Does anyone make a quality battery anymore?

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The vehicle in question is my 2000 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L.

When I bought the Jeep 5 years ago, it had an Exide battery in it. I had that battery for a few years, and it started leaking acid onto the garage floor. This was disappointing, but it was 4 years old judging by the date on the sticker, so I had gotten a decent life out of it. Despite leaking acid it still started the Jeep.

I have some off road lights tied into my high beams, so I went for an Optima yellow top thinking I would be buying a better product. As we all know, Optima's quality has tanked, and the battery lasted almost exactly 1 year before it stranded me without warning.

I went back to Autozone with the battery, and it tested as having a bad cell. They didn't have any Yellow tops in stock that fit my vehicle. They gave me a Duralast Gold along with an Autozone credit for the price difference. I was satisfied with this since at the time I was late for work and didn't feel like making my friend drive me to 10 different Autozones all over the state.

Fast forward about 10 months and the battery is showing signs of reduced power. It cranks, but very slowly. I have a load tester and the battery tested weak. I can charge it, and it will be fine for a day but then slowly lose power again. I'm waiting for the day when it won't crank at all. Advance Auto also tested the battery and said it was weak, but my alternator was fine. Autozone tested it and said the battery wasn't below a certain voltage so they wouldn't replace it.
mad.gif


All the batteries around here are Sears, Advance Auto, Wal-Mart, and Napa. I think most are made my Johnson Controls.

I'd like to find an Interstate, since the lawn and garden Interstate in my John Deere is 8 years old and still cranks like it is brand new in the middle of winter. I can't seem to find anyone who sells Interstates around here except for the lawn batteries at Home Depot.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
I think you are going to keep changing batteries until you find where the bad ground is.

This.

After so many 'bad' batteries, you need to stop looking at them as being the problem.
 
I can't argue with the above advice about grounds but Costo's Kirkland batteries are Interstates, at least out here, tho' I see you're likely not very close. Anyway, I found that out by calling Johnson Controls and asking, so maybe they can point you to a local distributor/dealer.
Kevin
 
I can think of two:

East Penn/DEKA batteries are superb. They're available as the Batteries Plus "X2Power" brand if you have trouble finding a distributor.

The other equally good brand is Enersys, makers of the Odyssey and also most sizes of the Diehard Platinum.
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
I can think of two:

East Penn/DEKA batteries are superb. They're available as the Batteries Plus "X2Power" brand if you have trouble finding a distributor.

The other equally good brand is Enersys, makers of the Odyssey and also most sizes of the Diehard Platinum.
I'm thinking of trying an AGM from DEKA.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig
I think you are going to keep changing batteries until you find where the bad ground is.


I doubt its the grounds. I've checked them all and cleaned all of them when I installed beefier battery cables a few years ago. The Exide and Optima started perfect, the Exide was just leaking so it was replaced, and the Optima had a common failure. That is why they didn't have any Optimas when I brought mine back, the guy had so many returns they had to order more of them.
 
I had anticipated you being from FL or AZ or someplace warm. Heat kills batteries first and foremost, since side reactions increase impedance and take materials out of the loop.

IMO, one of the biggest problems is that what sells??? Big numbers... Except for purchase price. People have this concept in their brains that you should get max CCA for min price. This drives a design point which can be more flaky (literally) and have other isues, though being higher performing on paper. Even though warranties on the expensive and high CCA batteries is longer, its all well calculated in terms of how many pro rata returns that will need to be made, and note that their ratings have been modified recently.

The other big thing is parasitic load. Unlike other batteries which live longer life if kept at a lower state of charge, lead acid batteries of all types live longest if kept cool and at a full/float state of charge. The discharge on a lead acid is really not that great. Very small pulse spurt and then nothing for a long time. But, self discharge and parasitic loads from ever more electrified/sensorized vehicles and more and more courtesy lights means that an already somewhat depleted (alternators do not fully charge properly per the electrochemistry) battery is more so.

So if you want best life, keep it cold, keep it fully charged, turn off interior and courtesy lights and other electric doodads.
 
Is there a parasitic draw on it?

My Cherokee will drop a fully charged battery down to 11V in a day or two. Let it sit for a week and you're looking at 10. A month? < 10.

If I let my battery sit with the negative terminal pulled off, battery voltage remains constant.
 
Originally Posted By: HerrStig

I'm thinking of trying an AGM from DEKA.


I have two, both in vehicles that do a lot of sitting. They're Batteries Plus "X2Power" brand AGM dual-purpose (deep cycle/starting) made by DEKA. One's in the Ram and it'll sit a month at a time. I probably should pull the ignition-off draw fuses when I park it, but I never bother and it's always fired right up. The other is the '66 Polara which doesn't have any ignition-off draw. But It sometimes sits even longer and it's always started fine also. About once or twice a year I let my batteries spend a week hooked to my smart charger, so that probably helps too.
 
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What year did "Optima's quality has tanked" go down ? My yellow top is going on 5 years with no issues .
 
I saw a couple of other threads in the past year claiming that Optima had gone downhill. One of them included responses from a company rep stating that they were not having quality issues. I had a red top in my Accord for over six years. That was more than double the life of any previous battery in my 20 years with that car. The one I installed in 2008 was still doing just fine in 2012 when I totaled the car.
 
Keep in mind that Autozone or Sears or Walmart, etc could change battery vendors when they renew a contract. And they could have a different vendor for east/west or north/south. Walmart is different than Sams Club but same corp. owner.

Interstate will always be JCI.

When getting a battery, are you looking at date codes and getting a fresh one? Charging it before use?

Has the battery gone dead due to something left on? A starting battery cannot take many of those. (Deep cycle can).
 
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