Walmart Batteries East Penn Built

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Perhaps this is old news to some but I just noticed that my local Walmart's auto batteries almost all appear to be East Penn built; fully sealed, maintenance free.
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Also, the Everstart Maxx have higher CCA and better 3 year free replacement, 5 year pro rate warranty yet are only a mere $5 more than the next step down.

Personally, I never liked vent cap batteries such as built by JC, they always seem to leak acid, sometimes a lot of acid and can damage the under hood sheet metal if not caught in time.
 
Originally Posted By: Rock_Hudstone

Personally, I never liked vent cap batteries such as built by JC, they always seem to leak acid, sometimes a lot of acid and can damage the under hood sheet metal if not caught in time.



If you have a GM car that came new with a maintenance free battery it runs a few 1/10 volts higher to overcome the chemistry in a maint free battery. Put one with caps in and it will vent as it's being mildly overcharged.
 
If you want a battery to last a long time, buy one with a long warranty, they're built slightly better where it counts or they'd go broke on the warranty claims!

Also noticed that my new battery with 5 year free replacement and total 10 yr warranty is also 6 Lbs heavier (more 'meat' inside) then the crummy Delco battery that died in just 2 yrs!
 
Walmart is famous for pushing vendors for even cheaper prices or having a few vendors in the same room to duke it out for the lowest price. Doubt they switched vendors due to East Penn being a better quality. And it could certainly be regional. The first Maxx battery I got was Exide, the warranty replacement was JCI. Same or very close stores.
 
I'm willing to bet that if you looked a little closer, you'd see that they are still JCI sourced, but made in Saudi Arabia. Yes, they look almost identical from a distance.
 
Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud
If you want a battery to last a long time, buy one with a long warranty, they're built slightly better where it counts or they'd go broke on the warranty claims!

Also noticed that my new battery with 5 year free replacement and total 10 yr warranty is also 6 Lbs heavier (more 'meat' inside) then the crummy Delco battery that died in just 2 yrs!


Reminds me about how my last set of duralast gold batteries had like an 8 year warranty and they went bad after like three years, so I got two new batteries for like 70 bucks. I noticed on this set they backed it down to 5 years.
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
I'm willing to bet that if you looked a little closer, you'd see that they are still JCI sourced, but made in Saudi Arabia. Yes, they look almost identical from a distance.


I don' think so, they are identical to the Sears Diehard and as I mentioned in another post, the Sears and K-mart website lists batteries with a JC or EP prefix before the group size, the JC are all vent cap style, the EP fully sealed.

As for Walmart prices they were nothing great, the Value Power were $99, Everstart Maxx $104.
 
Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud
If you want a battery to last a long time, buy one with a long warranty, they're built slightly better where it counts or they'd go broke on the warranty claims! ...
The ones with the long warranty aren't necessarily built better. They're just more expensive to cover the cost of the long warranty.
 
Look at the label- I too thought for sure East Penn was making them for Wal-Mart again, but upon closer inspection, they were Saudi imports.
 
Originally Posted By: CR94
Originally Posted By: i_hate_autofraud
If you want a battery to last a long time, buy one with a long warranty, they're built slightly better where it counts or they'd go broke on the warranty claims! ...
The ones with the long warranty aren't necessarily built better. They're just more expensive to cover the cost of the long warranty

(I pulled the below from my own post from about 1.5 years ago) still relevent lol
Yup and you are paying for a warranty.
I have personally been to JCI and Deka and walked and or worked around the production floors on each.
The batteries come down a line to shipping
They send like 50 in a row of one size.
They then sticker them first ten say walmart brand next ten costco, next ten bi mart ,next ten another
They then go on their respective order palettes
So one that is value is another stores premium.
The only way to compare is by specs cca, ca, reserve,
So be it budget, silver, or value.
I do see value in a warranty if I don't have to pay a premium for it so if one battery is about 20 bucks for two extra years of warranty I would likely go with it. I seem to get pretty long life out of our car batteries. Ten years. My truck does not get driven so it eats a battery every 4.
Realistically you will have a battery failure from manufacturer defect in the first year. After that it's more likely abuse and or used.
So one year warranty battery 50 bucks ok not too bad
Three year battery 75 bucks not bad and the extra warranty does make me feel warm a fuzzy
7 year battery for 150+++ no thanks. This extra warranty makes me feel used I am looking at you sears!!
I get batteries from work for real good deals. I recall putting a battery in one car it would have been 150 at sears the nearly identical spec battery was 58 bucks with exchange. 18 month warranty. They are deka east penn maint free.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: Rock_Hudstone

Personally, I never liked vent cap batteries such as built by JC, they always seem to leak acid, sometimes a lot of acid and can damage the under hood sheet metal if not caught in time.



If you have a GM car that came new with a maintenance free battery it runs a few 1/10 volts higher to overcome the chemistry in a maint free battery. Put one with caps in and it will vent as it's being mildly overcharged.


Yes and no, maint free batteries are different they dont gas as easily. Calcium in the lead prevents gassing
Batteries you have to water do gas and vent the gas more easily. The acid condenses and makes a mess. Its their nature
 
Yes, those East Penn batteries have a great reputation. However, a retailer (like Walmart) can have batteries(or whatever else) made to their specs, which maybe lower than the name brand to meet their desired price point. One is not necessarily getting the same quality as the name brand, in my opinion. There just ain't no free lunch.
 
Yes, it's true we pay for longer warranties, but there's usually a better chance we'll benefit from it too!

I've had 8 and 10 year batteries that finally died within a few months of the warranty ending or just outside the warranty, still better than AC Delco! lol

For my current battery, $25 bought me twice the warranty, worth it.
 
Here in Florida you need the vent caps as the acid does evaporate with the heat. That said ALL my Everstart batteries from Walmart have been made in the USA and have the best warranty for the price.
 
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Look at the label- I too thought for sure East Penn was making them for Wal-Mart again, but upon closer inspection, they were Saudi imports.


Finally got around to checking labels on the batteries at my local Walmart; nothing about Saudi imports that I could find.

I still say Walmart dumped Johnson Controls as their battery supplier and are using East Penn, (at least in this region).
 
Just bought a Walmart battery yesterday for the wife's Mazda3. Everstart Maxx, clearly says Johnson Controls right on the sticker. Has a 07/16 build sticker.
 
Originally Posted By: willbur
Yes, those East Penn batteries have a great reputation. However, a retailer (like Walmart) can have batteries(or whatever else) made to their specs, which maybe lower than the name brand to meet their desired price point. One is not necessarily getting the same quality as the name brand, in my opinion. There just ain't no free lunch.


And my experience with East Penn says they are, by far, the best battery out there. About 5 years ago, Sears began sourcing Diehard from EP instead of JCI, at least in my region. However, I can get the same Deka battery cheaper than the Diehard branded battery. I would be surprised if EP would risk their reputation by making cheap batteries for Wally. Of course most people do not know or care who makes the Wally batteries.
 
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