Favorite batteries today?
 

I haven't seen any recent threads about batteries, thought i'd throw this out. I'm looking for one, and see Pep Boys has a sale going on for these Bosch units for $132:

https://www.pepboys.com/parts/batter...04.5L%2520SOHC

Anyone had any experience with them? i was reading some old threads about the WalMart brand, etc but thought id get some opinions on these if anyone has them.

All car batteries are made in one of 3 or 4 factories, with different labels slapped on them. One is in the USA.

At a recent gathering I was talking to a district manager of O'Reilly's Auto Parts. Of the various things we discussed, he said one of their lines of car batteries are made in the USA by this company. I don't recall which specific name is on those batteries, but anyone at an O'Reilly's store should know. He said that is what he would buy.

Fleet Farm also carries batteries from this factory.

I just bought a battery. From what I read, all batteries are made by one of three manufactureres. I can't image there is much difference from one battery brand to another. I decided warranty and price are the difference. I just bought this:

https://batteryoutfitters.com/products/single/41GL

$35 dollars cheaper and a longer warranty than any other battery I could find. I guess I'll find out how good this battery is;)

I had a WalMart battery, that lasted 9 years in my El Camino. Couldn't believe it.

The battery in my 928, is an Auto Zone Gold. There's only one size that fits in the battery box, and Optima, doesn't make one for our cars.

Johnsons controls make most batteries. Same people that make interstate batteries, makes Walmart, auto zone O'riellys battery's.

Duracell uses and AGM I believe it is. Good battery, but if it dies you can not charge it with standard charger.

I get my battery's at Batteries Plus.

I have a couple batteries in the fleet pushing 10+ years old. Regularly keeping them on a maintainer through the driving season, and while removed for winter storage must be the key.

Back in my boating days I remember fellow boaters at the marina making comments about buying new batteries every other season. I pointed out mine were 5+ years old and they had a glazed over look when I explained about pulling them out for winter and keeping them on a maintainer.
They just kept them installed & wonder why they go bad so fast!!!

I wish I had the guys contact information, but he swore O'Reillys batteries are not all made by the same place. It varied on the level of their various lines, some better than others.

I know a guy that works for interstate and he delivers oreillys battery's and does the warranty work for them. They may keep another line in areas interstate is not available, but it's prolly made by Johnson Controls.

Last year I was a dummy and left my RV battery hooked up for a week in winter. Totally forgot. Killed my 5 year old battery and had to buy another. Lesson learned. :crying:

The reality is, when I talked to the guy if it wasn't Johnson Controls, they probably own the company by now anyway :p

I bought the AGM from AutoZone last year.
rated at ~900 cca and 1000 ca, iirc. 3yr warranty.
cost $175 at the time.
I run dino 20w50 year 'round and it spins the 32 valver like a top in the winter.:thumbup:

I forgot to mention, the 120 plus summer heat, kills batteries in Vegas.

I needed a battery last Sunday so I did my usual obsessive Internet search. Here are some points that seemed consistent across all the sources.

There are 3 battery manufacturers who make most US car batteries (Johnson, Exide, East Penn). Battery quality is a crapshoot. Consumer Reports says that batteries vary widely in performance within a brand, and even between different sizes of the same model from the same manufacturer.

AGM batteries are better but more expensive. They have more consistent discharge, faster charging, no spillage, little off gassing. If you run them down it will shorten their lives faster than a wet battery, especially if you don't use a trickle charger and/or jump start and charge with your alternator. But any regular charger will work.

The 928S4 takes a Group 48 or H6 battery (I think it's the same for all models and years). Their top performer by far in CR's test for that size was the Interstate MT7-48/H6. Next was the Bosch H6-760B and the Interstate Megatron Plus. All the rest were way behind (random models of Duralast, DieHard, and EverStart) and basically not worth having.

It looks like Group 49/H8 also works. The Group 49 Bosch in the OP did poorly with a score of 51/100. The best was the AC Delco AGM, and the Interstate Megatron, Duracell, and Autocraft Gold were also recommended.

I needed a battery and no place that had the good batteries was open so I looked for good online reviews. Not easy to find. I eventually got an Autocraft Platinum AGM at Advance Auto Parts. I am hoping for the best, and so far at one week old it is a champ.

I like and have the DieHard AGM. Group 48

Thanks everyone, appreciate the education. I have an old die hard in there now.
I won't agonize so bad over what I replace it with from what I'm reading here.

I'm still cruising along with the WalMart MAXX that's now almost five years old. It's exactly the same as the Advance Auto Gold it replaced, down to case structure and weight. The labels were the only difference. It lives on a good maintainer between drives, something that I'm sure is helping with its longevity.

In the car though, the biggest result came from getting the cables renewed, particularly the battery ground strap. That let the alternator get it fully charged so it wouldn't pull down so deeply into battery capacity when tuck in hot traffic in Los Angeles.

Yea, that crossed my mind reading your post. My batteries are kept in very ideal conditions most of their life. For the winter drivers I'm regularly putting the maintainer on them over night.