Everstart Updates:
The Everstart that I bought in 2002 (made by Johnson Controls) is still looking and running good.
The Everstart that I bought in 2007 (Made by Exide) still works but has turned both itself and the battery box into a huge corrosion fest, and I will need an entire box of baking soda to neutralized it.
Given a choice, I cannot imagine any reason to buy a lead-low antimony battery, like Exide. When they reach full charge they "Zener off" the continuing charge and the rules of electrolysis cause considerable outgassing and lots of corrosive damage.
The Johnson Controls battery - like almost all lead-calcium batteries - looks like new and so do the posts, etc.
If you do not know which is which, it is easy to test:
Put on an unregulated charger and observe both current and voltage, after the battery reaches full charge.
A lead antimony battery will act like a zener diode and will limit the voltage to about 14.5 volts while continuing to take a 1 or 2 amp charge. This current just bubbles off the electrolyte and causes all the outgassing.
A Lead-Calcium battery pretty much just shuts the door on the incoming current! The voltage will rise well above 15 volts, or even 16 volts, while accepting almost no charge at all - current will drop to nearly zero. This of course does not cause any outgassing at all.
If you are a boat owner (ok, I maintain a fleet of boats for our waterski show team) make note that:
Older motors - 1960's, 1970's did not use voltage regulators, and need a lead antimony battery to act as a voltage regulator.
New motors, with voltage regulators: Since we store lots of boats for 5 months, make note that lead antimony batteries can self-discharge at 1% a day and will likely be dead, freeeze and split before spring.
Lead-Calcium batteries lose almost no charge at all, and will still be above 95 percent full in the spring. Side note - we had a few Mercury motors that draw a steady standby current for their computers and would drag the battery down in about 60 days.
fsskier