Okay, the new to me Duramax batteries are dying - partially my fault but mostly they are 3 years old so I'm going to replace them. What's out there that's a good balance or price and quality and might last longer than 3 years?
Nothing. Battery prices have more than doubled. Quality has slipped. Even the high end optima AGM batteries are seeing increased failure rates. NAPA 75-series have a 24 month full replacement warranty, and the 84 series are 36 month. In the past two years I’ve personally had failures in both lines. Drop your drawers and save your receipt
Optima seems to be hit or miss for a long long time. While I'm at it, is there a jumpbox that will be okay staying plugged in all the time so it has a charge and the battery isn't shot because I never remember to plug it in on a regular basis when I don't need it? Got two of them that won't take a charge.
The newer (and more expensive) jumper boxes have lithium batteries in them, which are not subject to draining issues as much as wet cell battery types. I believe - best to ask Dr. Google first.
They don’t last long. Two or three years, it seems. I’ve got a 1500 CA one that will pop over a diesel, haven’t recharged it after four or five times use on this thing.
Yeah, that'll be the next one I get I'm sure. Sadly my little jump box from Chip won't start the diesel, it will start a gas truck tho.
Second vote for the Costco Interstates. I have them in three of four vehicles, and they are holding up well. All three vehicles see very little use, so the batteries sit quite a bit between usage.
I'll check them out, leaning towards that or hitting Wally World, I've actually had good luck with the everstart stuff.
My suggestion would be to put it on a battery tender every chance you get. One of my profs in avation maintenance school would get insane life out of his batteries by religiously keeping them charged. Something on the order of 15 plus years. He said that the charging systems in cars aren't really designed to charge a low battery, but keeping a battery at full charge will make it last much longer.
Yeah, new batteries will have the tender plug wired up. Granted, the bikes all had those and I still never plugged them in - and I knew those wouldn't be driven every day
Thats so true. Trying to charge 2 big, dead, batteries with an alternator at full field will get that sucker RED hot. and check your system for a draw. Anything over .5 amps is a problem.
I’ve come to the conclusion that battery quality is so hit or miss these days that what matters most is the cheapest with the longest warranty. Everlast fits that bill in my book and if you ever have an issue there’s a Walmart nearly everywhere to get it warrantied.
I priced batteries at Costco for my uncles duramax and it was about $100 a batt...for what should be a better battery than the others had at $150+ each. And with the quality issues I've seen in batteries the last decade, a no hassle return/exchange form Costco is nice, just in case.
Last tractor battery was a blue top optima, it lasted 7 years. Never jumped it or put a charger to it. Sometimes it sat a week or two .
For what its worth. I used the refresh or repair cycle on my NOCO Genius 5 for one of my dads dead batteries on his bike, and it seemed to have brought it back to life. Proof will be if its still good come spring. I didn't believe it would work, but it did. Just a matter of how long. Battery is over 10 years old iirc. Not sure it will help a battery that's been drained to nothing.
Sean the cold took a toll on many of them here the last Month, I had to replace mine in my 2500 however it was right on the 5 year mark... DIEHARD for what it's worth....
I use Duracell from Sams club in my diesels and they seem just as good as anything else I've tried. Cheaper too.