Best battery?

mustang68

i used to have an Optima Red Top and I found it very good, but in the past few years I've eaten though a Halfords own Brand and now a Bosch. Are Optimas still good, or has something else taken the crown? Like most here I have extended periods of not driving.

Thanks

tc20

the Halfords own brand which has been in my W123 for the last 4 years has just given up the ghost. I'll be picking up an Oldham battery tomorrow and will stick that in and see how she goes. Like yourself, she's not my daily (there was a time...)

aujopimur

Banner seem to be ok, I have a 6 volt thats given me good service.

hi5

I've heard Odyssey make a good alternative to Optima,no experience myself though.

macplaxton

I have currently:

1. Energizer - 4 yrs + old
2. Bosch S4 - 5 yrs old (and been in an accident and sat unused for 1yr in that time)
3. Banner - 2 yrs old
4. Volvo - 1 yr old
5. Bosch S5 - 1 yr old

Treat the battery well and it will treat you well.

mustang68 wrote: »

Like most here I have extended periods of not driving.

Get some sort of smart charger you can leave plugged in during those extended periods. A Ctek / Optimate / Accumate or similar.

Stained Class

In Dec 2001 I bought a battery for my BMW 318i.

It cost £50, which was quite dear for the time, but I was told it was the type required for those engines. Better cranking power apparently.

Anyway, a few weeks later I changed cars to a Mazda 626.
Needless to say I kept the 'BMW' battery & put it into the Mazda straight away. It was a bit bigger than the Mazda's original battery, but I 'made' it fit in anyway.

I'm still driving the Mazda with the same battery.
I've just been outside to check the brand & it's a DETA.
Still working perfectly after 10 and a half years!

Can't complain.:)

unkel

Stained Class wrote: »

Still working perfectly after 10 and a half years!

Can't complain.:)

You've set a new record here

The longest my battery ever lastest was just under 10 years in my E38 BMW 735

Stained Class

unkel wrote: »

You've set a new record here

The longest my battery ever lastest was just under 10 years in my E38 BMW 735

True story Unkel.

I dunno whether the Deta is just an inherently good battery, or if it's just overspecced for the Mazda.

Whichever, it's a good result.

ahal

I don't know what would be a good battery to buy, but I certainly wouldn't buy a Bosch Silver (or Silverline?) again. I've had 3 which lasted little more than 3 years each. At €120 a pop, it gets a bit expensive. It seems to me that they're designed to fail as soon as the warranty's up.

Now 3 years might be all that any of these batteries are supposed to last, but I find the shortness of life beyond 3 years more than coincidental with these Bosch batteries. My neighbour bought a no-name one 5 years ago for half the price and it's still going strong!

macplaxton

ahal wrote: »

I certainly wouldn't buy a Bosch Silver (or Silverline?) again

macplaxton wrote: »

Bosch S4 - 5 yrs old (and been in an accident and sat unused for 1yr in that time)

Opposite of my experience Tony as you can see from above. Apparently Bosch batteries are made by Varta. There aren't that many battery manufacturers and a load of re-labelling goes on. Some no-name batteries can be good sometimes, other times not. As you've guessed it can be a lottery as it all depends on who they bought them in from that particular batch.

Now this one was bought was an S4 (black with a silver top - they do S3s and S5s as well) and was in my DAF 66 from around April 2007 to September 2008. When this happened...

p9210094 by macplaxton, on Flickr
As you can see it's a tiny bit squashed there after the car was stolen/trashed.:o

I extracted it from the car once I got round to hacksawing it free, and there was white stress marks on one end of the black plastic casing where it had suffered an impact. However there was no leakage. So it sat in the porch untouched and careless left without me bothering to trickle charge it - for about 11 months. Then I used it to start a housemate's VW Passat 1.9D (we took his battery out from the bulkhead the jump leads we had were ****e). It surprisingly did this without fuss. So I decided to charge it overnight and about a month later fitted it to the wife's Pug 106 when the Fiamm battery died on it's arse. Said Bosch battery is still going strong in the Pug.

Longest I heard batteries lasting are from bearded Volvo owners' with claims of 14 years at the top end the scale for an OEM Volvo battery. Don't know who makes them to Volvo spec though (they are made in Germany). Nice and black with a small Volvo sticker on the top, no fancy colours that would look out of place in some engine bays. I would expect a half-decent battery to go for an average of 8.

Getting back to the OPs usage. I can't stress enough that a battery should be looked after and if left unused for long periods will shorten its lifespan. A top-up smart charger is the way to go here.