Proof manufacturer- different label + same battery.

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As everyone talks about how there are only three major automotive battery manufacturers and how they just slap labels of the store on the same exact battery they supply. Well I just got an advance auto battery for my civic 51r size. Their house brand is autocraft. I know it's made by Clarios (private equity that bought out Johnson Controls battery division) and supplies it to advance auto.

Looking closer I noticed the label was showing something behind the label. I peeled it back and look at that.. Carquest (Advance auto owns carquest)! Just perfect evidence that they just slap a label on the same battery. It's one thing that we all knew but here's perfect proof!

[Linked Image]
 
This appears to be the first Clarios battery pic I've seen and yup that looks like it was made with the same injection molding machines that Interstate used to run. Angled caps, date code stamped into top edge.
 
Also made south of the border. Another reason to purchase East Penn made batteries. And East Penn batteries are very good quality as well.
 
^ I've owned several, and still do at least 3 JC batteries, none of which leaked.

The only explanation I can think of (besides a bad batch which would be only a short period to buy one with such a defect) is you let them get too far drained then the temperature dropped too low and they froze. Keeping a charge in a lead acid is crucial for keeping the freezing point low. One estimate I recall is a battery at 20% charge can freeze a little below 20F. It always gets down below 20F at least a few dozen times per winter in Cincinnati.
 
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Originally Posted by bbhero
Also made south of the border. Another reason to purchase East Penn made batteries. And East Penn batteries are very good quality as well.


what brand is east penn sold as?
 
Originally Posted by edwardh1
Originally Posted by bbhero
Also made south of the border. Another reason to purchase East Penn made batteries. And East Penn batteries are very good quality as well.


what brand is east penn sold as?



East Penn sells their batteries through Napa, O Reilly's, and Federated Auto parts...

I just got a Federated Auto parts group 24f battery for the lady's Camry. For $89.. 2 yr Free replacement warranty... A good deal for that battery. The 3 yr Free replacement warranty battery was only $117...
 
Originally Posted by edwardh1
what brand is east penn sold as?


Duracell batteries at Sams Club are also East Penn.
 
wow didn't know this would turn into a commercial for east penn/deka batteries. I did talk to the parts guy at advance and he was saying that a couple months ago they had a lot of bad batteries then it stopped. he didn't mention exactly Clarios but using that timeline, I realized it was before Clarios took over production. I'm far from a fan of private equity firms, they like to slash/burn to make their profits and I think they're terrible. But if Johnson Controls were that bad I can see Clarios would have to improve the production quality if they expected to make any money off of buying that division!

I've also noticed that the casing has a different material mix, I'll take a picture of the old Johnson Controls battery when I pull it out of the civic. The casing material looks good, solid. I keep thinking some sort of styrene especially in the top cover.

and my original post was about how they slap a different sticker on a battery from the manufacturer. I bought this because east penn/deka haven't had the best of luck around here from friend's I've talked to, not the highest quality. People can argue that, but going dead out of nowhere, etc. I took another chance on this brand. And the advance auto battery was cheaper than I could get elsewhere. The east penn/deka batteries sit around a long, long time at napa, oreilly around here. Plus they're much, much more expensive. Good for those who get a great deal, but this is a 51r series battery. Even walmart wasn't cheaper!

Originally Posted by Dave9
^ I've owned several, and still do at least 3 JC batteries, none of which leaked.

The only explanation I can think of (besides a bad batch which would be only a short period to buy one with such a defect) is you let them get too far drained then the temperature dropped too low and they froze. Keeping a charge in a lead acid is crucial for keeping the freezing point low. One estimate I recall is a battery at 20% charge can freeze a little below 20F. It always gets down below 20F at least a few dozen times per winter in Cincinnati.


I haven't had any leak either, but then again I do keep mine charged up. I did buy a JC battery for my Scion tC in January so that was the "last era" of JC before Clarios, nothing wrong with it. So we'll see. This one tested out very well, after a charge, it was 510cca when it's rated at 500cca. That's better than the JC that went in there 4 years ago.
 
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Bull youknowhat concerning the East Penn batteries supposedly having issues... Those batteries are way, way better on average than JC now Cheerios junk.

In fact my Walmarts in my region's all have East Penn made batteries... For good reason being that EP is only a 8 hour drive away from my area. But also that EP does manufacturer good batteries.

And any flooded battery (no matter who manufacturers them) that sits a long time just sitting uncharged... Will fail early if it was not charged routinely before that sale... Flooded batteries lose 7-12 percent of their charge in a month just sitting... So do some quick math on how bad that is correct a battery that sat for 10 months with no maintenance charges being applied. In addition to that those batteries that are slow sellers and no charge added those batteries will be sulfated. Which will cause a serious loss in capacity which will not be able to be restored.
 
That's kinda like a sander we had years ago with a Western Auto label on one side, and Wards on the other. Both brands now extinct, coincidentally or not.
 
Originally Posted by bbhero
Originally Posted by edwardh1
Originally Posted by bbhero
Also made south of the border. Another reason to purchase East Penn made batteries. And East Penn batteries are very good quality as well.


what brand is east penn sold as?



East Penn sells their batteries through Napa, O Reilly's, and Federated Auto parts...

I just got a Federated Auto parts group 24f battery for the lady's Camry. For $89.. 2 yr Free replacement warranty... A good deal for that battery. The 3 yr Free replacement warranty battery was only $117...


Keep in mind it's very regional. Some parts of the country most oreilly batteries are East Penn deka. But around here most are jci clarios. You can tell by model number... If it's got a J it's clarios. Although sometimes we adjust who the OE is in a region and they get restickered so you might get a J battery that's not really clarios or vice versa.

