Another vote for an AGM style battery, whichever brand you choose. I’ve had very good luck with them.

What is an "AGM style battery"?

At this point, I'm ready to just go get the WalMart battery with 750 CCA. 97 bucks and change.

Absorbed Glass Mat. Sort of a gel cell, no liquid like a lead acid battery. Optima is the most famous brand, they hold up better than lead acid in rough use like heavy vibration and are maintenance free. There are other brands.

Sorry to hear about your Interstate, I got 7 or 8 years from my last one and replaced it with another. I get as big of one as I can, physically and amps wise.

More details than you may want. https://www.sciencedirect.com/...ed-glass-mat-battery

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
It's a damn shame, bcause I used to swear by these batteries, but no more.

Where did you buy the Interstate? I saw an Interstate driver delivering at Costco and asked him if they were the same batteries that he delivered to garages/auto parts stores. He said, "No. Costco wants a product made to a price point." YMMV, but if you bought an Interstate at a big box store, I wouldn't necessarily toss the brand because of the performance of that battery.

I bought it from a local service station, an authorized Interstate dealer, not a Costco.

I have had very good luck with the Walmart Everstart Maxx Batteries in our family vehicles. Price is good, never needed the warranty, have them in 3 vehicles.

2002 Ford F-250 gas (only driven 2500 miles or less per year, is a spare vehicle/beater truck)

2012 Toyota Rav4 (driven 10K miles a year)

2015 Ford Explorer (driven 15k miles a year)

Ratings for them online have been very good.

The factory battery in my Volvo lasted 17 years and was still working when I replaced it before shipping my Volvo to Puerto Rico. I replaced it with whatever Walmart had as everything is stock on the vehicle and I wasn't putting a $250+ battery in a car when I could get the Walmart one for almost a 1/3 of a premium battery. I'm only planning on driving it for a few more years so I didn't need a battery to last 10+ years. So far so good.

My BMW still has a factory battery in it from when I bought it 5-6 years ago.

My sports car has an aftermarket sound system in it so I used Optima batteries because they are supposed to be better... deep cycle, gel, more cold cranking amps, etc. I have been putting them in that car ever since I bought it almost 19 years ago. Every single one of them made it just beyond the warranty then crapped out (4-5 years). Sometimes it was my fault for not putting them on a trickle charger when I put it away for the winter, other times they just crapped out no matter what I did. Every time one died I'd get pissed and swear off of them but then when it's time to replace it I'd go right back to them after the research because they're the best value for cars with audio systems. To be fair the audio system is quite demanding which puts more stress on the battery. I've read articles where Optima batteries powering both the car and audio system will last 3-5 years which is exactly what I was getting out of them. They were the Yellowtops which were supposed to be the best for non-commercial applications.



I'm assuming your vehicle isn't modified. Based on my experiences if you're planning on keeping your vehicle for 5+ years I'd look into an OEM battery. The battery in my Dad's Ford F-150 lasted almost 14 years. My Mom's OEM battery lasted almost 10 years. My Volvo was 17 years (and still worked) and the BMW battery is going on 6 years. All of them are unmodified vehicles and every OEM battery has outperformed its warranty by a large margin. Just my 0.02.

A Sealed Lead Acid Battery (SLAB) is a type of battery which, as it sounds, is sealed and does not need water added. The Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM batter is a type of SLAB.

Now with that, Naval Aviation (NAVAIR) only allows SLABs to be in service for 24 months, then they are scrapped. Granted the environment NAVAIR batteries is/are subjected to is much harsher than what we typically subject our car batteries to (we actually used Red Tops on the Tarawa) but, batteries of this ort do not have an infinite life span.

If you get 36 months out of a SLAB, that is the low side of "normal." 48 months plus is very good to a great lifespan (rarely will you see a regularly used battery in use for more than 60 months unless the battery's environment is very controlled - 78 degrees, always charged without being deep-cycled or over-charged, etc).

What really sucks is when you pay $200 for a SLAB which lasts only 36 months (or less).

So to answer Para's question of a recommendation - a lesser priced SLAB in a normally used vehicle (no high powered stereo, used in sub-zero temperatures or plus 100 degree temperatures 50% of the year, etc) tend to be just as good as you $200 Optima / Interstate / other similar battery (unless you are wanting to show off how cool your engine bay is of course).

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Now, the battery is four or so years old, yes, but in the past two and a half years, I haven't put 500 miles on this truck, and I ain't a happy camper with Interstate.

In your case the issue might be less about the brand, and more about how you are using, or more accurately, not using the battery in your truck. Conventional wet cell batteries will self discharge without use, and the plates will sulfate when not kept charged, damaging them and reducing capacity. Driving short distances will not necessarily fully recharge the battery, either. They also do not do well when deeply discharged and recharged with any frequency.

