quote:

Originally posted by Ronin101:
Standard car batteries can’t keep up with the backup cameras, Bluetooth connections, touch screens and other electronics. That’s why you might need to jump a car if you leave your headlights on for a couple hours with the engine off.

OEM batteries are sized to start the vehicle reliably. They have PLENTY of capacity for OEM electronics, there may be a CHARGING issue with some vehicles as they try squeeze every MPG - under-driving the alternator, especially at low RPM can cause what you describe. Auto Stop/Start is also hard on batteries when you have mostly short, low-speed trips.
Even in the good ol' days, if you left your headlights on for a couple hours, you could expect to need a jump. That's not the battery or car engineer's fault. Even I have limits on what I'll blame a car engineer for.

quote:

Draining a car battery to 50% or so before recharging it is called deep cycling, and only AGM batteries can. They’re designed to deliver amps and then give a big burst of power to start the engine. And they can do it dozens of times a day.

This is not fully correct. AGM isn't the differentiator for deep-cycle, there are both AGM & Wet-cell versions. Using a deep-cycle battery in a heavy starting application is usually as bad of an idea as deep-discharging a starting battery. It's a trade-off of construction vs use, pick the wrong specs & you'll have problems.
There are some that try to be both (Optima Yellow comes to mind) that don't do a great job at either. A Yellow Top isn't a bad battery, but it's probably NOT the right direct-replacement for almost any car/truck.

There's a reason batteries come with a warranty. I say that having sold/warrantied/tested 1000s of car batteries. That was 20+ years ago, so I'm not up on current trends. In the late 90s/early 2000s, JCI was the best, Exide was the worst - In my more-than-N=1 experience. All MFGs had <1 year failures, JCI just had the least. You probably won't find a JCI-branded battery, but their name is on the ones they make. Exide was REALLY bad for a while (mid/late 90s DELCO), but they had changed construction and seemed to have fixed their major flaw(s), I went to work outside of batteries before I saw enough to trust them.

My advice, and what was basically my sales pitch:
For OE replacement, get the same group size with equal or more CCA. More $$ = more CCA + better warranty.
AGM can make sense for 'hard' use - vibration, heat, cold, etc. Not a grocery getter in Florida.

Our Grand Cherokee has 2 batteries under the front seat (1 for auto-stop/start). I want to get rid of it before I have to deal with that shit.

You won’t find JCI on any battery currently sold as JCI spun off their battery business as Clarios with headquarters in Glendale, WI in 2019.

my four year old EFB battery left me stranded this winter. It had power but not enough to start the car. I pushed the car into a spare garage at work and plugged a charger to it and got a ride home.
Next day it started fine after a charge. Moved it out of the garage and by morning it wasn't enough to start it in the code. Got a ride to Costco and bought an Interstate AGM battery, installed it and car worked fine in the cold.

If your vehicle doesn't require AGM, then 98% of the time the additional money for AGM isn't worth it. If you're offroading, AGM is much better than lead acid due to construction. If you're running them down, again AGM is a little better. If you can't be bothered to add water to your lead acid, then AGM is for you. Generally I only see a 10-20% longer lifespan out of AGM over lead acid.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
You won’t find JCI on any battery currently sold as JCI spun off their battery business as Clarios with headquarters in Glendale, WI in 2019.

I remember hearing that now. Thanks.
Like I said, 20 years ago....

I purchased a Sears Diehard AGM H9 for my Volvo V70R wagon and it lasted over 10 years. I recently replaced it with a Walmart Everstart AGM H9 battery and hope it will last just as long. I think they are worth it in my experience. God Bless !!!