I only use the car.. maybe once a month. Not even, few times a year. Batteries don't seem to like low usage, infrequent usage. Sear's Diehard Gold are no longer worth the money. They must of switched suppliers. What is a good brand for low usage, that fits the OEM mounting? Must be 100% OEM replacement, same cables, and position. Any favorite brands out there ?

 

Costco

 

I have been buying Deka, direct replacement, good battery

 

I've always bought Interstate batteries for all my vehicles. The battery currently in my IROC is almost 10 years old now, and it replaced an Interstate that was nearly as old. And while that car is garaged, I've always gotten 5-7 years life from Interstate batteries in my other vehicles that remain out in the weather.

 

"What brand of battery should I buy" threads are like favorite oil or tires threads , there is no "right" answer for everyone , and folks will fight to the death defending their favorite brand

My recommendation ? Buy the cheapest battery with the longest "free replacement" (not "pro rated") warranty you can find and run that . NO battery is gonna tolerate being in a car used "a few times a year" without one Hell of a good battery charger/maintainer .....

 

Diehard was my favorite brand for 25 years. Only because of the warranty. Now they slashed the warranty, no longer prorate, & the batteries aren't as good as the older ones.
I may do Costco Interstate.

 

Best deal out there is wallyworld and their $49 cheapies!
Free testing and install too!

Have one in my old winter rat Buick for 2 years, One in my Z, and one in my Pontiac that sits in the garage.
My newer Impala has a $100 Sears in it.
NO issues with sitting, cold weather starting either!

IMO your wasting money on them fancy, $pendy, batteries as most have the same warranty, plates, CCA, etc.
Most are made by Johnson Controls and a couple other companies and your paying for the name and your ego!

 

I use Bosch AGM batteries now when possible. I get them at Pep Boys.

 

I did a little internet research and found this. As of May 1, 2013, there are threemajor automotive starting flooded battery manufacturers in the United States. There are four absorbed glass-mat (AGM) starting battery manufacturers and there are four flooded deep cycle battery/major deep cycle battery manufacturersin the United States.

So if is a USA made battery like Excide or Interstate could be made from the same plant and just put a different label on them. We have a Excide battery warehouse close to me. I've save a good bit of money over the years by purchasing them straight from the warehouse. My truck battery was $130 at Autozone and $79 at Excide. Same warranty last time i checked. The battery is about four years old in my truck. I put an Excide in my bird about three years ago and its been getting a new harness over the last year and the battery is still going strong. I do keep a 2 amp charger on it while it has been sitting.

 

Battery Tender. The BT Jr works decent, when they start alternating blinking red - green - red - green - red - green, they need the capacitor replaced. After having 3 of them go ****-up the same way, and replacing them, I replaced the the capacitors, now I've got about six of them hooked up to my cars. Even got one of the cheap Harbor Freight copies around here somewhere. It seems to work as well as the real thing, but is notably lighter weight. If you mix the brand name Battery Tender and the HF, just know that the HF has the polarity (wires) reversed. This is easily fixed by opening the wall wart and heating up the solder, removing the wires, then soldering them back in reversed. Either throw out the HF attachments, flip the red/black boots, etc since they'll be marked backwards at that point. I hacked up the HF adapters and used them to make custom adapter harnesses for my cars.

 

I too don't drive it as much as I should. It'll sit for years (I don't recommend doing this). After the 18 year old Die Hard silver series died a few months ago, I just put in a $50 Walmart battery. It's connected to a Battery Minder like the Die Hard was.



If you're going to abuse a battery by not using it, why spend a lot on something that's intimately going to die an ugly death?

 

https://shop.odysseybattery.com/p/75-86-705

Crazy money. I'd rather have multiple $80 batteries.