Looking for Good Value H8 49AGM Battery

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The cold weather has unearthed my next maintenance item... a new battery. Frequently getting a "High Battery Discharge" service message. The battery is 5 or so years old so it sounds about right. Battery needed is a 49AGM / H8

A few I've come across:
- Exide Edge Flat-Plate AGM $190 (rockauto with 5% coupon)
- Autocraft Platinum AGM $143 (AAP with 25% coupon - after core refund)
- Duracell Platinum AGM $198 (batteries plus with 5% coupon - after core refund)
- ACDelco Professional AGM $185 (rockauto with 5% coupon)

What about Interstate? Costco carries those right? Any other good values out there or products to stay away from? Thanks.
 
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Originally Posted by DONWATERS
My favorite is duralast platinum, autozone house brand, quality is ok but the warranty is the best.


I put Duralast and Autocraft in the same category. Both have a 3 years warranty. AAP has the 25% off deal right now which makes the Autocraft attractive.
 
Same battery as my car. Those can last though, my AGM is about 10 years old. Do a load test and see how well it holds up.

Haven't research it in a while, but AAP is probably still the best deal. I believe they still install for free. Pep boys used to install for free, but not on Mercedes anymore. Otherwise Pep Boys has a Bosch and I think around Black Friday they usually have a pretty good discount code. Autozone only does a 20% discount so I think AAP is still cheaper.

I wouldn't even dream of mail ordering a battery. How are you going to get any warranty work on a battery?
 
sams club has Duracell branded deka agm (same as Batteries Plus) at $159.95+tax&core (in my area), otherwise only a 36 month warranty.
The X2 power battery that batteries plus sells is a pure lead battery (very high quality - on par with odyssey) that comes with a 60 month warranty, but at about $80 more than the duracell.
 
Its a little early for an AGM to fail at 5 years, Id throw it on the charger overnight rated for an AGM and see if it comes back. Most times however, high battery discharge is the negative battery cable, which controls sleep functions and measures closed circuit current draw. Needs programming along with the new battery most times. I have also seen the large red positive side computers go for a fault like this, but I feel that this was in conjunction with the electric water pump melting the connector and causing crazy computer issues. Youre fine with the V8 and belt driven pumpage. And honestly, call the dealer for a price on the battery. Near me (Bergen county nj) the dealers are all around or under $200 for an OEM BMW AGM, blowing my local Bosch, Interstate and Exide dealers out of the water by at least 50-80$.
 
Ive had great luck with the East Penn/Deka AGM.

I understand WalMart sells AGM batteries, but Ive never seen them in stock online or at any store.

If you need AGM, you should really look at price and local warranty stores. If AAP is in play for you, that seems like a good deal. I have an AAP AGM in my 135i, I recoded it to the H8/49 size. There's more and more available, but theyre less common than flooded batteries. You mention Costco, which is a good example; Ive not seen an AGM in either of the two stores I shop at...

I recently bought a Napa Legend group 49 (flooded) for my 1982 300CD, but thats an old diesel and doenst have the electrical load that your X5 has.

Youre going to register the new battery, right??
 
Originally Posted by ET16
Costco will be the best value.


Agreed, but do they sell AGM? Not in my area.
 
Thanks all. Decided to go with the AAP Autocraft Platinum. Comes out to $143 with a 3 year warranty. Just checked and the current battery in my X5 is an Autocraft Gold that's 5.5 years old. If I can make it another 5-6 years on a $143 battery I'll be more than satisfied... if the rest of the car lasts that long.

I have a Carly adapter for programming the battery and will thoroughly clean all the connections before reinstalling.
 
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Originally Posted by 1JZ_E46
Thanks all. Decided to go with the AAP Autocraft Platinum. Comes out to $143 with a 3 year warranty. Just checked and the current battery in my X5 is an Autocraft Gold that's 5.5 years old. If I can make it another 5-6 years on a $143 battery I'll be more than satisfied... if the rest of the car lasts that long.

I have a Carly adapter for programming the battery and will thoroughly clean all the connections before reinstalling.


I would suggest fully charging it before installing it. I think the reason batteries are dying early now is that they've changed the charging algorithm so that it doesn't get charged enough so they can get some tiny improvement in CAFE. I noticed in my older generation Mercedes W211, lots of people got 8-12 years out of their AGM battery, but in the newer generation W212, they were lucky if they lasted more than 5-6.
 
CR's Top Pick for Group 49 is an Acdelco AGM, followed by: Interstate MT-49, Duracell H8, Autocraft Gold and Diehard Advanced AGM.
 
Originally Posted by nthach
O'Reilly has been sourcing AGMs from Deka lately - give them a shot.

The Super Start Platinum is a very good battery. Just be sure you don't get one that's been sitting for more than a few months because they don't sell frequently...
 
Originally Posted by Wolf359
Originally Posted by 1JZ_E46
Thanks all. Decided to go with the AAP Autocraft Platinum. Comes out to $143 with a 3 year warranty. Just checked and the current battery in my X5 is an Autocraft Gold that's 5.5 years old. If I can make it another 5-6 years on a $143 battery I'll be more than satisfied... if the rest of the car lasts that long.

