Battery Recommendations

[Stratosurfer]

All,
Tahoe batteries dying slowly. I'm asking for recommendations: I have O'Reilly's, NAPA and Walmart in my rural existence. I've got a Autozone 45 miles away that carries the Duralast Gold batteries I've read are great.

Any recommendations?
Thanks

[Robyn]

My first choice are OPTIMAS the second choice are the NAPA exide spiral wound Optima knockoffs.

Both are great and dont eat the corners off the rig with leaky acid runoff.

The 800 CCA Optimas are what I will always use if I can get them.

DaHoooley has a set of the NAPA spiral wound batteries ( they were out of Optimas)



Missy

[Stratosurfer]

I have Optimas in the Burb and in this last go round they didn't hold out too well, barely 4 years service. Seems we don't drive enough in our small town. My commute to the office here is barely a mile. Many days I'll do 5 or 6 starts and only run 4 or so miles. I've been putting the Tahoe on the Batteryminder to desulfate overnights and this is helping, but all the starts and no good recharges really takes it's toll. The Optimas haven't held up any better than std LA batts in this regard.
I've come to the conclusion that Optimas are -not- worth the almost 2x price they now cost. When they first came out and they were only about 30 to 40% higher than a quality Lead Acid battery I bought them.
No mas. I can get 4 quality no maintenance lead acid batts for the price of 2 Red Top Optimas.
I'll probably get the Duralast Gold's from Autozone. They're made by Johnson Control and get good reviews.

[THEFERMANATOR]

No more OPTIMAS for me either. They used to make a gret battery, but they no longer do IMO. When a company reduces the warranty on a battery, that tells me that even they know they are not as good anymore. The DURALAST gold is good battery, the red top is not. WAL-MART batteries aren't worth the paper that the receipt is printed on from my experience, and ADVANCE's batteries aren't that good either. CARQUEST makes a decent battery as I know of a few of them pushing 6 or 7 years old now. Also if you have a SAMS club they carry some decent batteries if you buy the top of the line.

[JohnC]

... The DURALAST gold is good battery, the red top is not. WAL-MART batteries aren't worth the paper that the receipt is printed on from my experience, and ADVANCE's batteries aren't that good either. CARQUEST makes a decent battery... Also if you have a SAMS club they carry some decent batteries if you buy the top of the line.

Don't look now, but chances are they all come from the same manufacturer...

There are only 3 or so major battery manufacturers in the US, Johnson Controls, Exide and Dekka are the 3 I know of. All the ones you list are made by them, in fact, in different parts of the country, the same "brand" may come from more than one manufacturer, to save on shipping.

YMMV...

[THEFERMANATOR]

Don't look now, but chances are they all come from the same manufacturer...

There are only 3 or so major battery manufacturers in the US, Johnson Controls, Exide and Dekka are the 3 I know of. All the ones you list are made by them, in fact, in different parts of the country, the same "brand" may come from more than one manufacturer, to save on shipping.

YMMV...

I know that, but not all of them are made to the same standards.