I've noticed 0 changes in the J batteries since clarios took over.

While historically I've had ok luck with jci batteries if I could pick I'd buy an East Penn battery.
 
Of course... It's regional. Pennsylvania is a long way from the left coast.

I have a JC/Clarios made AGM in my lady's Camry right now. I bought it with a real fresh build date of May when I purchased it in the end of May. I am very confident it will be a great battery.

I remember in 2017-18 there were a high number of JC battery failures noted on here... Well earlier that year in 2017 I took note of many and I mean many batteries at AZ and AAP that had been sitting for 5,6,7,8 and up to 10 months... I was very little surprised when there were so many reported JC battery failures that following winter. I have zero doubt those batteries were not being charged and maintained properly at those stores. That is no fault of JC. Any flooded battery that sits uncharged for a prolonged period of time like the ones I had seen it was little wonder why there were so many battery failures. Again .. no fault of the manufacturer JC at that time. Those improperly maintained batteries were doomed to fail early.
 
Sort of a cool finding, but in this case especially, not all that surprising. As noted Advance owns CQ so having AC label on top of CQ, or vice versa, not shocking.

As for battery itself, as noted multiple times clearly Clarios formerly JCI. And this one is clearly marked with coo. Otoh, the WM Clarios Value Power Group 35 I purchased this year and other WM Clarios Everstart do "not" have such a label. And several bitog postings confirm that.

Since broached, from reading obviously East Penn batteries are now a bitog darling, and JCI are seemingly loathed now for any number of reasons including but not limited to the coo shown here. Iirc, a not especially local to me WM store I was in carry the EP made VP and Everstart. Just happens the two WM stores closest to me carry the Clarios made, so I wasn't going to drive extra for a $50 1 year warranty battery. I try to keep all my batteries serviced by periodic placement on a maintainer. So where I live, heat being the primary issue, I think I've gotten reasonably good service out of the JCI batteries I've had. Example, the VP mentioned replaced ~7 year old AAP AC Silver.

All that said, if WM carried EP made batteries locally, I'd use them. And ime, AAP can no longer touch WM pricing on batteries even with the 25% online discount code which is now standard max.
 
Back in the '70s I was selling Plymouth Volares. The Dodge Aspen was the same car.
We had one come in with Volare on one side and Aspen on the other side.
Base car 6 cylinder-AM radio-3 speed manual with floor shifter-no AC-rubber mats instead of carpet MSRP $4995.
 
The most common "mainstream" sizes of batteries at the Texas walmarts are JCI
The "odd" sized ones (like for my Kia) are East Penn.

Also, as noted - Duracell branded batteries at Batteries Plus+ and Sam's Club are East Penn (different labels & UPCs, though!!)
 
Originally Posted by bbhero
Of course... It's regional. Pennsylvania is a long way from the left coast.

I have a JC/Clarios made AGM in my lady's Camry right now. I bought it with a real fresh build date of May when I purchased it in the end of May. I am very confident it will be a great battery.

I remember in 2017-18 there were a high number of JC battery failures noted on here... Well earlier that year in 2017 I took note of many and I mean many batteries at AZ and AAP that had been sitting for 5,6,7,8 and up to 10 months... I was very little surprised when there were so many reported JC battery failures that following winter. I have zero doubt those batteries were not being charged and maintained properly at those stores. That is no fault of JC. Any flooded battery that sits uncharged for a prolonged period of time like the ones I had seen it was little wonder why there were so many battery failures. Again .. no fault of the manufacturer JC at that time. Those improperly maintained batteries were doomed to fail early.


you know that makes a lot of sense! I remember going to my local oreilly's which is east penn/deka and they had been sitting there for a LONG time.. voltages were 11.8-11.9 and dates codes of more than 6 months. No wonder I never liked east penn! Where you go to advance auto around here and they're constantly getting fresh batteries. That's why I get my batteries from that location. Hopefully this new one serves me well for 3.5-4 years (typical life in the civic, 51r series, it's like the size of a war and peace novel! lol)

Originally Posted by Sayjac
Sort of a cool finding, but in this case especially, not all that surprising. As noted Advance owns CQ so having AC label on top of CQ, or vice versa, not shocking.

As for battery itself, as noted multiple times clearly Clarios formerly JCI. And this one is clearly marked with coo. Otoh, the WM Clarios Value Power Group 35 I purchased this year and other WM Clarios Everstart do "not" have such a label. And several bitog postings confirm that.

Since broached, from reading obviously East Penn batteries are now a bitog darling, and JCI are seemingly loathed now for any number of reasons including but not limited to the coo shown here. Iirc, a not especially local to me WM store I was in carry the EP made VP and Everstart. Just happens the two WM stores closest to me carry the Clarios made, so I wasn't going to drive extra for a $50 1 year warranty battery. I try to keep all my batteries serviced by periodic placement on a maintainer. So where I live, heat being the primary issue, I think I've gotten reasonably good service out of the JCI batteries I've had. Example, the VP mentioned replaced ~7 year old AAP AC Silver.

All that said, if WM carried EP made batteries locally, I'd use them. And ime, AAP can no longer touch WM pricing on batteries even with the 25% online discount code which is now standard max.



you bring up the point about value power brand at walmart. I did look for one of those in a 51r size, they don't have it! Nothing online, nothing in their computer at the store, only the maxx start (top of the line). And with the AAP discount I got it cheaper than my local walmart. But if it were the 24 series I'd love to try a $50 battery for the scion tc!!

the whole point of this post was the sticker idea of slapping a different one at the manufacturer, which I thought was funny how everyone had just been talking about it.
 
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