Who makes these batteries, and which would you recommend?

[jieiku]

Normally my goto would be Walmart but all their batteries now have a fixed vent cap.

As you can see from the pics below, the Oreilly and Autozone appear to be the same battery.

I am not sure who makes any of these.

$120 walmart-everstart-maxx-WDC31M-marine (sticker on side says 29M, but top says 31M)
(my local store actually has this same battery in a 1 year warranty for $99 instead of the 120 for 2 year, fixed cap sucks though)

https://www.walmart.com/ip/EverStar...ery-Group-Size-29DC-12-Volt-845-MCA/313924753

$130 oreilly-superstart-31DCMJ-marine

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/...tart-marine-battery-group-size-31/ssbb/31dcmj

$130 autozone-duralast-31DC-DL_29DP-DL-marine

https://www.autozone.com/batteries-...rine-and-rv-battery-675-cca-840-mca/95824_0_0

 

[blufeb95]

I don't know much about marine deep cycle batteries to make a recommendation, but the top is made in South Korea, so I guess Hyundai-Sungwoo or Hankook-AtlasBX. The bottom I'm guessing are Clarios, I think those shaped cell caps are unique to Clarios.

 

[blufeb95]

Now that I look at it, the Walmart battery may be a Delkor which is owned by Clarios.

 

[blufeb95]

After some Googling I found a photo of a Hyundai made battery that looks identical, so that's a Hyundai battery.

 

[Snagglefoot]

The bottom two definitely have removable caps.

 

[Escape08]

Buy the WM's. Anyway this marine battery. Put in a battery maintainer when not in use.

 

[John105]

I’d go by warranty replacement experience by other buyers. I know costco is “no questions asked.” Back when Sears was in business they replaced as long as the load test failed.

I know with Advance Auto they refused to honor the warranty for no reason at all. They said computer shows expired. I know the 3 stooges does the same.

You want to know that if it really fails during the free replacement, the warranty will be honored imho….

 

[Tdbo]

1. Buy the cheapest one.
and/or:
2. Buy from the vendor that provides you the easiest, most convenient process to access the warranty, if needed.

 

[jieiku]

a couple of my older batteries have the hexagonal shape, they are 4 years old and still going strong.
I am not replacing the older batteries, I simply need more of them.

Going to see what I can learn in terms of quality between Hyundai and Clarios, because it is unlikely either battery would fail during their warranty period because I do perform proper maintenance of them. (properly stored with battery maintainer)

I am mostly curious about which one is going to last longer, if the one that costs an extra $20 last 2+ years longer then its worth it.

Thanks for all the info guys! appreciate it!

 

[jieiku]

I just checked to be sure, my old batteries are August 2018 from walmart, so 5 years old in a couple months, and they still work like new.

I can also see that I need to replace some of these terminal connectors!
I ordered one of these so I can redo the connections with ring terminals: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017S9EINA

Serial number starts with JCH

 

[RooflessVW]

Those cables are crusty AF

 

[jieiku]

Yep, will be fixing those up ASAP, new crimper is on the way: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017S9EINA

 

[meep]

while JCI (now clarios, right?) seems to me to have lost their edge over the last decade, the fixed cap for a marine battery to me just knocks it out of the running. Do you have a batteries plus anywhere near? Their house brand is made by deka/east Penn and I’ve been much happier with them. if no, $130 for a group 31 is not a bad price. That’s a lot of battery.

 

[f355spider]

I’d go by warranty replacement experience by other buyers. I know costco is “no questions asked.” Back when Sears was in business they replaced as long as the load test failed.

I know with Advance Auto they refused to honor the warranty for no reason at all. They said computer shows expired. I know the 3 stooges does the same.

You want to know that if it really fails during the free replacement, the warranty will be honored imho….

Note that Costco refunds the cost of the battery, then you buy another at the prevailing (higher) price.
This policy changed without notice a few years ago. It is spelled out more clearly, now that there is a class action lawsuit over it
https://journalstar.com/townnews/cl...cle_4ed13a6a-7833-5a08-a9cc-8fa591994885.html

 

[blufeb95]

The complainers didn't realize that they were probably getting a better deal if they were getting refunded because even though you have to pay a few bucks more for a new battery, it sounds like you were truly getting a new battery not just a warranty replacement so then the warranty would reset, if I were getting my money back after 2 years and 11 months and only had to pay $5 extra to get a new battery with a new 3 year replacement period, I'd keep my mouth shut and just roll with it.

 

[sky jumper]

whatever you do, don't buy from Autozone or O'reilly... higher prices and older stock. if you need grp31 Sams club has an East Penn beast for about $120 (I have 3 of them). or just get the 31 or 29 from walmart and call it good... but always get fresh stock... and check to make sure the didn't swap date stickers on you...

 

[jieiku]

I had also thought about that sky jumper, dont they have stickers to show how long they have been sitting? If not then definitely wont buy there.

Is there actually a way to check if the date sticker has been swapped?

(all the sam's club in my state have closed, but going to check the neighboring towns walmart today and see what they have)

 

[blufeb95]

It depends on the actual manufacturer of the battery in my experience JCI/Clarios engraves an ID into the battery and the first number is the last digit of the year, the letter is the month, and then the next two digits are the date. Exide just puts a plain date code on the battery case now, but I don't know if east Penn does that and have not figured out the serial format used by Korean manufacturers.

 

[sky jumper]

Is there actually a way to check if the date sticker has been swapped?

on 2 of the grp31 batteries I bought at sams the stickers had obviously been removed - there were adhesive disks left behind when they put the new stickers on in a different location. but of course I didn't notice until I got them home. upon checking with cca tester sure enough those 2 batteries were lower than the other which did not appear to have sticker swap. I'm reasonably certain their battery vendor came in, recharged the old stock, and swapped stickers at that time. then added a couple new units to restock the shelf.

I would've normally returned the 2 older batteries, but by that time I had already tore off the top labels to access the water caps and I didn't feel like getting into a fight with the guy at sams over it.

but lesson learned -- check for sticker residue, and take a tester with you and test cca on all batteries on the shelf.

 

[jieiku]

That is a great idea... I need to order a battery tester that shows the CCA. Which one do you use?