I have a Carly adapter for programming the battery and will thoroughly clean all the connections before reinstalling.


I would suggest fully charging it before installing it. I think the reason batteries are dying early now is that they've changed the charging algorithm so that it doesn't get charged enough so they can get some tiny improvement in CAFE. I noticed in my older generation Mercedes W211, lots of people got 8-12 years out of their AGM battery, but in the newer generation W212, they were lucky if they lasted more than 5-6.



^^^^^^^

Great post here... If a battery sits uncharged for long periods of time.. it naturally loses charge. And the parts stores are not likely charging the batteries routinely every month. Even AGM batteries lose 1-3% capacity per month sitting uncharged. Flooded is obviously worse at 12-15% loss per month. So if one gets a AGM battery that has sat around uncharged for say 6-7 months.... It may well be down up 18-21 % charge from the start. And like Wolf said so correctly... Never trust your alternator to charge it up from a low percentage. And don't even trust your automatic charger has well... It will cut off way too soon all too often. Unplug and plug it back in... And do that a good number of times... My automatic smart charger will say 100% and go into float mode... Unplug it.. and literally plug it right back in... And it says 95%. Strange... It was just "100" percent right?? No. It wasn't. So.. use the plug and unplug trick... Be prepared to do it a fair amount.. I don't have any gadgets to test it for truly be 100 percent charged.. My way of estimating closest to 100 percent charge is timing how long it takes for the battery to go from that 95% to when it goes into full charge float mode... Eventually it gets to where it's less than 10 minutes. While the first interval was around 60 minutes... At 10 minutes or less... Then I'm ok with it.. Again... Wolf's post was a great post.
 
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Good post. I installed the new battery tonight. The battery has a June 2018 production date. So 4 months old.

Think it's an issue or should I not worry about it? Do I need a special charger for an AGM?


For those wondering, the Autocraft Platnium had a "Made in Germany" sticker on it. The Gold did not.
 
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Well, my "Increased Battery Drain" issue persists. I have read that it could be an accessory causing the warning message. The only new accessory I added was an Apple Lightning to 3.5mm audio + charging port (Belkin brand). Going to try unplugging that.

At least I've got a new battery I don't have to worry about for 7 years or so.
 
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Originally Posted by bbhero
Originally Posted by Wolf359
Originally Posted by 1JZ_E46
Thanks all. Decided to go with the AAP Autocraft Platinum. Comes out to $143 with a 3 year warranty. Just checked and the current battery in my X5 is an Autocraft Gold that's 5.5 years old. If I can make it another 5-6 years on a $143 battery I'll be more than satisfied... if the rest of the car lasts that long.

I have a Carly adapter for programming the battery and will thoroughly clean all the connections before reinstalling.


I would suggest fully charging it before installing it. I think the reason batteries are dying early now is that they've changed the charging algorithm so that it doesn't get charged enough so they can get some tiny improvement in CAFE. I noticed in my older generation Mercedes W211, lots of people got 8-12 years out of their AGM battery, but in the newer generation W212, they were lucky if they lasted more than 5-6.



^^^^^^^

Great post here... If a battery sits uncharged for long periods of time.. it naturally loses charge. And the parts stores are not likely charging the batteries routinely every month. Even AGM batteries lose 1-3% capacity per month sitting uncharged. Flooded is obviously worse at 12-15% loss per month. So if one gets a AGM battery that has sat around uncharged for say 6-7 months.... It may well be down up 18-21 % charge from the start. And like Wolf said so correctly... Never trust your alternator to charge it up from a low percentage. And don't even trust your automatic charger has well... It will cut off way too soon all too often. Unplug and plug it back in... And do that a good number of times... My automatic smart charger will say 100% and go into float mode... Unplug it.. and literally plug it right back in... And it says 95%. Strange... It was just "100" percent right?? No. It wasn't. So.. use the plug and unplug trick... Be prepared to do it a fair amount.. I don't have any gadgets to test it for truly be 100 percent charged.. My way of estimating closest to 100 percent charge is timing how long it takes for the battery to go from that 95% to when it goes into full charge float mode... Eventually it gets to where it's less than 10 minutes. While the first interval was around 60 minutes... At 10 minutes or less... Then I'm ok with it.. Again... Wolf's post was a great post.


Thanks. Just some additional data points, just replaced the alternator in my car, I guess it was dying a slow death, but didn't notice it til I got a low voltage warning. Mine lets you display the voltage on the dash and after charging it up with an 8 amp charger, it was at 12.7 volts. Dropped down to about 12.5 volts after a little while. There's a chart around that tells you the state of charge for a battery with no load on it, 100% is about 12.7 volts. Anyway, once I hooked it back up to car, voltage dropped again to 12.1. So I guess I'm going to keep mine for a little bit longer, 10 years and only capable of holding an 80% charge, I guess that's not too bad, it was at 11.3 volts when I got a battery low warning, but that could be because when I started it, it dropped as low as 10.3 volts and I think once it drops below 11 it triggers a warning. Drove it fine all winter at 11.5 volts as the voltage drops in cold weather.
 
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