Need a new battery

[Smokeyyank]

Wasn't sure if this would be pub or here so move if needed, but I need a new battery for my WJ. I had one of the Costco interstate but I've gone through three of them in less than 3 years. While it's easy to replace them I'm getting annoyed pulling the battery to swap them. I'm considering bending over and getting an odyssey but damn they're expensive. I do want to get a AGM battery. I know there are some cheaper options, Costco, Walmart, Sams. But I want something that I don't have to worry about. I will be adding a winch and some lights in the future. So any insight? 

[eaglescout526]

Could always go Mopar. Maybe not the cheapest but Mopar has a good three year warranty on them and I’ve only had one Mopar battery fail on me but it ran its course in AZ after 3 years. And that was my first Mopar battery. 

[Smokeyyank]

18 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

Could always go Mopar. Maybe not the cheapest but Mopar has a good three year warranty on them and I’ve only had one Mopar battery fail on me but it ran its course in AZ after 3 years. And that was my first Mopar battery. 

 

Is it a AGM battery? I'm done with the lead acid types. 

[eaglescout526]

Mopar offers both types. It just depends on if the dealer stocks either or. Do you know what group size you use?

[Smokeyyank]

4 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

Mopar offers both types. It just depends on if the dealer stocks either or. Do you know what group size you use?

 

Group 65. I'm not finding a Mopar one though. 

[eaglescout526]

Yeah ok I guess that one is an exception from mopar. 

[PIKE]

Napa AGM batteries are made by East Penn. I have been having good luck with them. AGM works nice for me being that I travel 4.5 miles on a forest service road to get to my house.  Can get very bumpy and washboard. There is no acid spillage. 

1 hour ago, Smokeyyank said:

 

Is it a AGM battery? I'm done with the lead acid types. 

AGM is a lead acid battery, the acid is not liquid.

[Smokeyyank]

1 hour ago, PIKE said:

Napa AGM batteries are made by East Penn. I have been having good luck with them. AGM works nice for me being that I travel 4.5 miles on a forest service road to get to my house.  Can get very bumpy and washboard. There is no acid spillage. 

AGM is a lead acid battery, the acid is not liquid.

 

Gothca, thanks for the info. 

[m2bandit]

I run costco interstates, infact I've ditched AGM. I've had several optimas and others. Nothing beats Costco's replacement warranty and if you take care of them they're solid.

 

Make sure you don't have parasitic draw while the truck is off. 

Deep discharges shorten battery life of all batteries. The deeper the worse its effect. Some say don't go below 50% but really even at 80% you're shortening life, Just MUCH less.

 

[DirtyComanche]

I think you should determine why they're dying first.  Any lead acid battery (AGM and spiral cell included) will not live if it's being poorly charged or over discharged.

 

As m2bandit said, check for parasitic draw.  Also check your charging voltage is high enough, and not too high, and that the charge cable and feeder limiter (umm, fusible link?  I forget what they're called in automotive) that's built into the cable is not damaged.  Make sure you connectors are good, and your big starter cable and ground cable are good and the contact areas are clean.

[Smokeyyank]

I know the voltage is good. I have a traildash in there that gives me the digital readout. Alternator was just replaced as well. I don't drive the WJ that much but it at least get driven once every two weeks and sometimes more. If it was sitting for weeks I could understand it dying but it's just been a slow death with them. It has been slowly losing cranking power over time.  Last week it was cold here and that killed it. The time before was because it had been sitting for a while getting the engine rebuilt but even disconnected cables and it never being discharged before killed it. Cables obviously could be part of the problem. I already have new 2G ones to put in. Was just wanting to wait for a bit before doing the battery but just fast tracking that a little. After going back and forth I decided to get an Odyssey. When compared to the cost of the other basic AGM, $300 for the odyssey vs $175-220 it offers more for what I need. I'll snag a trickle charger too. Thanks for the info. 

[87Warrior]

I have a Duralast (autozone brand) AGM in my TJ. The battery is now 4 years old and the Jeep sits way more than it gets driven. It will sometime go 2 months without being started or with a maintainer on it. Just this week was the first time I experienced a slow start with the battery.

[gogmorgo]

If you've got summer heat in your part of Colorado, that'll kill your batteries pretty quick. We lost a handful in our 40°C heat wave up here, not quite as bad as if it was -40, but still. 

I don't know about where anyone else is, but I've had a couple salespeople tell us that all the batteries we're getting through our shop suppliers are exactly the same, from the same plant, just with different stickers depending on who goes and picks them up. We get the Mopar stickers because for whatever reason they come in cheaper than the other industrial supply chains. Just the plain Jane lead acid. Five years seems to be pretty normal service life unless they get murdered by someone leaving them out to discharge in the cold... which can happen in less than three weeks on a modern vehicle with keyless entry, push-button start, etc. Probably my favourite thing about driving early 90's vehicles at this point is that they actually shut everything off when you turn the key off.

[DirtyComanche]

3 hours ago, gogmorgo said:

I don't know about where anyone else is, but I've had a couple salespeople tell us that all the batteries we're getting through our shop suppliers are exactly the same, from the same plant, just with different stickers depending on who goes and picks them up.

 

There's only 2 or 3 main manufacturers.  They're then all rebranded.  If one cares to Google you can find out who makes what.

 

I buy whatever is sitting on the tested good rack and the junkyard, fits, and has a recent date code.  Hence I never answered the original question, because that's not really solid advice, but $20 for a battery is $20 for a battery.