Had to buy a pickup battery today.

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Lineman

5HCattle Co - Josh
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Napa Gold is the best battery hands down, have had same one in my Bronco for 8 years and no matter how hot or cold it fires right up.
Never buy an Oreallys unless you like spending money on one shortly after warranty run out.
Heat zapped both my batteries one wasn’t “under warranty” and I bought them both at the same time, same store same battery. After talking to manager still had to pay $50 but was better then 250. Yes Oreally batteries 😩
 

_CY_

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been running AGM batteries salvaged from commercial UPS which will replace all AGM at set timed intervals. commercial resellers run em out all the time. purchased 5x at $50 each, been running two in my 12v cummins for 8+ years, swapping out on occasion to rotate or when I need a strong battery else where.

please note I'm pretty careful maintaining charge levels. AGM reaches full charge about 12.85v vs about 12.55 for wet pb .. its critical charger used for AGM not exceed 14.4v or it could damage AGM. but wet pb accepts 15v+ with no problems.

with few exceptions all 12v charging systems run about 13.8v to 14.4v
what kills lead acid batteries is letting charge levels go down too far.
 
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okcBob

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I used to get the top of the line battery for all my cars. Usually last about 5-7 yrs. Last time I had to replace one was for my 05 trailblazer. As an experiment, I got the $55 Walmart battery. That was 5 yrs ago. So far so good. Full disclosure, only for passenger cars. Not 1/2 trucks or larger.
 

_CY_

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Optima's are Tier 1 but $$$. Interstate seems to be really good for the price.
been using optima batteries for 20+ years and was one of the early adopters for AGM car batteries. used optima for about 10 years or so in nearly all my vehicles. until I switched to generic AGM batteries from large UPS installations after being switched out during maintenance purely due to huge costs savings with no loss in cold weather performance on my 12v cummins diesel.

what was maddening .. after installing a new red top optima battery in a friend's car. about a year later, car went dead so mechanic junked that almost new optima. turns alternator went dead so of course battery does dead. all they had to do is charge up that dead optima and change out alternator.

not everyone has one of these ... Snap-on MicroVAT which checks the internal resistance of batteries to determine go/no go and cold crank amps, etc. etc. almost all of major car battery sellers will have a digital battery tester that measures internal resistance, etc. still hard to beat good old fashion resistance load tester.

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