Battery Warranties worthless?

[NWOH_Grizz]

The only unusual problems around here with batteries is with our ATV's. They don't have a big stator in them, and batteries don't get recharged very well when running, which weakens the battery and is hard on an already marginal stator. The 100 watt stator on my Yamaha Grizzly finally burnt up, I replaced it with an after market 300 watt stator and an AGM battery. No problems now. The lead-acid battery in the wife's Polaris needs replacement about every 2 years, it'll get a AGM battery this year.

"Motorcraft" batteries around here are actually Interstate batteries with a Motorcraft sticker on them. When a Ford dealer needs batteries, they call the local Interstate warehouse. Interstate slaps a Motorcraft sticker on them and delivers them to the dealer. The Ford dealer them warranties the battery. I suspect many of the smaller battery retailers do the same.

A local battery plant is just 5 minutes up the road from here. They produce whatever they are contracted to produce. They were making Sears Diehards for a while, don't know if they still do. They do push out a lot of batteries from that plant (Holland, OH).

 

[ultrarunner]

The last battery I bought from the distributor was that way...

He selected my battery and then had half dozen different stickers from a overhead dispenser to choose from...

 

[ultrarunner]

One note, with a battery receipt (or any warranty related receipt) that is printed on thermal paper, make sure you make a copy of the receipt. Thermal receipts fade over time and once they fade out, they are pretty much useless.

Aaron Z

Had this happen with a fence charger.... stopped working and took it back and the manager said he couldn't read... I said YOU have a problem then...

After some discussion I got my replacement charger.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Three plus years works for me but some beat that by 2x so that is gravy.

 

[Soundguy]

i have had at least 1 experience taking a battery in on a warranty, and it was dead and they said that they had to hav ethe tape readout from the machine to warranty it. ( tester machine ). I told em good luck. it was dead and would not charge... they acted at first like they couldn't do it.. but then i told them thet there must be some other method of warrantying a truely dead battery???

 

[Gem99ultra]

I've bought 7 batteries THIS YEAR :-( All were replaced with Interstate batteries except the motorcycle battery, which I replaced with Harley's own brand; why, I don't know. I sure hope Interstate's are as good as their advertisement.

I replaced three batteries based on the assumption that hydrometer readings told the truth about how much life a battery has left. There's no way I'm going to let spouse drive off with a battery that the hydrometer is telling me that the battery is on it's last leg.

On my tractor, mowers, motorcycles, and farm truck I normally keep a Battery Tender hooked to them all the time. My experience is that Battery Tender greatly extends battery life.

On the flip side, I have used Wal-Mart's Champion brand battery in my old Ford-Dexta tractor with good luck, i.e. 12 years with no Battery Tender or charger.

 

[ultrarunner]

12 years is amazing life...

I'm a big fan of Tenders and Pulse Maintainers...

Family sold Interstate going back to the 70's until about 2005... they were always a very good battery.

My understanding is batteries are sourced from various manufacturers and the name really means very little.

 

[Fallon]

Those desulfidization (or however you spell it) units actually do work, despite sounding like snake oil. They don't work for all issues, but enough that I hit most of my batteries with one every so often as a maintenance item. Pulsing at the resonance frequency of the lead sulfide crystals helps break em up and rejuvenate things a bit. They rarely resurect something dead, but will breath a bit more life into many weak batteries.

 

[JRobyn]

When I bought and installed our remote gate operator (12vdc, solar), several different vendors advised AGAINST using a deep-cycle or AGM battery, and to my surprise recommended buying the cheapest automotive battery that I could find with the longest full-replacement warranty, and then warranty exchanging the battery just before the expiration of the warranty!

It used to be that Costco had one of the best full-replacement warranty terms/length, but they have now changed to the more "standard" warranty, with full replacement for one term (2 yr IIRC) followed by pro-rated terms up to the end of the warranty period. Sam's Club had the same full-replacement term, but slightly cheaper pricing so I went with their "Duracell" group 34 battery.

- Jay

 

[Soundguy]

When I bought and installed our remote gate operator (12vdc, solar), several different vendors advised AGAINST using a deep-cycle or AGM battery, and to my surprise recommended buying the cheapest automotive battery that I could find with the longest full-replacement warranty, and then warranty exchanging the battery just before the expiration of the warranty!

It used to be that Costco had one of the best full-replacement warranty terms/length, but they have now changed to the more "standard" warranty, with full replacement for one term (2 yr IIRC) followed by pro-rated terms up to the end of the warranty period. Sam's Club had the same full-replacement term, but slightly cheaper pricing so I went with their "Duracell" group 34 battery.

- Jay

i use a interstate truck battery in my gate opener. I get as long or longer life with it than i do in my truck . Then again i use a solar charger with a charge regulator on that bat and not a full time solar or line trickle charger.