danglerb

Next week my Euro 85 5 spd needs a new full size, the big one, battery. It has a Bosch premium in it now, and "maybe" has some warranty left via Pep Boys, who have a 10% sale on Bosch batteries right now.

Three shockers on new batteries.

Prices up, premium looks like $150 to $200.
Warranty periods are down, mostly 36 month no prorating.
Premium batteries all look like AGM so far.

Last I checked Duralast didn't offer a premium version in the large size, so they are maybe out of the running. Bosch is in the car now, and may have some prorate left or even some warranty warranty (too lazy to pull battery and check today). Suggestions?

redpathtribe

Try Walmart. Very good pricing, good quality battery and a 3 year prorated warranty. They hold up as well as any battery I've tried in the AZ heat.

danglerb

EverStart Maxx H6 is $115 at Walmart, 3 yr plus 5 prorated, comments say its same Johnson Controls battery as Diehard. I think there selector is wrong though and I need an H7, but so far that is looking best.

dr bob

Mike--

I went with the Wal-Mart Maxx after tangling with Duralast warranty issues too many times. Just a few months on it so far, and almost no driving, so no longer-term results to share. But it looks exactly like, feels like, sounds like, starts the car like the Duralast Gold, for 2/3 the cost.

I'm still lifting the ground strap when the car sits for any extended (2 weeks+) period, need to rig an isolation switch at some point.

GregBBRD

Tough to get the proper Duralast battery. Auto Zone changed suppliers and the sizes got wacky. Every time Mary calls to get a battery, it's like a huge mystery, huge pain in the butt.

Bosch works marginally, as long as it never discharges. Definitely not good for cars that sit. I had so many fail under warranty, for customers, that I would never buy another.

hacker-pschorr

I would wire up a connection for a maintainer instead.

I have three batteries that are over 10+ years old in cars that are not driven very often, still working like new.

I rotate my maintainer between them all winter.

Mine is branded by Interstate battery, it is the same as this unit:

dr bob

I have connections for the maintainer. I'm not convinced that the continuous cycling with the maintainer is actually helping the battery. I've tried it with battery connected to the car, battey isolated from the car, with not much difference in results. It still cycles based on terminal voltage. This is a Schumacher 1.5A maintainer, BTW. I've used them for years for stored boat and water-toy batteries with great results. Mixed results on the 928 batteries though. The last Duralast had the maintainer attached for over a month while I was travelling on a project, and was stone dead when I went to drive the car. I plugged in a bigger 6A old-school stupid charger for two days before the battery terminal voltage came up to 14.5. Even then, the specific gravity of the electrolyte in every cell was way low. So while it would start the car, it was way low on total AH capacity and would be taxing the alternator the rest of its days. I replaced with the WalMart battery, and for grins took the Duralast back to Autozone. The manager tested the battery, and said it "just needed to be charged". They gave me credit for it as a core, and so ends the Duralast saga for me, at least for now.

I will look at 'smarter' chargers/maintainers soon. Hopefully there's something that will do better than the Schumachers I have now.

GregBBRD

Dead/discharged batteries are a constant problem in a shop....especially a shop that works on older vehicles that are not "primary drivers" and end up sitting around waiting for parts or just for us to work on.

Rob brought in his Bosch C7 charger, this week, to get his battery up to snuff. We've been rotating it around the shop, charging up all the batteries in the cars that have been hanging around here.

Amazing tool. Difficult to imagine needing anything other than this tool, ever again. I'm going to buy one and just hook it up every night to one of the vehicles.

I also have a "Granite" Save a Battery here, in another vehicle. Also seemed to work great.

FreedP

I have several AGM batteries from Advanced Auto.
Easy to find 15 to 20 percent discount coupons.
They were a good fit in my two 928s.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...lVehicle=false

hacker-pschorr

I've had excellent luck with the one I have.

I had a battery a few years ago test as dead on a Snap-On load tester. Just for fun I connected it to my maintainer. It runs through a test and came up "Flashing Red" which means a bad battery. I disconnected it / reconnected it a few times.... it eventually started charging.
It took four days to come back as "full" and that battery is still in use in my 79.


Good price too:


I could use a second charger, might have to snag one of those.

danglerb

No AA parts stores out west.

H8 appears to be DIN for group 49. Walmart doesn't have the H8 in AGM.

Pep Boys is doing a 25% off any online but a few online purchases with secret25 code, and has the Bosch H8 AGM for $199, less $50 with the code. Battery in my car is mfg date Aug 2009, 36 month replacement, 96 month prorate. Checking in the morning to see if I can get the online and prorate combined.

Bosch charger looks nice, but why get the C7 12/24v instead of the C3 6/12v? NOCO version looks about the same too.

danglerb

Sounds like it was only "mostly dead", as in totally flat, zero volts, not dead dead, as in won't hold a charge. I've recovered totally flat batteries in my 928 a dozen times or more. My 84 had been sitting in yard for close to six months refusing to start, but doing the parasitic drain stuff and totally discharging the battery. My charger brought it back and I (ab)used that battery for a couple years.

danglerb

Happened again, put my Schumacher smart charger on the battery at 20 amps for a couple hours and then overnight at 2 amps, much to my annoyance it is now consistently measuring 775 CCA and 12.8v disconnected, after a full charge and ten minutes of lights on.

Nothing really to do but be sure its disconnected when parked and keep checking. Solar BA5 battery tester does a great job of a quick and accurate test of capacity.

Rob Edwards

Well, the C7 is good, but not that good- I put an O'Reilly ' SuperStart' in the GTS on December 9th 2012. Today, less than 21 months later, the POS put out a massive 47 CCA on the load tester. I'd go wrestle for the remaining third of the pro-rated warranty, but instead I think I'll go see what Wal-Mart has in stock...

Rob Edwards

Picked up a Walmart H6 (BCI Group 48) Maxx today, $114.97 plus $12 core charge. Sticker on the battery says 5 year warranty program, the receipt says 3 year free replacement warranty. I have a feeling I'll be finding out one way or the other.