Car battery observations at Sams Club

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I was killing some time today and noticed that Sams sells "Duracell" brand car batteries.

All the ones that did not look like they had JCI caps said "mfg by East Penn". The few that looked like they had JCI caps said "dist by East Penn".

I am not sure what to conclude. How does East Penn stack up against JCI? I always think its strange that Walmart and Sams sell different lines of car batteries. Maybe they want to differentiate that Sams has better batteries. I think that the MAXX battery at Walmart has earned a pretty good name for itself recently.

But when I think of car batteries I do not think of Duracell. maybe Interstate. When I think of Duracell I think of the "copper top battery", as in a "D" cell.

This Sams Club was in Latham, just outside Albany NY
 
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Originally Posted By: Donald
... This Sams Club was in Latham, just outside Albany NY


OT: That is my favorite Sams Club.
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I've always had good luck with East Penn Mfg. batteries. They used to be the supplier to O'Reilly and I'd specify them when I needed a replacement.

I notice that East Penn makes several of the DieHard batteries from Sears now also.

So from my personal experience I like East Penn Mfg. batteries.
 
I bought one of the Duracell-labeled East Penn batteries at Sam's Club about a month ago for our Honda. I posted about it at the time and responses were favorable, that East Penn was a good company. So far so good for me...it cranks quickly and the engine lights fast.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I bought one of the Duracell-labeled East Penn batteries at Sam's Club about a month ago for our Honda. I posted about it at the time and responses were favorable, that East Penn was a good company. So far so good for me...it cranks quickly and the engine lights fast.


Did it say "mfg" or "dist" by East Penn?
 
I looked and mine is "Dist by EAST PENN Manufacturing". The battery caps are flush with the top and have the 45* chamfered corners.

Now that I think back on it, they had two different "versions" of my battery (a 51R). The "newer" ones (only a few months old) had 600 CAs and 500 CCAs as I recall, and the top style was different from the "older" ones (which were about 6 months old). I bought one of the "older" ones because they had 625 CAs and 495 CCAs.

Are you thinking that some of the batteries are manufactured by Johnson Controls, but bought by East Penn and have a Duracell label on them for resale? So they're not "manufactured" by East Penn, but "distributed" by East Penn?
 
I'm an East Penn user and have good luck with them. Another reason I prefer them over JCI or Exide is that they tend to stay clean much better than JCI or Exide. No acid leaking out of the cell caps or at the cover seam. Leaky batteries are one of my pet peeves and very hard on cars and electrical connections.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I looked and mine is "Dist by EAST PENN Manufacturing". The battery caps are flush with the top and have the 45* chamfered corners.

Now that I think back on it, they had two different "versions" of my battery (a 51R). The "newer" ones (only a few months old) had 600 CAs and 500 CCAs as I recall, and the top style was different from the "older" ones (which were about 6 months old). I bought one of the "older" ones because they had 625 CAs and 495 CCAs.

Are you thinking that some of the batteries are manufactured by Johnson Controls, but bought by East Penn and have a Duracell label on them for resale? So they're not "manufactured" by East Penn, but "distributed" by East Penn?


I would assume your battery was actually made by JCI. No one has reported any other battery company with the edge of the cell caps cut at 45 degrees.
 
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