Replacing House Batteries - Recommendations?

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by vandiesel

Why not flooded with a watering system like my warehouse order pickers have? Experts weigh in.....

Dealing with watering a 140 lb battery bolted under the van is a PITA....and a watering syetem adds extra complexity and reduces reliability.....what happens if the watering system fails?


.....instead of buying a watering system spend the extra cash on AGMs..and you can mount them right side up, sideways, upside down.......what's not to like?

[Cyrull]

Here is another option:

https://www.apexbattery.com/battery-.../group-4d.html

12v 200AH 4D Deep Cycle AGM Solar Battery
$294.88

There are a few members here that have tried these, I have no experiences with them personally but its the cheapest 4D battery I've found on the market.

[gahamby]

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...agm/10210828-p

How does Advanced Auto's house brand stack up? The 14 yr old Lifeline in my SMB is giving it up. Advance is right up the street, in stock, and under $200. Yeah, I know I get what I pay for. How cheap are they?

https://www.interstatebatteries.com/...ategoryid=true

Any opinions on Interstate batteries?

[ctb]

I JUST bought a pair of house batteries from a company called RemyBattery out of Milwaukee. I did A LOT of shopping over the last six months and found this outlet. It is the same mfg. sticker on the new batteries as is on the top of the batteries from my "Intimidator" set that was installed at SMBNorth in '13..made in USA etc.... I added a pic of my receipt...and I even got a sticker (lol) but still kinda cool. They shipped for $95 but they also gave me a $50 off coupon I (could/did) used on the purchase, bringing batteries down in cost to offset shipping. My wife and I installed them last week and we are taking off at the end of month for the 'true' test...good luck, hope this helps!

[marret]

@ctb, thanks for posting. Please post up after you've used them for a while.

@gahamby, I've always heard good things about Interstate and had good experiences with them. Porsche has often used Interstate. I had a problem with an Interstate battery in my 911 from not being driven/charged enough. I had moved to another state and took it to a local Interstate place, and they tested/charged free of charge. Would have honored the warranty as well.

That said, I understand most automotive batteries in the US are manufactured by one of two companies: Johnson Controls, Inc. or Exide Technologies, and East Penn is another manufacturer. One source has Johnson Controls as making over 50%. Apparently Johnson Controls Battery business was bought by Brookfield which in turn changed the name to Clarios. Clarios website has Clarios brands including: Varta, Optima, LTH, Heliar, Delkor and Baterías Mac. No surprise there is conflicting information.

Don't know about Remy.

Interesting chart I found, but no longer totally accurate:

Brand Manufacturer
ACDelco Johnson Controls
Advance Auto Johnson Controls
AutoCraft Johnson Controls
Autolite Exide
AutoZone Johnson Controls
Bosch Johnson Controls
Champion Johnson Controls
Costco Johnson Controls
Delco Johnson Controls
Delco-Remy
Exide
DieHard Johnson Controls
Duralast Johnson Controls
Duralast Johnson Controls
Equalizer Johnson Controls
EverStart (Wal-Mart) Exide or Johnson Controls, depending on model
Firestone Johnson Controls
Interstate Johnson Controls
Marathon Exide
Motorcraft Johnson Controls
NAPA Exide
Optima Johnson Controls
Orbital Exide
Pep Boys Johnson Controls
Sears Exide or Johnson Controls, depending on model
Wal-Mart Exide or Johnson Controls, depending on model

[gahamby]

Pretty well bewildered at this point.

[marret]

My post probably didn't help .

I have had good experience with Interstate.

At some point in the not too distant future I'll need two new group 27 or 31 batteries as well. Unless someone has different info, I would not hesitate to buy Interstate batteries that met my deep cycle AGM needs.

[daveb]

Always has been a pretty good article worth reading even though they sell specific brands.
https://www.solar-electric.com/learn...tery-faq.html/


I have got 10 years out of my Lifeline batteries but am looking at these:
https://oceanplanetenergy.com/advanc...asis-group-31/

[gahamby]

Thanks for the replies. I wonder if I need a high end house battery for my purposes.

[86Scotty]

I had never heard of Centennial batteries until recently. I bought 4 from the Volvo dealer for my work rig. So far the best batteries I've ever owned. I don't know what's in them but supposedly lead acid. I do know that they will sit at 13.2 for days and barely dip with my Truckfridge running 24/7. That's also running lots of lights and chargers all the time.

They are heavy lead acid batteries but they are only $79 at the dealer and I have yet to find any better value in batteries, weight/lead acid disadvantages nonwithstanding.