Currently my autocross car is running a normal nEverstart battery that i borrowed from my old winter beater. Well, i need to sell that old winter beater, so it's time to buy a new battery. I just tried out some purple crack for the first time at the last autocross, and I'm hooked... figured a non-spillable battery makes the most sense at this point.
For Grp 35 size AGM batteries I see the following options:
Optima Red Top
Optima Yellow Top
Duralast Platinum
Exide Edge
Any recommendations for or against any of these? Other options? This car is driven infrequently from roughly April until October. During the winter I park it in an unheated garage with the battery disconnected. The battery is mounted in the engine bay, and i plan to get something like this to make sure I don't kill it with heat.
I had a bad experience about 10 yrs ago with an Optima Red Top, likely partially my fault as I trickle charged it a couple times with an old battery charger. It died/stopped holding a charge just outside of warranty. I would be willing to try again if this sort of failure is uncommon. Also, i made sure my new battery charger has an "AGM" setting.
What I'd REALLY like to do is build a new battery tray and go with something smaller like a Grp 51/51R, but I'm not sure I'll have time to fab that up this week. Next event is on Sunday....
odyssey makes a great battery, some VERY small and light for their power.
Odyssey and Northstar both make great AGMs, although they're expensive. The Northstar batteries are also available at Batteries Plus under the X2 Power brand.
For more standard AGMs (lower price, power vs size/weight about the same as a regular lead acid instead of a bit better like the first options), I'd stick to stuff made by East Penn (Deka, Duracell and a few others). Exide and Johnson Controls don't tend to be as good quality-wise.
Personally, I ran a Duracell (East Penn) deep cycle AGM in the Jeep for about 4.5 years. I replaced it due to capacity degradation, but it was still plenty capable of cranking up the engine quickly on a cold day, just not after as much other use as it could when it was new. The replacement is an X2 Power deep cycle of a bit higher capacity (same physical size, both group 34). It's been great so far (about 15 months). And the X2 Power has a good warranty too, 4 years full replacement (no pro-rate).
There is an Autozone AGM that I am pretty sure is made by east penn as well. I have that in both of my cars. Works great, no issues and not super expensive.
In the Miata, I've got an Odyssey PC925 in that. Not a lot of CCA but more than enough to turn over an LS3 with no issues.
They might be exide, but rural king sells there blue top agms for stupid cheap.
I last bought an Advance agm for my sub and got it almost half price after careful discounting.
bmw88rider wrote:
There is an Autozone AGM that I am pretty sure is made by east penn as well. I have that in both of my cars. Works great, no issues and not super expensive.
In the Miata, I've got an Odyssey PC925 in that. Not a lot of CCA but more than enough to turn over an LS3 with no issues.
I had the PCM 680 in my old 318ti. Even in the dead of winter, it spun that 1.9 over just as fast as a full size battery, even below freezing
bmw88rider - The "duralast platinum" I mentioned in the OP is the Autozone AGM. If they are made by East Penn and you've had good luck with them, I'm leaning that way since I can get it locally off the shelf (local warranty replacement too, if there's an issue). Unfortunately they don't seem to have any coupons or discount codes available. $180 isn't horrible though.
As far as some of the other options go, I'm looking to stay under $200 for this battery. My car has often been finicky on hot starts also (extended cranking), so I feel better having more CCA than something like a PC680 would supply.
Scw367 = 30% off advance Auto online
See, that's what happens when I post after being in the heat all day.
Deka Intimidator=Duralast Platinum. Deka/East Penn makes I think almost all of the AGM car store branded batteries. They are all going to be in the upper $100s range and basically they are all the same.
Westco batteries for the first 2 gens of miatas are usually pretty cheap. Good-win typically has them for the lower $100's. They are closer to power to a PC925 then a Deka.
In reply to therieldeal :
While the price is twice the $200 you want to stay at. Odyssey does have a PC2250 for commercial use. You would have to look at their website, but they have a battery for every use.
http://www.odysseybattery.com/default.aspx
BatteryMart.com has great discount codes/sales sometimes. I picked up the Odyssey 35-PC1400T in February to replace the stock battery in my newly acquired 2013 Nissan Frontier (January) for total price of $199.72 ( on sale $226.95 + 12% discount code and free shipping.) You just missed their 10% discount code for Labor Day sales. If looking for Odyssey batteries online I would highly recommend checking out BatteryMart.com
I've used Odyssey batteries in pretty much most of my vehicles, Tacoma had a PC925, my FR-S has a PC680MJ, my 90 Integra RS had a PC680. ZERO issues with them ever and they last... Tried the highest capacity Lithium Iron Shorai battery in the FR-S and it is was a $300+ paperweight in less than 6 months... not suitable for daily driver use in a car whatsoever unless you keep it on a tender and watch voltage like a hawk. If it drops under 13.1V its basically becomes unusable any more, but may be recoverable.
Odyssey 4 lyfe... will never be swayed by 4-5lb lightweight exotic miracle batteries again - way too much hassle and worry involved.
What about this?:
http://www.batterymart.com/p-odyssey-pc1200-battery.html
Damn, batterymart has some pretty good prices on those Odyssey's, and free shipping!
I wound up buying the Autozone AGM yesterday. Looks like my Subaru also takes a group 35, and that battery is getting up there in age... maybe I'll move the AZ battery to the Subaru when it goes and pick up something smaller/lighter for the Escort then.
Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!
In reply to Vracer111 :
I love my Odyssey's. Best batteries I ever bought. I push them everytime somebody brings up "AGM". It was a shame back in the late 90's and early 2000's when I was more involved in the import scene that I got shut down all the time. People only wanted Redtops
