Should I return this car battery?

Not too long before I put the Toyobaru away last year, I got an Everstart Maxx battery from Wal-Mart to replace the factory-installed battery that had just given up the ghost after 6 years. I got a battery 3/4 the size of the stock battery to reduce weight a bit. I disconnected the battery before storing the car, a few weeks ago I took the car out of storage, gave it some cranking in flood-clear mode to build oil pressure, then it started up quite nearly as easily as with the original battery. Seemed great so far.

On the stock battery, the car could sit for 2-3 weeks before it began to give any trouble to start. I let the car sit for a bit over 2 weeks between first taking it out of storage and going back to work on it 2 days ago, and it had very little energy in it. I probably could've started it if I didn't do flood-clear mode again, but I did, and used up the roughly 8 cranks of energy it had. So I jumpstarted it, let it run for about 20mins to get up to full operating temperature before draining the oil out.

Earlier today, after doing a bunch of work on it and putting fresh oil in, I go to start it again. Using flood-clear mode for sure this time because the oil was just changed. It's worse than the last time I tried to start it 2 days ago, it had maybe 5 cranks in it, had to jump-start it again. I had it running for enough time to get up to full operating temp again while moving cars around the driveway, I also held it at 3krpm for close to a minute.

Just now, after letting the car sit for maybe 5 hours, I went and checked the voltage, it's down to 11.78...that seems way too quick to fall below 12, should I try to return this?

I would. I'd get it load checked and if it passes I'd start looking for a battery drain. That is an awful lot to drop unless some lights are left on though.

Lights definitely not left on, no electrical changes were made to the car since last year.

Batteries are aweful now.  If it's not performing the way it did in your applicatuon when new, I wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of whatever warranty they gave you.  

I did this three years in a row with a Motomaster battery from Canadian Tire. I'd pull it in the fall when the car went into storage, charge it back up in the spring and the thing would not hold a charge so I'd return it. The load test would take around an hour at that time and then I'd walk out with a new battery.

The third year the cost on that particular battery went up $10 so I got to pay $10 for my "free replacement", you can imagine how I felt about that. The following year I cut my losses and bought an Interstate which I used for a number of years, then it sat fully discharged for around 5 years, brought it back to life with a power supply and used it for another two years before a connection inside finally let go and it was dead. Another Interstate replaced it.

A "they don't make 'em like they used to" story:

Bought our old van in 2019.  Didn't have a brand new battery, but it worked fine.  Took my sons to the truck race at Martinsville in Oct. of that year...accidentally left the headlights on.  While walking back to the van after the race I thought "What idiot left his lights on for the whole race?  Crap, that's me."  Van fired right up, never missed a beat.  Let it run down a time or two throughout our ownership (left a door ajar), but would just charge it back up with a HF trickle charger.  

Sold the van back in November with the same battery in it.  

I e replaced the walmart battery in my daughter's truck monthly for the last 6 months. 

I will never buy another. 

I was having this same issue with my rx8 challenge car.

Leave it sit for 3 days and the battery would be dead.

It was a brand new oreillys special.  It also leaked acid everywhere one night for no apparent reason.

I finally had enough and replaced it with an optima from 2012 that my neighbor pulled out of the dump.  Charged it with my noco charger and now...  perfect.  Car can sit for a week and start right up!

I would like to point out that I also went with a smaller battery like you did.  I'm not sure it's just that newer battery's suck.  It might be that the engineers knew what they were doing when they sized the battery as well.

So, you took an undersized battery that has sat for six months, tried starting a car from dead cold with it and are surprised that it didn't work?

Put a charger on it overnight and give it a full, proper charge. Test the battery capacity if you can. Then try starting the car.

An alternator is not a battery charger and you can't test a battery properly that hasn't been fully charged.

A load test done on a fully charged battery will tell you if it's good or not. Don't use one of those goofy, plug-in-the-cigarette-lighter battery testers either, use a proper, carbon pile load tester.

Unrelated but other people are off topic so I may as well be.

