Hi all, I haven't posted in a long while, so I thought I would relate an incident that just happened to me. I have posted many times about Batteries, and have always said that I liked the oem style sealed Delco 75A-72 that came with my 2003 Anniversary edition. I replaced the original in Aug 2007 after the car sat for a long while un maintained and went dead on a hot august day. I replaced it with the oem sealed Delco 75A-72. I use the car infrequently, and always have it plugged into a "BatteryMinder Plus" when not in use. I went to start it last week after it sat for about 4 weeks plugged into the maintainer. No start, no crank, not even a light. Pulled it out of the car and checked ther volts. 0.87 was the reading. So after only about 4 and 1/4 years it was bad. Not very good in my opinion. In the past in another car I maintained a Motorcraft l/a flooded battery for 13 years and the car still started when I sold it, but I digress. Back to the vette battery, I attempted to charge it, and of course it wouldn't charge because it was to low on volts to activate any charger that I have, even my sears 2/10/60 . So I used the old trick of hooking another good battery in (series incorrect) should read Parallel with the bad one and connecting the charger to the good one, and it started to charge. After about 10 hours on a slow 2 amp charge the Delco came up to 11.5 volts and I unhooked the other battery and continued to charge the delco over night at under 2 amps. The next morning it read 10.5 volts and an even stranger situation was the the polarity had reversed itself, yes in testing the bat with the volt meter it read a negative 10.5, that really surprised me so I double checked all my connections to make sure I had them properly connected polarity wise and such and they were all as should be. I have seen this happen once before years ago in a battery that was jumped with reverse polarity hookup and was ruined, but I am sure that I connected all the cables properly on this one. Also I checked the maintainer with a load and it was functioning perfectly.
So anyway ,. bottom line is I am not so keen on Delco AGM batteries, and I also don't love optima's that much, so is there another sealed battery out there that you guys are having long term success with.
Luck to all

 

Sears has a Platinum Die hard that is an AGM battery.

Mark

 

That's the one in my car now (replaced a Red Top) - but have only had it for a year and two months. So far, so good.

 

Good to know! I was just getting ready to replace my original AC Delco battery in my 2004 Z06. I usually keep it on a tender, and lately I noticed that it does hold a charge for more that one start of the car! (i.e. start the car up; pull out of the garage and turn it off then try to start it up again and nothing!!) Anyway, I actually though 7-years for an AC Delco was a decent amount of time. Is this about right?

 

If you truly connected the two batteries in "series" (+ to -) and then connected a charger to the good battery, you had the + to the negative and - to the positive of the other battery and that would be backwards. I would think you were lucky not to have a fire or explosion. If you hooked them in "parallel" then connected the charger, it should have charged both batteries correctly. Either way, I think you did pretty well with the life of the Delco's and I stick with them myself.

 

Check out the ODYSSEY batteries.

I junked my OPTIMAS.

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/applications/auto.htm

 

Take a look at the Exide Orbital. I've run those in my 98 since the original Delco bit the dust.

 

I've used the Sears Platinum in my 03 for 3.5 years without a maintainer or charger and have had ZERO problems. I do start or drive it at least every other week during the winter.

 

Hi, thank you for the correct term, actually I did know that, and blame it on a senior moment when typing, but you are correct that in fact i meant to say that I had the connections between batteries "IN Parallel", + to +, - to -, and the charger connected to the good battery. For those that don't know, it is a way to trick the charger, (which won't activate to charge a battery that is below 10.5 volts [most home chargers]), to sense a load and then start the charging process. I agree, for information to be good and useful, it should be correct.
Luck to all

 

Haven't had much luck with AGM's, I have had good results with conventional batteries when using the correct size, CCA, and reserve capacity.

 

Sears DieHard Automotive Battery, Platinum P-4 - Group Size 34/78DT
# 50090 CCA 880 RC 135

Same battery as the ODYSSEY but less money.

 

I just got thru with sears and their gold and platinum are not completed sealed for group 75 battery. the batteries have a vent, which is not good. the vent allows vapors to exit and the vapors attack plastic and metal. Not a problem with normal cars, but the the vette, the wiring harnass is right against the right side of the battery. In time the vapors eat thru the harnass and you have got electrical problems.

I know because I have a napa battery with vents. the vapors ate thru the harnass sleeve and started on the wiring coating. I caught it just in time. the vapors ate thru the vacuum line which caused me map sensor issues. I am in the process of replacing with a gel battery or interstate battery which is completely sealed.

I have a c4.