Exide Batteries

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I work on a small fleet of cars, and got lots of calls for new batteries this winter. We had a cold spell in New York that wiped them out! I never had good luck with Johnson controls batteries especially the ones made in Mexico. I saw Home Depot sold exide , and started using them about a year In a half ago. I also use Walmart's batteries made by east penn. am I the only one who has had great luck with exide? Everyone to this day is still testing well over it's rated for. Also, I see some of autozones econocraft are also made by exide, and I seen a picture online of a duralast gold that was An exide. Are they switching over from JC? I know exide gets a bad rep, but i haven't had an issue. Even interstate is switching over.
 
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AFAIK it's a regional thing, transportation (and supply) determines which battery is where.

I've not had any unusual problems with JC batteries, but I always buy their top tier flooded, nothing with econo in the name. IMO that' just asking for trouble in a colder climate. Whether they retain a lot of their initial CCA rating or not, it's still down to how much CCA they deliver in cold weather.
 
It depends on what type of climate you live in. I've never had good luck with Clarios (JCI) or Exide down here. East Penn lasts longer for me and also with less instances of leakage.
 
It depends upon a number of factors that Exide cannot necessarily control... Like if their batteries are left sitting unsold for a prolonged period of time and there is no maintenance charge applied. Even in a month a battery loses 5-12% of it's charge just sitting... Uncharged. That adds up very quickly obviously in say 4,5,6+ months.... Exide cannot control that not being done. The Exide batteries I saw at my Home Depot were very dusty and had old dates on them... 8 months up to 10 months old... Highly doubtful those batteries were ever charged either. A battery like that will not perform well in service due to permanent loss of reserve capacity and sulfated plates inside the battery. Exide cannot control lack of maintenance in those stores.

The leaking problem with their batteries could potentially be from people cranking way too hard on the terminals of the batteries creating a way for the battery to leak gases. If it is not that then it is from the caps on those batteries not being sufficiently sealed to prevent the internal gas from the battery from escaping causing the corrosion on the battery terminals... Or it could be from a alternator pushing too many amps to the battery on the positive side of the battery creating gases within the battery that causes battery terminal corrosion. Or the opposite with a draw on the battery causing the negative terminal to get corroded...

When buying any battery 1) freshness matters a whole lot with a regular flooded battery. 2) Properly installing the battery without compromising the battery case integrity is also important to prevent corrosion issues. 3) A properly functional alternator will not over charge the battery... ( Though in many instances now the charging algorithm is set that the alternator in many new cars actually chronically undercharges starter batteries ) 4) Preventive treating of the battery terminals with diaelectric grease will prevent any corrosion from battery off gasing... 5) How well the battery was treated in transport and storage prior to you buying it matters too... High temperature exposure and vibration is not helpful to the battery internal structure. 6) if you able to apply a recharge a battery to a true one hundred percent of static charge where it is only accepting half and amp per 100 amp hours the battery is rated for then longevity will be far more likely. Example my group 35 battery is rated for 55 amp hours... For it to be truly at one hundred percent charge it is simply 55 multiplied by 0.005= at the battery accepting 0.275 amps per hour or less than that it would be one hundred percent charged. If one can do this even once a month it will help with battery longevity a fair amount.
 
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Originally Posted by NoahE
I work on a small fleet of cars, and got lots of calls for new batteries this winter. We had a cold spell in New York that wiped them out! I never had good luck with Johnson controls batteries especially the ones made in Mexico. I saw Home Depot sold exide , and started using them about a year In a half ago. I also use Walmart's batteries made by east penn. am I the only one who has had great luck with exide? Everyone to this day is still testing well over it's rated for. Also, I see some of autozones econocraft are also made by exide, and I seen a picture online of a duralast gold that was An exide. Are they switching over from JC? I know exide gets a bad rep, but i haven't had an issue. Even interstate is switching over.


Consider EP AGM batteries.
 
