Originally Posted by wrcsixeight
Interstate is a battery marketer, they will get Johnson Controls, Exide, USbattery, whomever to build their batteries, and this can vary regionally. It is about max profit and this is achieved though marketing, as opposed to max quality.
More important than who manufactures a battery, is its average state of charge, and the average temperature the battery is.
All lead acid batteries, for maximum longevity, Ideally want to be kept cool, and absolutely fully charged.
Defects aside, the absolute best Lead acid battery, kept chronically undercharged, will not last as long as the worst battery kept fully charged, assuming being exposed to the same temperatures.
If one is finding their battery only lasts two years, they can blame either their vehicles charging system, and/or themselves for allowing the battery to live in a chronically undercharged state.
An 80% charged battery cannot be returned to a true 100% state of charge in less than 3.5 hours, although a 100% charged battery can be discharged to 80% in a few minutes with a large load applied to it.
Those 3.5 hours to get from 80% to 100% state of charge assume the charging sources voltage regulator is holding the battery up in the 14.5v range, something almost no Vehicle allows. It also assumes a healthy battery. A partially sulfated battery takes significantly longer to get from 80% charged to 100% charged, as it has higher resistance. this partially sulfated battery then degrades even faster when it does not get the time it needs at higher voltages in orde to remotely approach a higher state of charge.
The maintenance minded Bitoger seeking maximum battery longevity would regularly plug their battery into a charger, one that can bring the battery to and hold it at 14.5ish volts for a few hours, on a regular basis, and immediately after they knowingly let the battery get discharged by blasting the stereo engine off, or leaving the dome lights on all night.
Any charging is better than no charging, but the truly fully charged lead acid battery is rare, proveable time and again with a hydrometer.
Vehicle charging systems are not designed to take the best possible care of the battery, though it is assumed by most that the alternator is some instant magical battery charger, and that anytime the vehicle is driven any appreciable time that the battery is fully charged.
This misconception is a battery murderer, and the cure is using a grid powered plug in charger to top the battery off regularly.
Many newer vehicles intentionally keep the battery in an underchrged state, so tha it can accept higher amperage from teh alternator when teh voltage regulator asks for 14.5ish or higher system voltage. Even on such vehicles, the battery would appreciate being truly fully charged by an outside source.
How well or not the plug in charger works in taking the battery to a true full 100% state of charge is another topic, but even if the 'smart' charger stops at 95% charged, it is 200% better for the battery than being only 75% charged.
If your vehicle and your usage of it keeps the battery in an average low state of charge, and you cannot or will not apply an outside charging source on a regular basis, then just buy the cheapest battery with the warranty most easily to exchange it, as a battery battery is not going to be immune from abuse, and abuse is being less than 100% state of charge, and hot. The lower the average state of charge and the longer it resides there the faster the battery will lose capacity and CCA.
No lead acid battery is immune from living its life in an undercharged state, no matter how well marketed it is, and almost all starting batteries have reduced plate thickness and number and quality of the paste, to whaatever minimum that still yields maximum profit for them.
This is probably the best post ever on batteries.
Also, yeah, Interstate took a dive in quality, they used to be the best batteries you can buy, now there is no longer anything special about them. It used to be if you wanted the absolute best, you would go in and spend the extra money premium on an Interstate and get a great, heavy, serious Interstate battery and it would last 7 years or so in almost all circumstances. Now it's just the same as the ones you get from regular channels.