Batteries...

Anything automotive in nature, be it Nissan or one of those "other" manufacturers.

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smj999smj
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Batteries...

Postby smj999smj » Mon Sep 05, 2016 8:41 pm

For those of you that don't know, in addition to my R51s, I have a 2003 Frontier SVE, which has the VG33ER engine. It takes the same battery as my R51s, a group 24. Anyway, the battery has past its life and it was time to replace it. Due to the price (usually around $100), warranty (3-years full replacement plus 2-years pro-rated), the consistently good reviews by Consumers Report and the fact that Walmart is practically everywhere, I usually get the Walmart Everstart Maxx, which I believe is now made by Johnson Controls. To my surprise, I cannot find a group 24 Everstart Maxx not only in my local store in Farmville, VA, but, it's apparently out of stock in the whole state of VA, according to Walmart's customer help! I'm not sure what the reasoning is of this? Anyway, after some price and warranty comparison and a little research, I ended up going with the AutoCraft Gold battery from Advance Auto Parts. Purchasing online and using discount code TRT41, it knock the price down to $82 (not including tax) and earned $5 in Speed Perks awards. Based on what I researched online, this is likely also made by Johnson Controls and is comparable to the Autozone Duralast Gold (which some say is the exact same battery, although pics show subtle differences in the case design...which may or may not mean anything). The warranty is 3-years free replacement, similar to the Duralast Gold, which was $38 more expensive.
I looked at other options. The NAPA 7524 was $20 more expensive if I reserved online, had 50 less CCA and only 18-months of free warranty replacement. Tractor Supply has Exide batteries; the Exide 24S Nascar Select had similar ratings, but only a 30-month warranty and was $7 more expensive. The Exide 24X Nascar Extreme had 100 more CCA and a 40-month warranty, but was unavailable locally. The best price I could find on that was $84 at the Home Depot that's an hour's drive away. There are no Sears less than an hour away from me, so the DieHard wasn't an option and they were a lot more money. And, as much as I would have liked to get a nice AGM battery, they were priced out of my pocket-money range, most $150 and up. I really didn't want to put that much into a battery that is going into what's basically a back-up vehicle and work truck.
I would like to know what's going on with the Walmart batteries, but I guess we'll find out in time! I just didn't have that much time to wait!


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palmerwmd
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Postby palmerwmd » Wed Feb 15, 2017 6:19 pm

Thanks for the synopsis on what good batteries in our range are..

I splurged a bit on my Xterra with a Bosch AGM Cell marine rated battery that was a bit oversize to boot.

I wanted a battery with lots of reserve abiltiies since the Xterra is my Bug out vehicle which generally sits a lot partially loaded and fully topped off.

I run it once a week and take it on a long trip once a month to keep it in readiness but it certainly it is underused as its generally not a daily...

I learned later that too large and deep charge batteries can cause undercharging problems but to my relief I didnt get any as far as I can tell (its been a year now)

webbrowan
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Hello!

Postby webbrowan » Tue Jun 13, 2017 9:30 pm

Useful comprehensive sharing of the various types of batteries available in the market! Thanks! I was looking for a deep charge battery at a good price but I heard from people around that it requires consistent usage, else it might just get under charged if under-utilized. Is this true? If yes, what type of heavy duty battery that we can get for heavy usage but not on a so regular basis? If there is a rough guide on different range of prices, it would be much appreciated too.

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smj999smj
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Postby smj999smj » Wed Jun 14, 2017 11:20 am

AGM batteries are probably the best way to go if one wants a heavy duty battery. To update my first post, the last time I went to Walmart, they had the Everstart Maxx Group 24 in stock at my local store.


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