I havent bought an Exide battery in about 15 years. Any of the top posts seemed to always have leaky damp posts. I had one in an s10 with side terminals that I got 5 or 6 years out of, that was about the best.
Had about the same luck with jci batteries.
Have the best life and driest terminals with Deka/ east penn batteries.
 
Originally Posted by NoahE
... am I the only one who has had great luck with exide?...
The one I had (from Rural King) did not leak and make a corroded mess, unlike the JCIs I had earlier.
 
Sign of a shill is someone providing good review(s) of a product with a new account and low post count. Just saying...
 
I kind of doubt that Exide is using paid shills on an oil forum, but I could be wrong...
 
Originally Posted by JHZR2
I kind of doubt that Exide is using paid shills on an oil forum, but I could be wrong...


Born yesterday?
 
Just replaced a battery in my Escape today, installed a Walmart Mexico JC battery for $99, 2 year warranty.

Every one else wanted $150+ for a similar quality battery. Never thought to look at Home Depot for car batteries however. I have had no luck with batteries in South Texas, so have started going to Walmart because they are so easy to exchange.
 
Originally Posted by JHZR2
Burden of proof falls on you.


I have nothing to prove. Line of evidence speaks for itself i.e. known behavior on many forums. Prove it was a "paid" shill then
 
The question at least for people around the northeast is why would you use any battery other than East Penn? The Walmart batteries are East Penn as well as some from NAPA and other places. No extra cost for East Penn.

Other areas of the country may have more difficulty finding East Penn.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
The question at least for people around the northeast is why would you use any battery other than East Penn? The Walmart batteries are East Penn as well as some from NAPA and other places. No extra cost for East Penn.

Other areas of the country may have more difficulty finding East Penn.


Walmart is not Made by JC anymore?
 
Originally Posted by painfx
Originally Posted by Donald
The question at least for people around the northeast is why would you use any battery other than East Penn? The Walmart batteries are East Penn as well as some from NAPA and other places. No extra cost for East Penn.

Other areas of the country may have more difficulty finding East Penn.


Walmart is not Made by JC anymore?


Walmart, as noted before, has multiple suppliers, with "EP" serialized batteries denoting East Penn, and "JC" (IIRC) denoting JCI/Clarios batteries.

Seems to be determined by region, and last time I looked, NAPA stock also varied in that fashion.

The only certainty is that suppliers change, and generalities about a particular brand's supplier are also subject to change. Only way to be sure is to see what's found on the shelf.



Exide? They may have cleaned up their act since then (figuratively, if not literally), but the thing that comes to mind when I hear that name is the scam it perpetrated to sell used batteries as new, resulting in fines and jail time for the executives.
 
When I was fixing diesel generators, I sold nothing but Exide and I sold tons of em. Mostly 8D, 4D and group 31. I really only ever had trouble with 31's. They were like putting ten gallons of stuff in a five gallon pail. Standby gensets have trickle chargers on 24/7 so I used to change hospital batteries out every other year and most other types of customers every three years. If I picked up a new customer that had some other brand of battery when I started caring for their machines, I always noticed they always needed more water added or didn't last quite as long.
My old supplier since retired and my brother, still in the generator shop, has picked up the Exide dealership. I still use them in all of my family's cars. Stone cold reliable. I also get confused when I hear people bashing Exide.
 
I used various brands and never had problems. In my experience batteries typically last 5-8 years, never had any die after 2 or 3 years. Many people who have bad experiences with certain brands can probably be attributed to a vehicle with charging/voltage/cable issues. Or they bought a battery that has been sitting on the shelf too long and has started to sulfate. I recently bought from autozone (duralast,JCI) and had to refuse to buy the first one the guy brought out because it had a date code showing it was 6 months old at the time. Any battery that has been sitting for months without a battery tender is going to have issues.
 
Come to the Phoenix Arizona. Your days of batteries lasting 5-6 years will be gone forever. 3 years is a long lasting battery around here.
 
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