Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:12:12 -0700
Reply-To: Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Poppie Jagersand <poppie.jagersand@YAHOO.CA>
Subject: Re: Battery question
In-Reply-To: <m1ljj88k7t.fsf@cs.indiana.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
The battery question invariably brings up strong opinions about different brands. Some swear by Diehard, some Interstate, some Optima etc...
In reality the differences are not that great. While there are many brand names printed on batteries there are only a few manufacturers. If you buy a battery in North America with some 90% probability it is made by Johnson Control, GNB or Excide. I've had $200 Optima batteries, and $50 Walmart batteries, Delco, Diehard, Interstate etc. They all last comparably long for me. Consumer reports buys loads of batteries and does a test about once a year. Winners vary between the years and types of batteries, suggesting that there is no particular manufacturer that is superior to the others.
More important is to check that you get a fresh battery. Like milk they are date stamped and go bad if too old...
Some have a clear text manufacturing date, others a code. A, B, C, D etc is Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr etc. 9 or 09 would be the year. The date stamp is often on a round sticker. Try to find a battery as fresh as possible, and not older than 6mo. You can also check with a voltmeter. The battery should be 12.7V Anything below 12.5 would be suspect.
Martin
--- On Sun, 10/18/09, Allan Streib <streib@CS.INDIANA.EDU> wrote:
> From: Allan Streib <streib@CS.INDIANA.EDU>
> Subject: Re: Battery question
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Received: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 5:29 PM
> Doug Noganav <vanagon@ASTOUND.NET>
> writes:
>
> > Anybody know the least expensive battery available for
> the vanagon?
> >
> > Wally world still the cheapest?
> >
> > It looked like group 42 might also work in the box,
> not sure it the 42 is any cheaper than 41.
> >
> > looking for best deal
>
> Best deal as in you are selling the van and want to put the
> absolute
> cheapest battery in you can? Yeah it'll probably be
> Wal-Mart.
>
> Best deal in that you can start the van on a cold winter
> morning? I'd
> go with Interstate. They have never let me down.
>
> Allan
> --
> 1991 Vanagon GL
>
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