all I'm saying is if sears has a diehard made in the USA, it might come from the same manufacturer and essentially be the same as an autozone battery that's made in the USA, and the same as a company xyz battery that's made in the USA, assuming the CCA and other specs are the same..and with that being said it would be made from one of 3 companies in the USA that actually manufacture batteries.......so same battery, different brand....same could be true if the battery was made in China. same battery with a different brand name on it.

 

right now I run $160 Optima Red top in the XJ.
Swap it around between all kiinds of cars last 2 yrs with no problems.
orig. I bought the red top for my show car that has full system, neon, dvd screens. butch of elec. i see like once or twice a yr. LOL so while I'm not at car shows I use the Red top in the XJ..
Before i invested in the red top i had duralast gold$120 from autozone, it ran great for 6yrs plus.
Usually i just get chepo $40 wallyworld batt. that last maybe 2-3 yrs. <--that the beater car has.

 

Johnson controls-optima,interstate,die hard,duralast,kirkland signature,everstart,and prostart
East Penn (Formerly exide)-NAPA
Johnson Controls is #1 battery maker in the US.

 

Johnson Controls may make more batteries than anyone else in USA, but that sure doesn't mean they are the best battery maker by a long shot.

Many of the batteries by them you listed are crap.

 

No, you are confusing CCA with quality and longevity.

You can have the same or higher CCA between batteries, but one could be made with better quality innards than the other.

 

Optima Yellow Top
Deep Cycle
Can run air compressor or lights without engine on or risk of draining battery.

 

Oh yeah, you run it long enough without charging and it will drain.

You can't get something for nothing. Every erg of energy you use from the battery is gone.

 

Yes, because it's a battery.

Anyway, all 4 tires would pop before the juice ran out, but I could still start it. HA

[/quote]You can't get something for nothing. Every erg of energy you use from the battery is gone.[/quote]


Thanks for alternators and voltage regulators I get em right back. Always ready.

If you use a starting battery than you will lose potency, but deep cycles are made for it and can start a motor.

 

I know in your first post you said you didnt need/want an optima- But I use the Red Top and have had good results. Others noticed better results with a yellow top. You get what you pay for.

 

Not always....

 

once again--the battery can be a piece of crap, made in china or made in the USA.....it could be a great battery, the best in the world......all I'm saying is companies that manufacture batteries brand them with different store names. They are essentially the same battery because they were made by the same people with the same parts on the inside....autozone's 660 CCA gold or whatever could be made of the same exact material as a diehard that has the same CCA's and specs. I have no idea if a diehard is good, or if an autozone is good, that is not and was never the point of my statement. I was just saying that the chain stores buy batteries from one of 3 big battery manufacturers and that they could very well be the same.

now this was information I got from a salesman 3 years ago at a trade show. if i remember correctly he said Exide, GNB, and one other make X percent of car batteries sold in the USA. Now he could have been totally off the mark, and given me the wrong info. I have no idea. He was supposed to be the sales expert in the industry for the last 20 years. So what do i know. All I know is that bad batteries are made once in a while. Even 2.25 volt GNB's that cost $180 each go bad way before the 20 year warranty is up, sometimes within the first year.

 

Yes you do, including the cost of having a certain 'name' displayed on top and the marketing that goes with it.

 

Don't knock the brand, holmes, the trendier the more HP! (You can probably increase the runtime of your Neverstart by putting a DIEHARD sticker on top of it)

 

Yellow top isn't a deep cycle, it's a hybrid. Red is starting, blue is deep cycle, yellow is somewhere in the middle (shouldn't it be purple then?)

Battery design varies quite a bit with internal chemistry and layout for the type of usage it should see. Starting batteries are designed to blast out a ton of power very quickly without overheating, deep cycle units are generally low current and maintain very even power but can be discharged quite a lot without suffering permanent damage to the plates and electrolyte.

 

Thank You for the info. Next time it will be a 'marine blue top'. I understand it is the only one to have high capacity side terminals that a winch can connect to.
So far the Yellow does good at filling 4 tires without the engine on. My worry is that jeep installs a temperature sensor in the battery tray. When batt reaches a specific temp it shuts down charging to the batt... So I fill 4 tires and it warms the batt. Then when driving the batt does not recharge because of this temp sensor. Haven't proved this and it does not seem to be a problem so far. But I have read about the sensor, just do not know in what jeeps or what years. Anybody?