You have a few options. Keep a quality trickle charger on the battery to keep it charged when not in use, or perhaps change to an AGM. AGM's can more readily withstand the type of infrequent use/abuse you anticipate. That said, I'm in the camp that most automotive alternator charging voltages are not optimized for AGM's, but that's less critical in an automobile than say an offshore Sailboat.

For automotive applications, I like the East Penn Products, and Napa Gold are generally, though not always, made by East Penn and easy to find at a good price. Napa also offers AGM's, they will be a bit pricier.

I also have used Wal-Mart Everstart Maxx wet cell batteries and find them a good budget option, but you have a very limited choice of sizes. Buying an inexpensive battery like this, and simply replacing it every three years would be a final option some people choose. I have a golf buddy who is an ASE master tech that runs a production/service facility for Carmax who preaches this gospel. Studies apparently show that an automotive battery operating at much less than 100% state of health puts a lot of stress on the electronics in modern vehicles, potentially contributing to premature failure. So he simply replaces the batteries in his cars every three years as a form of cheap insurance.

There's no trickle charger in my future. I'll probably just go the WalMart route.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
There's no trickle charger in my future. I'll probably just go the WalMart route.

Based on how you are describing your driving habits for that vehicle, that is the route I have also taken with my 07 Tacoma.

In the GTO , I had a Northstar. More expensive but also better for the stereo I installed and also, kept on a smart trickle charger.

So, how about go with your $97 battery and test it periodically for state of charge and state of health. Then recharge and replace as necessary. I prefer a Solar BA9 available for about $60. It's a capacitance tester similar to the Harbor Freight tester posted earlier, but I like the options and interface a little better. I use mine quite a bit, and it has saved my bacon more than once.

quote:

Originally posted by jigray3:
So, how about go with your $97 battery and test it periodically for state of charge and state of health.

To be honest, I'm like most people in this respect. I'm going to use the battery and forget it's even there until my vehicle won't start.

I have bought from AutoZone and lately I have bought from Rural King. I forget about the battery until five years and I replace it whether it’s bad or not. Of course, I would have to get one if it failed before then. I’ve been happy with them.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
I bought it from a local service station, an authorized Interstate dealer, not a Costco.

Then maybe they have gone downhill. Darn.

It might be that something on the truck is causing a drain on the battery while it it sitting parked.
As to letting it run a bit, shutting off, and then trying to restart a short time later. A warm motor is likely to start easier.
Also the alternator may not be charging properly to fully charge the battery.

I used to be a big on Interstate, but I've had several which only lasted a year.

So I'm back to Deka and the new X2 Power.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
Absorbed Glass Mat. Sort of a gel cell, no liquid like a lead acid battery.

Not "sort of a gel cell", not even a gel cell at all. You're right about the construction, but the electrolyte inside the glass mat is lead acid liquid absorbed into a glass mat.
 
When my 2010 Tacoma's OEM battery finally failed after 7 years, I went with AGM, specifically an Odyssey 34-PC1500T. That is the closest Odyssey to the Group 24 battery my Tacoma takes. It's a bit shorter in height, but includes a plastic riser in case your hold down is not adjustable for height.
 
Instead of a Battery Tender (which will work), I use a BatterMinder AGM-specific maintainer. It includes a de-sulfation feature which is nice.

AGMs "want" a higher charge voltage than modern alternators put out. One can get by, especially by using a maintainer when parked, but the best alternative is to raise your alternator output. There are different ways to do this, like substituting a diode for the alternator fuse, which fools the alternator into thinking its output is too low, so it raises it. But then you don't have fuse protection.
 
The best all-around solution for this comes from a guy in Australia, who makes a fuse, with a reset function, and the diode all in one, and the entire thing is the same size as the original fuse. It is $75 + $25 shipping ($AUS), which amounts to $75 total $US. So you get a resettable fuse, plus raised alternator output, and a drop in fit, and a 3 year guarantee. I've been using his product for 2 months now, and I have a digital voltmeter on the dash to monitor alternator output at all times. Before, it was in the neighborhood of 14.1V, now it hovers around 14.6V, which is what the AGM style battery loves.

HKB Electronics Shipping due to Covid etc. takes about two weeks, and it arrives via Australia Post (air) and USPS, and is trackable.

There are two applications where I use Interstate flooded batteries, because the weird size is not available in an AGM. Those are my Kubota tractor and my Onan standby genset.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: henryaz,

Autozone, Advance or Wal-Mart, all good choices

Things like cameras, radar detectors, usb chargers anything that we plug into the vehicle that remain on when the ignition is off can cause a small drain over time reducing the life of a battery.

Loose belt on the charging system might not be putting out full charge, if it's older might be a good time to change it out too...

If the truck is parked in the sun some or most of the time and you don't want to mess with a conventional trickle charger, here is another option, regardless what your next battery is.

https://www.amazon.com/ECO-WOR...r%2Caps%2C133&sr=8-3