Info on Batteries
01-09-2013, 06:51 PM
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Info on Batteries I've had some downtime at work with nothing but the internet to keep me company. Since I'm in the market for a new battery I've been doing some research and found out some info I thought I'd share. Now this has been dug up from various sites and forums so take what you will from it, I'm in no way shape or form an expert on the subject.
The most interesting thing is most batteries out there are made by the same manufacturer, Johnson Controls. You may have read about the quality of optimas dropping off, this is the company that purchased them, and it seems some if not all are made in mexico. Now from what I read I'm not sure the quality of optimas is to be blamed on the manufacturing itself, but more of the use and quirks that AGM batteries have about being charged/discharged etc. That being said I feel like the price of an optima is not justified, unless your after that specific look or have a coupon or something(those of you that live where advance auto parts is look up coupons and go there).
Now when it comes to regular old flooded batteries when you do a search on forums everyone will say get a duralast or interstate or die hard or whatever. Funny thing is I think these are all the same exact battery, yes that includes wal-mart. Same specs, similar warranties, big difference in prices, all made by johnson controls. Pick a place that is convenient if you need a replacement and go pick one up. They all seem to have the same levels of battery too, low, mid and high. The exception to this(and maybe a few others) is Oreilly, which all their batteries are made by the same company that makes deka, though don't confuse the flooded batteries with the intimidators(AGM), the only similarity is manufacturing company.
That brings me to the AGMs(same technology as optimas). As far as your name brand box stores go there are 2 that I find, though there are some out there that may be better but very pricy. The consensus on forums is that odyssey is pretty much the best you can get, and diehard platinum is a rebadged oddyssey. The next best thing seems to be the deka intimidator, which seems to be rebadged as super start, duralast, car quest and napa platinums(or equivalent). These are quite a bit cheaper than the diehard and way cheaper than either the deka or oddyssey. Optimas are not rebadged as anything, and their people claim they will never be.
The thing I'm not sure about, and this info probably will never be released, is weather or not the difference is just the cose or stickers, or if the mfgs make them to different specs for different companies. This seems highly likely to me, but that is purely a guess. I figure why would a company seel a $300 battery directly, yet put different stickers on ti and allow a different company to sell the same thing for much less. However due to volume orders, difference in mark ups and distrubition this may be exactly the case. I know the die hard/odyssey and the platinums/deka visually look to be the same exact battery with different stickers and the specs are similar, so take that as you will.
All this being said I've decided to try one of the rebadged dekas(made in america is on all of them), just to give the "new" technology a shot, I've never even had an optima. But for all my other vehicles I'll be grabbing wal-marts for sure.
The most interesting thing is most batteries out there are made by the same manufacturer, Johnson Controls. You may have read about the quality of optimas dropping off, this is the company that purchased them, and it seems some if not all are made in mexico. Now from what I read I'm not sure the quality of optimas is to be blamed on the manufacturing itself, but more of the use and quirks that AGM batteries have about being charged/discharged etc. That being said I feel like the price of an optima is not justified, unless your after that specific look or have a coupon or something(those of you that live where advance auto parts is look up coupons and go there).
Now when it comes to regular old flooded batteries when you do a search on forums everyone will say get a duralast or interstate or die hard or whatever. Funny thing is I think these are all the same exact battery, yes that includes wal-mart. Same specs, similar warranties, big difference in prices, all made by johnson controls. Pick a place that is convenient if you need a replacement and go pick one up. They all seem to have the same levels of battery too, low, mid and high. The exception to this(and maybe a few others) is Oreilly, which all their batteries are made by the same company that makes deka, though don't confuse the flooded batteries with the intimidators(AGM), the only similarity is manufacturing company.
That brings me to the AGMs(same technology as optimas). As far as your name brand box stores go there are 2 that I find, though there are some out there that may be better but very pricy. The consensus on forums is that odyssey is pretty much the best you can get, and diehard platinum is a rebadged oddyssey. The next best thing seems to be the deka intimidator, which seems to be rebadged as super start, duralast, car quest and napa platinums(or equivalent). These are quite a bit cheaper than the diehard and way cheaper than either the deka or oddyssey. Optimas are not rebadged as anything, and their people claim they will never be.
The thing I'm not sure about, and this info probably will never be released, is weather or not the difference is just the cose or stickers, or if the mfgs make them to different specs for different companies. This seems highly likely to me, but that is purely a guess. I figure why would a company seel a $300 battery directly, yet put different stickers on ti and allow a different company to sell the same thing for much less. However due to volume orders, difference in mark ups and distrubition this may be exactly the case. I know the die hard/odyssey and the platinums/deka visually look to be the same exact battery with different stickers and the specs are similar, so take that as you will.
All this being said I've decided to try one of the rebadged dekas(made in america is on all of them), just to give the "new" technology a shot, I've never even had an optima. But for all my other vehicles I'll be grabbing wal-marts for sure.
01-10-2013, 01:32 AM
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One thing I can vouch for is that part about Advance Auto I found a promo code "VISA" think it's expired now but you can try it, that got me 50 dollars off my Optima Redtop since it was over 150 (was around 180-190 at that time, has gone up since) also check out this site Ebates (my sister told me about) there like a marketing site of sorts (they have TV commercials so you may have heard of them), if you join (for free) and click through to advance from there site you get like 6% cashback loaded into your Ebates account and they send out checks or send it to your paypal every couple months, they also list several promo codes for advance, bare MINIMUM you can save 20% off (up to 50 dollars total per order) pretty much everything at Advance.
