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Which Manufacturer Makes The Most Reliable Car Battery? (https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=274959)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phobia (Post 9848058)

Most batteries are made by one or two facilities and then OEM tagged by resellers anyway.

Pretty much all Interstate.

They're not listening to you......

Who knew there were only two battery manufacturers? :rolleyes:

The best car battery I ever had was made by Panasonic. OEM in my Acura and finally died after eight years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Detoxing (Post 9848232)

The way the Optima rep explained it to me was the color of the top signifies what the battery is suppose to be used for.

Red Tops are for your basic Hot Rod, Daily Driver, SUV etc. Your basic car battery.

Yellow Tops are for accessory loaded vehicles. Vehicles with a shit load of accessory lighting, massive stereo systems etc. You'd want a yellow top if it's an offroad vehicle with excessive lighting or for show cars that are going to sit there with all of its gadgets and stereo equipment on. If you're building the car right, ideally you would have both a red top and a yellow top in the car.

Blue Tops are for marine applications (boats etc).

That's pretty much all they offer. So if you REALLY want an Optima, you should be using a red top in your basic car.

Our shop ended up with a bunch of free Optima batteries that we couldnt do anything with. It's a shame too, because i personally set up the sponsorship with those guys and spent a lot of time on it.

At the end of the day, they were't dependable and we ended up having to swap Interstates into all of our cars.

About two years ago we discovered an AMAZING battery. It's ultra compact, which is great for us since often times we have to relocate the batteries to the trunk, has the same CCA as the larger Interstates and Optimas. I'm not sure if you can pick it up locally or not, but it's made by Odyssey.

Since we've started using Odyssey batteries, we haven't looked back since. The only other battery we'll use is an Interstate if it's going into a basic car.

Thanks for the info. Good to know.

$300 for an Odyssey for my car! :eek: Think I'll stick with the Kirkland for now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donger (Post 9848028)

I may be cursed, but I seem to average about three years in each of my cars until the battery craps out. So, I'm looking for the longest-lasting and most reliable battery made. I don't really care about the cost.

Thanks.

You should email the NSA and ask them which batteries are complained about the most in most Americans emails and cell phone calls, and which ones get the most compliments.

Then you can make an informed decision.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikey23545 (Post 9848299)

Ummm, okay...

There are only 3, I believe, manufacturers that make car batteries and only 2 are large companies that make the majority of them.

Johnson Controls is the one that people consider to be the premier manufacturer and they make the Interstate, DieHard, Duralast, and some of the Wal-mart Maxx batteries.

I just choose from those 4 depending on which has the best deal going on when I need to buy.

I prefer DieHard or Duralast since they offer the best warranties. Interstate only gives you 2 years free replacement instead of 3 and I think Wal-marts Maxx batteries only come with 3 year warranties while the other 3 come with 5 year.

Interstate, and any of their licensed dealer locations will give you credit for the time you didn't get use if it fails early. They have 72 month options.

You may need to by a battery with more cca, that may be why they are not lasting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The God Hypothesis (Post 9848333)

Interstate, and any of their licensed dealer locations will give you credit for the time you didn't get use if it fails early. They have 72 month options.

So do the others. Except Interstates pro-rate warranty kicks in 1 year sooner than the others but all of the warranties expire after 5 years. Unless there is a sale on for Interstate batteries they are generally more expensive than the exact same battery sold at Sears or Autozone that comes with a different sticker.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phobia (Post 9848058)

Most batteries are made by one or two facilities and then OEM tagged by resellers anyway.

This, and it has been this way a long time. I usually buy Autozone, and they have taken pretty good care of me. Oh, and taking care of the battery is the most important step in getting long life. If the car sits a while, plug a battery tender into it. I just had a cheap Autozone battery last 10 years in the Barracuda.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frosty (Post 9848073)

By the way, if cost is no object an Optima Yellowtop gel battery is generally considered very long lasting

http://www.optimabatteries.com/us/en...cts/yellowtop/

This is the battery I have in my car and it's been extremely reliable. Pricey, but very reliable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TrueFanDave (Post 9848098)

Yep.

I just buy whatever Autozone or Advance has.

Have the Autozone battery I bought in 2002. Only concern is, if the car is resistant to an easy start, it only holds about an 8-10 try reserve. It's wearing down and clearly doesn't have the deep capacity, but unless I do something stupid like run out of gas, or happen to get some bad/dirty gasm it's still capable of reliable to maintain CCAs from the alternator replenishment for a reliable first/second/third turn start.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikey23545 (Post 9848299)

That's actually a really good idea. There's a whole lot of market research value in mining hundreds of millions of conversations.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baby Lee (Post 9848428)

some bad/dirty gasm

Kinky.

Just got a battery from Sams Club. It had a 3 year warranty and I had it 2 years and 10 months. They gave me a brand new one and a new 3 year warranty for zero cost to me.