[Frank R]

I’ve had good luck with Deka battery’s. The one in my 68 lasted 18 years.

[Sirrotica]

Originally Posted by Frank R

I’ve had good luck with Deka battery’s. The one in my 68 lasted 18 years.

Deka is also made by East Penn, along with several other brand names already mentioned.

['ol Pinion head]

Originally Posted by Frank R

I’ve had good luck with Deka battery’s. The one in my 68 lasted 18 years.

East Penn builds the Deka's, Duracell's, & at least for quite a few years, NAPA's auto batteries.

[dataway]

Last week I bought $650 worth of NAPA 6v deep cycle batteries for my backup power system. Hoping I get 10 years out of them.

[Longs]

I just replaced the Autozone Duralast Gold in my daily driver, a 2005 Chrysler Pacifica, with an Interstate battery from Costco. Some history on the Duralasts I've had, which are Group 34:

I installed a Duralast Gold in January 2010; it tested as having a bad cell, replaced with another Duralast Gold in March 2014, 50 months.

I replaced the March 2014 battery in December 2016, bad cell again, at 33 months. The replacement was free but the warranty date on the replacement started in March 2014.

I replaced the Duralast Gold with the Costco Interstate battery in November 2020, technically at 47 months. There wouldn't have been any warranty credit to speak of from Autozone at that point, going from the March 2014 battery's date.

The Duralast had been performing badly for at least six months, which I attributed to the car not being driven much due to COVID. If it sat for a week it wouldn't start, so I'd throw a Battery Tender on it and charge it. In November I drove the car on a couple of long trips and it wouldn't start later that week, so I charged it completely then took it to Autozone. They threw a load tester on it and said "it's good". I told them that I had just fully charged it so they tested it again and they said that it was dropping fast. I thanked them and told them that I was going to shop around.

I got the Costco battery for at least $35 less than I was going to get a comparable battery anywhere else, comes with three year replacement warranty (I won't have the Pacifica that long). Interestingly, Costco doesn't have any way to test a battery and doesn't install them either, so in theory you'd think that you could walk in at 35 months, say "battery's no good" and they'd give you another, but obviously that one wouldn't have any warranty, and you could only do that once, but in theory if you got 35 months out of the first one, then the "free, no warranty" battery lasted for 5 years, you'd get eight years out of one purchase. Not worth the hassle to me though.

[mwritter]

Originally Posted by fyrffytr1

... On a side note about four years ago a customer bought a new battery from us and turned in an Optima red top as a core. I tested the Optima and it showed 50% remaining life so I bought it for the $5.00 core charge. I am still using it to start cars and even run the winch on my friends car trailer. It will turn a 6 volt motor over real fast

I've got an Optima red top in my '65 GTO that has a manufacturing date of 7/2005. The car has accumulated under 400 miles in the last 15 years and it still cranks like a brand new battery. I put it on a battery tender every few months that I rotate between cars in storage. I know I need to replace it but I can't bring myself to spend the $ when it hasn't missed a beat in 15+ years. I know plenty of people bash Optimas (especially lately) but I've got them in 5 other vehicles including another one manufactured in 2009 that's still going. Maybe I'm just lucky.

[coupeute]

Originally Posted by dataway

Question for you guys ... this topic is very timely. Yesterday I go to start my 2011 GMC and it was absolutely, completely dead, I mean not even a dome light or dash LED.

4 days ago I drove it into town same as always, no issues at all. Temps have averaged around 30 degrees. Forgot to unplug my dash cam but that thing will run years on a car battery, have forgotten many times before no problems.

Battery is 7 years old ... so yes, pretty much garbage anyway (DieHard Gold), but I have never had a battery fail like this, from working fine to totally discharged in four days.

Only time I touched the truck in that four days was to change the gas cap that was throwing a code. I might have started it to see if the cleared code would come back, don't remember.

Anyway ... have others had a battery fail like that? I know the emissions system on this truck will sometimes do "things" after it's shut off, I've heard it, little whirring noises and such, barely audible. Any chance it did something like that and killed the very old battery?

Got the old battery on a computer type charger now just to see if I can diagnose any problem. Got a new NAPA Legend battery for it today ... after charging the old battery to get me into town ... which it did no problem.

I have no issues with replacing the old battery ... just wondering if something is amiss that caused it to discharge like that.
Thanks

I had a similar problem with the battery in my RV. I had been driving it and had no signs of any problems such as slow cranking. The RV sat for four days and when I put the keys in the ignition, there was absolutely nothing, not even the dome light came on. The battery was totally dead. The RV has a second battery for accessories which was okay and is charged by the same alternator. These days, I guess batteries don't have a slow death. They just have a heart attack and die. I do believe the dead battery was over six years old so I really can't complain.

[nikrnic]

Delco only for me. This ones been working fine for 8 yrs and it looks the part of being somewhat oem. I would never put in a colored battery under the hood.



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[Chief of the 60's]

Interstate FTW

One of my cars still has an Interstate dated 2005

[dataway]

Originally Posted by coupeute

I had a similar problem with the battery in my RV. I had been driving it and had no signs of any problems such as slow cranking. The RV sat for four days and when I put the keys in the ignition, there was absolutely nothing, not even the dome light came on. The battery was totally dead. The RV has a second battery for accessories which was okay and is charged by the same alternator. These days, I guess batteries don't have a slow death. They just have a heart attack and die. I do believe the dead battery was over six years old so I really can't complain.

Exactly the same as mine. I've since installed the new battery and all is back to normal. Weird ... usually they give you some kind of small indication that things are going south.

[David Jones]

The GTO gets a battery that fits that also has stickers that can be pulled off leaving a black box. I've purchased 2 batteries for it in the 20+ years I've owned the car and brand wasn't part of the equation.
The wifes 2012 Highlander has had one replacement. I bought a "Duracell" from the local batteries place about a year ago and it starts the car. It was the best deal and also the easiest.
The 2016 F150 (with auto stop/start) has a factory agm battery and at 70,000 miles it seems happy in it's work.
I haven't bought many batteries over the years.

[Lee]

I have a Braille AGM that got ran FLAT several times, yet is still performing great. It is about 8 years old now.

I've also had great results with XS Power AGMs.

I'll take Braille or XS Power over Optima, Optimas have been rather disappointing in my experiences.

[60sstuff]

Originally Posted by nikrnic

Delco only for me. This ones been working fine for 8 yrs and it looks the part of being somewhat oem. I would never put in a colored battery under the hood.



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DELCO BATTERIES

Agree, these colored batteries look ridiculous.

I’ve been using Delco for about 50 years now. Never a problem.

[455Grandville]

Originally Posted by mwritter

I've got an Optima red top in my '65 GTO that has a manufacturing date of 7/2005. The car has accumulated under 400 miles in the last 15 years and it still cranks like a brand new battery. I put it on a battery tender every few months that I rotate between cars in storage. I know I need to replace it but I can't bring myself to spend the $ when it hasn't missed a beat in 15+ years. I know plenty of people bash Optimas (especially lately) but I've got them in 5 other vehicles including another one manufactured in 2009 that's still going. Maybe I'm just lucky.

You probably have ones manufactured here in the US. The recent ones made in Mexico aren’t as good.