MagnaCharge battery

[penz08]

I just went to my local part store, I decided to replace my 7-year-old oem battery.

The guy at the part store tried to sell me an AGM battery claiming it was better and last longer, but my car came from factory with a plain normal 12 volts battery.

So, I decided to buy the regular 12 volts battery, with 550 CCA, group 35, which is equivalent to the oem one. The brand is MagnaCharge, apparently good batteries, but curious if any of you guys used this brand. Probably just a different sticker and label difference.

Now, the guy tried to oversell me on this 300$ AGM battery, which I don't think I need. Is it really better? I got the MagnaCharge at 125$ plus tax.

My car is a 2018 Mazda 3 GS sedan with the 2.0L auto.

Here's a few pictures.

 

[Rand]

is the agm better? probably, is it 2.4x better? doubtful.

 

[Kira]

You likely made the correct purchase decision as the charging profile of your vehicle is better matched to the charging characteristics of an FLA-the battery selected by the designers of your vehicle.
I'm not saying that the AGM battery would be bad, but it could be a "less good" match to your charging system.

 

[mrsilv04]

Not sure about their batteries, but their website sure is dead.

 

[f355spider]

https://www.magnacharge.com/about-us/

The company does not manufacture batteries, they are a distributor, and cover the USA (midwest), Canada and Panama.
I'm not sure who manufactures their private label batteries (AGM and flooded), but they also distribute Odyssey, and Full River/Full Throttle AGM batteries.

 

[D1dad]

Looks like a Canadian only brand. I’m sure it’ll be just fine for 4 yrs with no maintenance, maybe twice that if your strict on charging a few times a week.

 

[SumGuy]

It was probably about 10 years ago when I bought a couple boxes of sealed lead acid batteries from them for UPS units, and a car battery. It was conveinent because they delivered, otherwise they're clear across town. They took all the old SLA batteries and a box of dead batteries of various sizes (9v, AA, AAA). The car battery (group 34) had an acceptible lifespan as far as I remember (which for me is at least 8 years).

I should look them up again, I need to buy another group 34 battery, the cheapest around here being $150. They might point me to a retailer for that, which is a downer because that jacks the price and makes it a no-sale for me. I seem to remember at some point in the past 5 years calling around for a battery and they didn't sell car batteries over-the-counter (like they did a while ago) but only through retailers.

If I could get a group-34 for $125 (with core trade-in) I'd take that any day. Their website is down currently, but the wayback machine crawled it as recently as mid-May.

Totally pass on the AGM. The value is simply not there for what you get compared to FLA. Unless it's an off-road or ATV situation where you need the AGM construction to get longer life.

 

[GSCJR]

I've used Magnacharge many times with no issues.

 

[Donald]

You likely made the correct purchase decision as the charging profile of your vehicle is better matched to the charging characteristics of an FLA-the battery selected by the designers of your vehicle.
I'm not saying that the AGM battery would be bad, but it could be a "less good" match to your charging system.

A plain AGM battery will work fine in most cars with a normal charging system. It's the spiral wound and AGMs like an Oddessey that require different charging characteristics.

 

[f355spider]

Looks like a Canadian only brand. I’m sure it’ll be just fine for 4 yrs with no maintenance, maybe twice that if your strict on charging a few times a week.

In the link I provided directly above your post:

• Magnacharge Battery Corporation is a privately held battery wholesale and distribution company with operations across Canada, The United States (Mid-West) and Central America.

 

[Mainia]

https://www.magnacharge.com/about-us/

The company does not manufacture batteries, they are a distributor, and cover the USA (midwest), Canada and Panama.
I'm not sure who manufactures their private label batteries (AGM and flooded), but they also distribute Odyssey, and Full River/Full Throttle AGM batteries.

And they are Trojan Battery distributors too. We use the Minneapolis/St Paul store for all our AGM/Flooded single man lifts, scissor jack, electric skid lifts, and floor sweeper. They don't do industrial batteries forklifts in the steel tubs. They always have what we want.