What has been your "goto" battery brand?

[Blue85]

Almost every store is selling a Deka or a Johnson Controls battery. Nothing wrong with them, but not as much variation between brands as the stores would have you believe. As a rule of thumb, just stay away from the economy battery at any store. Sort through them to get a very recent date code and verify it has good voltage on it before carrying it out of the store. I like to attach the receipt to the battery in a weatherproof fashion (like a ziploc bag and some duct tape if they don't give you one of those little pouches). Even if you have a system for storing and finding receipts, you may be 1000 miles from home when you need to warranty the battery.

 

[dhcomp]

Been running Interstate for 20+ years now and will NEVER look back at any other brand.

I took scott's suggestion a few years back, and have been VERY Happy with all the interstates i've been buying.

My truck, BMW, parent's truck, 2 in boat, 2 in friend's boat, etc.

See if you are lucky enough to have a local interstate distributor. They stock them all, and have great prices.

Best of luck.

 

[Avery4jc]

I've had Optima, Sears, Interstate, AutoZone and NAPA batteries in all kinds of trucks over the years and I've given up. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how long they last so I stopped looking for the best battery and started looking for the best warranty with the least hassle and that seems to be AutoZone.
I had a yellow AutoZone battery in my dad's old blazer and it worked just fine (sold it with that battery in it). I currently have two big yellow AutoZone batteries in my '05 Cummins and they're fantastic. Cranks fast and the voltage stays high while cranking.

If/When I have problems at least AutoZone doesn't care. They happily swap stuff like batteries and they save it in the system so even if I'm out of town I can always find an AutoZone.

 

[Slickburban]

Also at AutoZone we just started selling the platinum series of batteries they have the same warranty as the Duralast Gold but it's a much better battery and it's maintenance free a little bitt more in price but we'll worth it and as Avery4jc said we always have ur warranty on file so as long as u can remember the phone number u gave when registering ur warranty u should be fine in any state u visit tht has an AutoZone

 

[modernbeat]

Top of the line Sears Diehard Platinum is a re-packaged Odyssey....Same insides, different cover and a lot cheaper..I got a thread on it somewhere lemmi see if I can find it..put one in my JK awhile back..worked great


heres one : http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/002907.html

I've heard that. But at this point, the shop buys them direct and gets a good discount. And we also use many different sizes, some of which the Sears is not available in.

 

[vandelay industries]

AC Delco.

i've also had very good luck with 2 Optima D34 yellow tops. i think the key here is they have to be initially charged properly with an AGM charger.

 

[Blue85]

I've had Optima, Sears, Interstate, AutoZone and NAPA batteries in all kinds of trucks over the years and I've given up. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how long they last so I stopped looking for the best battery...

I agree with this. You can't buy the same battery you bought 5 years ago because they keep changing things. Plus there seems to be a lot of variability within the same make/model. If there is consistency it's not with the brand, but with the model (i.e. not all Die Hard sizes are of equal quality). So the "best" will be different depending on which case size you're looking for.

I tend to think of Interstate as good, but I just scrapped out 2 8-year-old Megatrons. The only thing that's certain is that at some point you will need a new battery.

 

[Bowtie85]

Got a kirkland in my K20, its been a great battery for the last 7-8 years.

Have been running Energizers from walmart for a few years now. Getting to be less impressed with them.

Cant beat an AC delco, have one out of my cavalier. Its been ran stone dead a handful of times and taken it all. Had an energizer go dead once, that was all she wrote for it. Held charge for couple weeks. Froze first cold snap, Junk. And I replaced it with another one

 

[rob h]

both auto & atv batteries

Ive had a little selection in the last few years, as for walmart the atv and the auto batteries are junk. You think your saving money and your not saving at all. I had no luck with them and only had em for 3 years. I have 2 optima's, one thats 8 years old and one thats 3, honestly i think the 8 year old one is in better shape..lol. Ive had luck with excides, both my atv have excide batteries in em and hold up great....i dunno how that compares to auto batteries tho. We have 2 dekka batteries in both our jeep liberties, those are made about 30 miles from me. I cant complain at all about them, they are priced with the rest also.

 

[ryoken]

.

with an AGM charger.

no such thing... your probably thinking of when the original gel batteries came out and needed a special charge rate.. threw the whole charger industry into a complete tizzy... all new chargers had to be re-engineered, yada, etc...

that's really the big deal about AGM, and what makes them different from gels, and made gels a pretty much non-existent entity anymore, AGM use the same charge rate as standard lead-acid bats of old.... making all the charger company re-engineering, a complete waste of time, and money...

 

[Cruz89K5]

Also at AutoZone we just started selling the platinum series of batteries they have the same warranty as the Duralast Gold but it's a much better battery and it's maintenance free a little bitt more in price but we'll worth it and as Avery4jc said we always have ur warranty on file so as long as u can remember the phone number u gave when registering ur warranty u should be fine in any state u visit tht has an AutoZone

The golds used to have a 7 year warranty. Then a 5. Now the cases have changed and the cranking amps have fallen off from 1k to 750 or something. The counter guy said they got tested and were over rated and had to be changed. He also said they were trying to improve the quality. I've had nothing but trouble with the two I have in my Dodge. I've warrantied at least 7 of them in the last 4 years. If they ever stop replacing them I'll give the sears batteries a try.