Given the choice between a Crown, Eastpenn, Johnson controls starter battery, I'd take the Crown, but the budget might dictate the JC.

Charge any of them fully regularly on a 'smart enough' charger and none of them will ever likely require their warranty though. 99% of batteries that require the warranty were cooked, or chronically undercharged, or both, meaning not the fault of the battery but the vehicle or human thinking their vehicle 'knew best'

 

[bbhero]

Why would you choose Crown over East Penn ?? I am just curious..

 

[wrcsixeight]

I always root for the underdog.

Aussies/ Kiwis, please disregard this slang.

 

[bbhero]

Yeah that's cool. I understand that feeling as well. I do the same thing from time to time

 

[kc8adu]

my long term experience with crown is very good.
i maintain a solar system with 13 year old crown l16's
they show no signs of failing.
the trojan l16's in a identical system are going on their second replacement in the same time.
guess what is going in this system in a few weeks?
i have 4 crown golfcart batteries in my rv.bought new 5 years ago.
since i dont abuse them i figure they have another 5 years in them.
the solar keeps them up during storage.i have a 75w panel on the building just for that.
too bad the 1000w array on the rv cant see the sun in the storage.

 

[TWG1572]

Interesting. Thanks for the info! I never would have guessed that they were pretty well known in more "industrial" applications.

I ended up picking up a Crown lawn tractor battery too. I guess we'll see how they are both holding out in 2-3 years.