Hello All,

It's been so long since I needed to buy a battery for any of my vehicles.

What is the brand of choice these days?

Thanks.

 

I went with Interstate a few months back.

 

Wal-Mart has good batteries with good warranties (which they really honor) and their price can't be beat. Easy...

 

Yep...I just use O'Reilly's....they seem to last just fine.

I believe the best battery out there is the Odyssey. Though similar...and same company....not to be confused with the Optima. Optima is good....Odyssey is better. Not sure if it's needed for the average Vette guy though.

There's only a few folks making wet cell batteries anymore....so no matter who's sticker is on it...the insides are similar. There are some better ones...

You've got Johnson Controls, East Penn and Exide as the big gorillas.

I will say my past experience of cutting them open and doing failure analysis on them all, showed Johnson Controls to be the best of the wet cell type.


JIM

 

Another vote for Walmart.

 

If you buy a battery at Walmart (they do have good batteries), don't let the monkeys in the shop install it for you. When I was having a battery replaced by them in my daily driver, their guys connected it backwards and blew out the alternator.

Bad experience all the way around.

 

I hear ya man. No one touches my 68 except me and my buddy Alex who is a legit mechanic and old school hot rodder.

 

I agree... battery branding is mostly just that -branding..I researched them when building a solar projest. Most auto batteries are made by the same 3 companies. (lots of youtube videos on this BTW).. US battery is the only one I can think of off hand but I believe they are rebranded as both interstate and walmarts brand.. Some are identical and sometimes they are cheaper made or different colors for customers but the specs should tell you that. I buy my batteries as "Blems" for $40 from the interstate dealer with a 30 day warranty... Basically that Blem battery was "new" a day or two earlier while on the store shelf but once it sits there for so many days it goes back as a blem to be remanufactuered along with the old batteries (they actually reuse much of the cases and components I've been told which is why a scrap yard wont give you full value if its cracked or damaged in any way) I'll take a day or 2 past its "freshness" date to save $50-$100. I have too many toys with batteries not to. The "Blem" in my golfcart at my camp is 6 years old now and the one in my truck is 4 as well as the 2 deep cycle ones I use for solar power in my popup which would have been $140 each new. The one in my vette is only 3 years old. All still working and testing great btw...

 

Supposedly only 2 battery manufacturers left.

I vote for Wall Mart = WALLY WORLD they do honor the warrantees and always have fresh supplies.

After thinking about it last summer I put a MARINE battery from Wall Mart in my 1980 truck as it's not used often. Hopefully it will last longer.

The other choice is a AMG battery - but really costly.

 

I have the interstate AGM battery, I am thoroughly happy with it.I went in for an optima and I know our local interstate wholesaler ,he suggested the interstate version and I am very happy.this thing could jump start a locomotive.

 

Yeah I think you mean AGM (Glass mat) as well but there are AMG batteries.. I had to take my old bosses mercedes to the dealer to have it replaced once...I remember the battery being over $300 at the time due to circuitry built in to it

you can tell a lot about a wet cell battery by its weight... heavier plates means longer life usually.