The battery in my Spark is a Delco. It runs down quickly if I leave the hazards or lights on, but starts the car 99% of the time, even on the coldest days while sitting overnight. Every once in a while I'll try to start the car and it's near dead and will only just turn it over, but not quickly enough to start. I don't know if it's almost done but the car is so easy to start the near done battery can still do it or what?

We sold our Cobalt with the original battery still in the car at 11 years old. In almost 10 years of ownership I never once saw it.

I've found leaving cars that sit on a trickle charger can greatly extend the life of the battery.  I used baby powersports batteries in the rabbit race car and simply leave them on a trickle.  I generally get 6yrs out of them.  I fully recommend the DEKA powersport batteries with auto terminal adapters for your brail on a $100 budget.  

In reply to ShawnG :

The battery started fine after the car spent months in storage, the trouble started 2 weeks later.

I can put it on a charger and see what happens. I wish I could replace it with something better but money's really tight right now and I'll need to make a warranty replacement work if the charger doesn't fix it.

Starting it and letting it run for a few minutes does not charge it up after a winter of sitting. You need to charge it with a charger.

It's on the charger now, shows less than 80% charge. Again there was no trouble starting after storage, the trouble started after the car sat for 2 weeks after that.

OK. Say the battery was at 90% and started the car ok.

If the start drew the battery down to say 80%. Idling may have only brought it up to say 85%

Sitting for 2 weeks may have drawn it down to 80% again.

Alternators really only put out enough juice at idle to keep up to the demands of the car running. To push a charge into the battery you need to be above 1200rpm or so.

Every modern car has a draw, it's in milliamps but it's always there. It's going to drain the battery down from full charge to no-start in a month or two.

Starting from less than a full charge gives you less draw down capacity.

Using a smaller battery gives you less capacity.

The difference between fully charged and too discharged to start is about 2 volts.

Manufacturers will only spec just enough battery to get the job done.

A good, overnight charge will probably fix the problem. If not, might be time for a battery.

nocones said:

Batteries are aweful now.  If it's not performing the way it did in your applicatuon when new, I wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of whatever warranty they gave you.  

Batteries are awful if you buy them from a big box store.  The manufacturers make cheaper batteries for sale through Walmart, Costco, etc.  There is a huge difference between an Interstate battery sold through a rep and an Interstate battery sold at Costco, and the price reflects that.  (I have Interstate batteries in my Volvo and one of my RX-7s.  My cost for them was something like $220 for the Volvo and $150 for the RX-7, buying straight from the rep at shop pricing.  But they're good batteries, and when you throw your accessory belt 20 minutes from home at dusk, you'll appreciate having a good battery)

Walmart is one of the worst examples because they are such a 600 pound gorilla, they can dictate specs to anyone, and those specs are universally "make it cheaper so we can beat everyone on price".  Apparently even Mobil 1 oil sold through Walmart is different from what you buy at an auto parts store.

The charger's showing 80%+ now but not fully charged yet.

In reply to GameboyRMH :

Walk the battery into the Walmart counter. They will give you a receipt to leave it and they will test it.  This will have to happen before they replace it.  If they do not replace it, it should come back to you as charged. 

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

.......

......  Apparently even Mobil 1 oil sold through Walmart is different from what you buy at an auto parts store.

Really?  Crap.  That's been my go to for years.  If true, than I have to find an alternate retailer.

The battery has now reached 100%, I'm going to put it in the car and see where the charge levels go.

Edit: Voltage now reads 12.27 via OBD2

In reply to Indy - Guy :

If you haven't had a problem (assuming it's true) then why do you need to?

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Apparently even Mobil 1 oil sold through Walmart is different from what you buy at an auto parts store.

This is COMPLETELY false, in case anyone was worried.  Just trying to keep the signal:noise ratio around here up :).

Did it start?

Is the 12.27 while running or shut off?

12.27V was with the engine off, ignition in ON mode. Didn't try starting it yet, later tonight or some time tomorrow I'll see how far the voltage dropped and try starting it.

Ok but...

You should have tried a start, to be sure that your fully charged battery would start the car.

Did you get the battery tested once it was charged?

Still, try starting the car tomorrow and see what happens.