Who is Good for Batteries Nows?

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So, looks like I'm on my 3rd replacement battery of the year. I haven't been driving my MKZ(my normal daily) a ton lately. I went to drive it Tuesday morning, and it was a bit reluctant to crank but did start. It had been sitting since Sunday I think, and I know it's gone a lot longer in the past without being driven. In any case, I pretty much immediately hopped on the interstate and drove it ~60 miles(I stopped ~15 miles in for gas, and didn't notice anything when I restarted it), then parked it and it has sat since then.

I got in it this morning and all the power functions/radio/etc work but it didn't have enough power to crank. I'm headed out of town tomorrow afternoon and need to drive it, so don't have a ton of time to mess around with trying to revive the battery. The current one on it is a Duralast-I think it's the economy line(my dad bought the car from my grandfather in 2014, and doesn't remember putting a battery on it. I know I haven't in the 2 1/2 years I've owned it), and I guess the freakishly hot temperatures we've had the past month finally did it in.

The last Duralast I bought a few weeks ago(It was a Gold, but was right at 1 year after manufacture so was sold to me cheap without a warranty) was an Exide, and I know enough from reading here that Exides are generally to be avoided.

My inclination would be to buy an Interstate, but with everything that I have to get done I don't know if I can find time to make it to one of the dealers in town. I'd also prefer to visit a full blown auto parts store with the car(I should be able to jump it and get it there, especially given that the battery isn't all the way down) and have them check the alternator on the off chance that it's bad.

My easily available local options, aside from Autozone, are NAPA and O'Reillys. I can probably get to an Advance also.

Of the house brands from those places, what would you all pick? Alternatively, is it really worth my effort to try and get an Interstate, which I assume is still JC.

Thanks.
 
You're going to have folks with Exide batteries that last years. Some with Johnson Controls batteries that have lasted years. Others with battery manufacturer "x" that last years. Just as many will claim Exide is junk, JC is junk, "x" is junk. You can't win....

One thing that might be in agreement (the most) is East Penn is generally good.
 
+1 Eastern Penn sold under the Die Hard brand (be careful there are usually 2 models the same on with JC and part # and the other with EP and part #, the EP is the one you want the other is trash), Napa and Deka.
 
If you get another battery, also get a battery maintainer for your car if you don't plan on driving it often. If you have an AGM battery, get a maintainer that can handle both, "lead acid batteries"(LAB) as well as "absorbent glass matt"(AGM).
 
I get my East Penn/Duracell batteries from Sam's Club---I have them in all four of my cars now. A Group 96R battery for your Lincoln is $99, with free installation. They'll also load-test your current one, if you want to confirm how close to dead it is. My oldest Sam's Club battery is now 6 years old, and still load-tests fine. YMMV.
 
JC used to be good but they sold their division so we'll see. Also it depends on the car line, if they have a silver line and a gold line, those two lines could be made by two different manufacturers. There's basically only 3 out there anyway, JC, Exide and East Penn. Interstate is just another brand like Die Hard, they just rebrand their batteries and it could come from any supplier. But as others here said, the battery is getting killed by the heat. The battery maintainer is the way to make your battery last.
 
Thanks.

It's unfortunate that Die Hard isn't a realistic option here. There are no Sears or Kmart stores around anymore(I think the only one in the state is further away than I have time to visit today).

If I'm understanding Trav correctly, it sounds like this is an East Penn battery

https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/NBP8496R?keywordInput=96r+battery

Can anyone confirm?

Otherwise, I can get Odyssey at O'Reilly's for about the same price(it's not 100% about price for me-I want to get something that will be reliable, but also don't want to needlessly spend money on perceived quality that isn't there).

I normally drive this car nearly every day-it's just been a bit of a fluke that I've been enjoying warmer than usually September/October weather and instead driving the convertible for anything but longer trips. I do have a small 3A charger that has a maintainer function, but using it isn't a realistic option short of pulling the battery and bringing it inside as I don't have power in my(detached) garage.
 
That's what I get for not looking at all the details-the NAPA page for that battery even specifies it as East Penn...looks like that's what I'm going with
 
The $50 valupower battery at walmart by me are east penn. The serial number will begin with ep.
 
I used to work for East Penn/Deka Batteries back in the early 2000s for three years. There batteries were solid then & still are till this day. Place employes over 8000 people now at there two facilities in Berks County Pennsylvania. When I was working there they had alittle over 2000 employees.
 
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any battery needs to be kept charged period! batteries are date coded + sealed batteries begin aging as soon as electrolyte is added, some batteries are activated by the seller then capped so be sure its a fresh battery + if not driving much put a decent smart charger on it or it will die an early death from sulfation!!! i have several wheeled vehicles + they get limited use but my smart charger visits them ALL regularly, my rarely ridden traded kawasaki had the over 6 year old OE battery when traded, thats what chargers do!! todays vehicles have a LOT of electronic JUNK that taxes a battery all the time!!
 
East Penn AGM batteries all day every day. They do make them for a lot of other people (mine are Alliance which is a Freightliner brand, although the ones sold in the US under Alliance don't seem to be East Penn consistently).
 
Interstate never manufactured their own batteries, they were a reseller of Johnson Controls manufacture batteries built to Interstate's specs.
 
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