Battery Date Code Question..

[scoostraw]

I purchased a new East Penn/Deka battery for my truck this morning. There were two in stock - one with a date code H3 on the side of the case, and the other was a J3.

If I understand the codes correctly, H3 means a manufactured-on date of August 2013 - while J3 means September (or October?) 2013. Being that today is August 26th, how is it possible to find any battery with a J3 code on it?

Or am I missing something here?

 

[Maximus1966]

I'd say you are missing something.

 

[cmorr]

Is the sticker you are referring to the manufacturers or the store/distributor.

They are supposed to recharge them periodically and they sometimes apply round date code stickers. Perhaps they fudged the date to lessen how frequently they need to recharge

 

[NHGUY]

Ran out of August stickers....

 

[Donald]

Something is odd. I asked at Sams Club once and they said the company pulls them only when they get to be 1 year old. Too long for me. Does someone really come around and charge them? I have seen one shop with a multi charger that could charge several at a time. But I am not sure someone at Walmart charges their batteries. Interstate batteries at the local indy shop are shrink wrapped. Unsure how you could charge them being shrink wrapped.

 

[scoostraw]

Originally Posted By: cmorr
Is the sticker you are referring to the manufacturers or the store/distributor.

They are supposed to recharge them periodically and they sometimes apply round date code stickers.

I don't know. This was at Farm & Fleet. The guy at the auto desk has been there for some time and is fairly knowledgeable. I asked him about it, and he was stumped also.

I needed a 24F, and last week there was only one on the rack. (The H3) The guy told me to wait because they were going on sale this week. When I pointed out that there was only one in stock he replied "Oh I got a whole pallet of batteries back there. I'm sure there will be more."

So today when I went in, there were two. The H3 and a J3.

Is the date code also stamped or molded into the battery case? I saw the stickers and didn't look any further than that. (FWIW the batteries at walmart were all labelled Apr/13)

 

[scoostraw]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Ran out of August stickers....

Do the codes jump from H to J? (Is I not used?)

 

[TFB1]

Originally Posted By: scoostraw
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Ran out of August stickers....

Do the codes jump from H to J? (Is I not used?)


J3 is most likely Sept '13, most date code systems skip I(too easily confused with 1)...

I'd guess they probably start using the next months stickers a couple weeks before the battery is likely to be on the shelf..

Or maybe as suggested, they were out of Aug stickers...

 

[bdcardinal]

"I" and "O" are generally not used a lot in date code systems. The stickers are supposed to be the assembly date sticker, but they will start shipping out the next months stickers around the 20th of the previous month.

 

[scoostraw]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
The stickers are supposed to be the assembly date sticker, but they will start shipping out the next months stickers around the 20th of the previous month.

If that's the case, it would explain things. I had never heard this before tho, so needless to say I was 'surprised'.