The current 'good' battery?

Time for a new battery in the truck. I haven't bought a battery in five years so it seems reasonable to ask you guys, what is the current state of decent batteries?

They all suck. I just keep buying the cheapest single yr warranty ones because batteries today are not worth the prices they are charging.

For lightweight batteries, Shuriken makes some nice affordable models. Still waiting for the Ohm battery to go into production (should've happened over a month ago now).

Well, this is for my truck, light batteries are cool, but this is the wrong application.
I just need it to start well and survive the heat of Texas for another five years.
I currently have a Super Start Extreme as sold at O'Reilly.

I'm running Duralast Gold in both my XJ and Crammit with no complaints. IIRC, they're among the best CCA/$ value and come with a 5 year warranty.

The Everstart batteries at Walmart are the same thing (made by JCI) that most others are selling, but are pretty cheap. I think all the "mid price" batteries are pretty comparable, you don't get a real advantage until you step up to something like an Odyssey.

If you can find something made by East Penn, they're generally better than JCI and Exide units. In the Jeep, I'm currently running an X2 Power (rebranded Northstar) AGM deep cycle. So far, so good. I got almost 5 years out of the previous Duracell (East Penn) AGM deep cycle (replaced due to diminishing capacity, but was still fine to start the thing).

Find your correct size then in that size buy the heaviest one. More weight equals more lead and more lead is more good!

There's an Interstate Batteries store near where I work that has good deals on blemished batteries. So I went with one of them for my Dart.

In reply to rslifkin:

How do I figure out which store brands are East Penn?

Interstate provides all the "import" OE replacement batteries and they are generally pretty decent. I've been running "Acura" branded Interstates in the Dailies for quite a while now. The Middle tier AcDelco isn't bad either. Working on almost 3 years on one of those.

Here in the midwest, if I can get 3 years out of a battery, I figure it's paid for itself. When summers can top 100+ and winters can reach -25, nothing is going to last long on those conditions.

There's always optima...

I've had zero luck with Duracell. 4 batteries in 3 years in the 4Runner. Good thing Sam's Club is eating the replacement costs.

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to rslifkin: How do I figure out which store brands are East Penn?

Deka is East Penn's line, or Intimidator for AGM batteries. Not sure if they label any differently for store brands.

mazdeuce wrote: In reply to rslifkin: How do I figure out which store brands are East Penn?

Sometimes it's marked on the battery itself. Other times it takes a little research. As an example, Duracell is East Penn. The West Marine house brand batteries are East Penn (last I checked). Interstate is JCI as are most Autozone, Advance Auto, etc. house brands.

I still have the best results with Motorcraft branded batteries. I don't know which manufacturer they are, but they last and last.

Interstate from Costco. Comparable in price to the cheap parts store batteries but much better quality and warranty.

I have always had great luck with Interstate batteries.

belteshazzar wrote: I still have the best results with Motorcraft branded batteries. I don't know which manufacturer they are, but they last and last.

The one I put in our Taurus was a JCI. In fact, it was identical to the Walmart battery that it replaced. But the car seems much happier with the Motorcraft than it did the Walmart one. Shrug....

Google tells me that the Super Start battery that I have is probably made by East Penn. Maybe I'll poke around and see if that looks like it's still true.

Up here in the GWN I always go Wally World for batteries. Often a few bucks cheaper and have been happy with the performance.

I really though this thread was going to be about your current communal battery. LOL

Optima through Amazon has some excellent deals, last one I got was under $125 without a core charge. Allowing me to keep my old one, which has found a home in the 323.

Came here to recommend East Penn-made batteries as well.

My old auto shop instructor, Mr. Sayre, used to say that a battery would generally last about as long as the warranty period. He was right. So you can compare battery prices on "$ per month of warranty". But if two batteries cost about the same per month, the one with the longer warranty will likely have more reserve capacity, in case you ever need it.