Who make a good Lawn mower battery!!!!

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The cheaper the better. I wouldn't be surprised if what's inside the $14.95 battery isn't very, very close (if not exactly the same) to what's inside the $29.95 battery.

Made in China of course!
 
we use the el cheapo from WM. Usually last 2-4 years. The die at about once or twice a year and are brought back to life with a 2 amp charge.
 
I park the Inty in an un heated shed for the off season. Since I started treating the fuel with MMO and a dash of Stabil, the mower can sit all winter and start fine come spring without being charged. I got 4-5 yrs from the first 20 buck AZ battery
 
I've never had a lawn & garden battery last more than 4 years. Sometimes I've put Alka Seltzer in the cells and squeaked another summer from a few.
 
In 1997 my father gave me a Craftsman 12.5 hp 42" riding mower (because I'd given him a 1986 5-speed Escort wagon)--he killed the Escort, but I still have the mower. In 1999 I replaced the battery with a Sears Die-Hard--$30. Never did anything to it but check the terminals and top off the electrolyte in the spring if it needed it. This year, 2010, when I rolled it out of the shed, the battery was dead and wouldn't take a charge. Went to Sears and bought another Die-Hard for $35. The mower is used 30 times a year for 1 hour at a time. Don't want to hi-jack the thread, but do mowers like this have some type of alternator or charging device, and if they do, does this account for the fact that some people get years out of their batteries, and some only a couple of years?
 
This is my continuing long term lawnmower battery review. My test mower is one I purchased brand new in 1997 and it's a Murray 10hp 30" rear engine riding mower. The original battery actually lasted 5 years and didn't do anything special after lawnmower season. My mower is always stored inside my garage and on a battery tender after lawnmower season. I tried a different battery until it died, then moved on to another one. I purchased a new Walmart battery year-after-year and they never seemed to last more than 1 year. I finally got tired of constantly replacing them and moved on to the ones sold at different auto parts store and again, never lasted over one year. I got online and researched each seller and a possibility that everyone I tried at this point may have been manufactured by Johnson Control. I purchased one at Tractor Supply made by Exide three years ago and it's still going strong! At the end of the season, I topped each cell off with distilled water. Strangely, this battery has to be topped off at the end of the season, whereas the others I tried did not. That's my results so far and not scientific, just wanted to share with all of you.
 
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My Deere G110 has an Interstate from Home Depot that is going on 11 years old. Still cranks right up! It is used year round though.
 
The one in my Sears rider is about 10yrs old. The key is to keep a trickle charger on them for long periods of no use. If you don't do that, you're lucky to get a few years out of them.
 
The 19.95 U1 from the new O'Reillys is 2 yrs old. It started the 11hp B+S on my sitdown after a 2 month hiatus. It will get a couple days on the tender over the winter. The engine has a little alternator built into the fly wheel I think.
 
In my experiences I have noticed that 350 cca batteries last much longer than lower cca batteries. If the battery is kept on a battery maintainer consistently then 6 + years of service is possible. Many of my commercial contractors would get an average of 2.5 years out of a battery. 7 months of daily use in a mower then sitting for 5 months with no use. I sold them battery maintainers and their battery problems disappeared.
 
Originally Posted by jimbeamalki
do mowers like this have some type of alternator or charging device, and if they do, does this account for the fact that some people get years out of their batteries, and some only a couple of years?


Typically it's part of the flywheel magnets, like a motorcycle. Every revolution of the engine makes a spark and a pulse of DC power for the battery. Crude but okay if there isn't much variation in load. Couple dinky headlights and a battery charge. Motorcycles have a voltage regulator that turns excess power into heat; I'm not sure if mowers even have this or if they just preset the output and call it "good enough". Put a voltmeter on it when running, should be over 13.5. If I were engineering said cost-effective system I'd have it undercharge slightly so I don't boil batteries dry, and assume that owners would throw a charger on once in a while.

PS yeah I know real pimpin bikes like goldwings have alternators.
 
From what I've read, lawn tractors with twin cylinder engines have voltage regulators.
Single cylinder engines, not so much. May actually overcharge if LED headlights are added
or the bulbs burn out.
Like many motorcycles, there's no enough output at idle or low rpms to
charge the battery.


My 2¢
 
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Sears DieHard on my 42" lawn tractor is 6 years old and cranked it yesterday ...
 
Buy from a store which has a fast turn around on batteries such as Walmart. Freshness at buying time is very important not brand. I would stay away from Auto parts stores which have batteries sitting around for 6+ months. After that, I put them on charge once or twice during winter. I don't ever recall having one fail in less than 6 years old.
 
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Originally Posted by Lubener
Buy from a store which has a fast turn around on batteries such as Walmart. Freshness at buying time is very important not brand. I would stay away from Auto parts stores which have batteries sitting around for 6+ months. After that, I put them on charge once or twice during winter. I don't ever recall having one fail in less than 6 years old.


Lol! I just checked and the one on the left is at 12.3v... definitely pay attention to date codes at the auto parts store!
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Oh and here's a bonus pic (that I took just now too). This is a battery my coworker took in as a "new return" about a month ago! Not sure what the heck we're gonna do with it. It's a dirty, obviously used Optima from 2013! It's so drained the battery tester doesn't even detect it. And he handed over the $200 in cash. I really wanna know which idiot manager approved that return. If it was me I would have checked the date code and denied the return. The only thing that customer would have got from me was the $10 battery recycle gift card!

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