Battery brands

Special Circumstances

Morning all,

Gonna go get the battery in her MINI tested later. Used for mainly short trips and it has started to display some of the odd intermittent behaviour that marked the demise of the last battery - windows not dipping in the morning, bit stuttery sometimes, steering feeling heavy.

The steering on the R50 minis takes a fair whack of current, the lights will dim noticeably even when moving on the road, not just slow speed or stationary movements of the steering. So I'm hoping to put a decent battery in there.


I fully expect the battery search to be just like the tyre search - mountains of no-name brands of unknown quality.

What brands are worth buying
Bosch
Varta
Yuasa (added after CJH's post)
Exide
Inci Aku?? (current battery, don't think the Ah or CCA is enough though)

Anything else?

CJhaughey

I have a Yuasa 5000 series battery, Yuasa are a very big battery company with a good warranty policy. They have a 3000, 5000 and a 7000 series with the warranty on the 3 series 1yr 5000 3 years and the 7000 is 5yrs IIRC.

I'd recommend the Yuasa as a good battery, many Japanese cars have these or Panasonic as original equipment.
Toyota have decent prices on batteries from the dealers as well, if you can find the correct fitment for your Mini.

Special Circumstances

Yeah, Yuasa should have been on my list alright.

CJhaughey wrote: »

if you can find the correct fitment for your Mini.

Lol, I'm not sure I've ever been given a battery "yeah that'll fit" that didn't need a bit of wood or plastic above or below it. Sick of it, gimme the right size battery FFS!

Special Circumstances

Yup, much like looking for a decent brand of tyres in Ireland I was offered every sort of alphabet soup name of a battery.

Yeah the brand name is cdjcsoudcbwkj but they are made in a factory that overlooks "insert well known brand here" factory.
Yer man that owns them is a cousin of a fella that used to work in the canteen in Yuasa. He makes them specially for us, thats why you won't recognise the brand.

And everybody insists it is a 075 type battery, when it is in fact an 027 type battery. An 075 will need bits of wood/plastic so that the clamp actually holds it down.

Tore my hair out looking for a branded 027 for a MINI (really I should have just pretended I had a different car, oh well), settled for an Exide 075 with 20-25% extra CCa and Ah than what is there.
Micksgarage currently have a double offer on them - extra 15% on top of existing discount = €60 delivered. Considering that price there wasn't much point chasing up alternatives.

jimgoose

Yuasa Silver batteries are excellent and are actually a re-branding of the Bosch Silver range. The two of them are in cahoots these days. I use nothing else the last good few years, rock-solid.

Foxhole Norman

Have a Yuasa in mine since March, took around 6 hours of watching movies in the car to kill it one night, has still been perfect even after getting jumped then!

Atlantic Dawn

Inci Aku, not heard of those but any of the others you mentioned I have used and all have had good long lifes.

Special Circumstances

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Inci Aku, not heard of those but any of the others you mentioned I have used and all have had good long lifes.

50% owned by Yuasa or soon to be. Turkish brand.

I honestly thought If I asked for Yuasa they'd think it was a prank call. One crowd had vartas alright but not in 027 size which I thought was common enough.

Maybe I could have turned up a better battery locally, but it's just like looking for tyres:

"yeah I have bridgestones there for 80euro"
What model are they?
"they're BRIDGESTONES"
OK but which bridgestones?
"BRIDGESTONES bridgestones!!!????"
Oh I have you now... I might swing by there later beep beep beep... yeah right.

Mervyn Skidmore

Special Circumstances wrote: »

50% owned by Yuasa or soon to be. Turkish brand.

I honestly thought If I asked for Yuasa they'd think it was a prank call. One crowd had vartas alright but not in 027 size which I thought was common enough.

Maybe I could have turned up a better battery locally, but it's just like looking for tyres:

"yeah I have bridgestones there for 80euro"
What model are they?
"they're BRIDGESTONES"
OK but which bridgestones?
"BRIDGESTONES bridgestones!!!????"
Oh I have you now... I might swing by there later beep beep beep... yeah right.

As of August 2015, Bridgestone only makes one model of tyre.

Atlantic Dawn

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

As of August 2015, Bridgestone only makes one model of tyre.

Then someone would want to tell the UK lads...

Tyres range

• Potenza
• Turanza
• Ecopia
• Dueler
• Duravis
• Blizzak

http://www.bridgestone.co.uk/car-tyres/

R.O.R

MIDAC?

http://www.midacbatteries.com/en/midac/batterie-avviamento.html

The battery search is in Italian, but easy enough to figure out.

No idea what their batteries are like, but they are a customer of mine and the driver is a nice enough fella.

Mervyn Skidmore

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Then someone would want to tell the UK lads...



http://www.bridgestone.co.uk/car-tyres/

Obviously a sarcastic remark.

La Fenetre

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Then someone would want to tell the UK lads...



http://www.bridgestone.co.uk/car-tyres/

but "they're BRIDGESTONES"

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

BMW would obviously have the 027 battery. Maybe they're very pricey though...

nd

so anyone ever tried Halfords own brand of batteries?

for my own car

halfords calcium battery €85
exide midrange battery €82
yuasa silver €105 on halfords site

Toyotafanboi

Halfords own brand are made by Bosch are they not?

JohnBoy26

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

Halfords own brand are made by Bosch are they not?

It might not be. For around the same money you can have a proper Bosch battery.

deandean

A failing battery is IIRC one of the the most common car problems, up there with running out of fuel.

I have learned the hard way to replace the battery as soon as I get even a sniff that it's on the way out. Especially with diesel cars.

The last few times I have gone for a high spec AGM battery, Banner Running Bull which I get from Europower Glasnevin. They cost a bit more but IMO well worth it.

Special Circumstances

nd wrote: »

so anyone ever tried Halfords own brand of batteries?

for my own car

halfords calcium battery €85
exide midrange battery €82
yuasa silver €105 on halfords site

Halfords had some flash sale or something on a while back, and I could get 10% off on top of that so I threw a halfords brand calcium HB005 in the scooby. Not a bother with but only have it a few months. Way cheaper than the makey uppy brands available locally and the specs are very good.

At full price there is a good chance you could get a decent battery cheaper from somewhere else, ... if you punch them in the face everytime they offer you a makey up brand.