I’ve noticed that over the years, conventional car batteries’ lives have been getting much shorter. I remember in the early 2000’s you could get a battery with a 5 year warranty. Now you’re lucky if you get 2 years. I’ve had to replaced the battery consistently every 2 years now, because they fail rather quickly, no matter what brand. This is on both of our Integras. Has anyone noticed this too?
I know I’m in a colder climate now which negatively affects their performance, but still. I think the warranty reduction itself states volumes.
Interesting. Not something I’d noticed but I’ve been using Optimas in my street cars for decades now with great success. Although I have heard that the quality on these have gone down (I just haven’t experienced it). I wasn’t too familiar with battery warranties previously but I just looked now and autozone sells a ton of 3yr and I see one 5yr (didn’t check specific fitment for G2’s though). Personally I refuse to run anything but sealed batteries anymore, I just don’t see the point in not doing so.
Buy one from Costco. They have a 3 year warranty with a return process that is basically a no questions asked thing. Just bring it in every 2 years and 11 months and say it won’t hold a charge anymore and walk out with a fresh one.
When i worked for pepboys along time ago as mechanic, i did replace numerous batteries that were towed into the shop that was 2 years old or less. Of course it was covered under pepboys warranty but not the tow. So yeah i do agree. Todays batteries seem to be designed to go dead right after warranty or before if your lucky…
I actually have a AGM Optima battery and still going strong after 7 years, no I say that and it I’ll die in a few days or so. I better keep my fingers crossed. The battery got discharged to like 4 volts a few years ago (ouch) so I took it to an AGM specialist and he was able to bring it back to life within a day. Since I don’t drive the teg that much anymore (reason why it got discharged) he recommended that i buy a 1-2 amp battery maintainer which I did, now it’s inside my home and no worries cause it’s a sealed unit plus it stays a lot cleaner inside, that is till I start using it again. All in all the battery maintainer was well worth the investment cause I can bring it back as long as it doesn’t go below ten volts, the maintainer is a 1.5 amps so it’s gonna take a while to charge it but that’s how your supposed to charge agm batteries, a slow charge rather than using those quick battery chargers that they use in conventional batteries. You certainly get your money’s worth and some more with agm batteries.
I actually have a AGM Optima battery and still going strong after 7 years, no I say that and it I’ll die in a few days or so. I better keep my fingers crossed. The battery got discharged to like 4 volts a few years ago (ouch) so I took it to an AGM specialist and he was able to bring it back to life within a day. Since I don’t drive the teg that much anymore (reason why it got discharged) he recommended that i buy a 1-2 amp battery maintainer which I did, now it’s inside my home and no worries cause it’s a sealed unit plus it stays a lot cleaner inside, that is till I start using it again. All in all the battery maintainer was well worth the investment cause I can bring it back as long as it doesn’t go below ten volts, the maintainer is a 1.5 amps so it’s gonna take a while to charge it but that’s how your supposed to charge agm batteries, a slow charge rather than using those quick battery chargers that they use in conventional batteries. You certainly get your money’s worth and some more with agm batteries.
I have had a yellow top fail early, but it was more than likely due to self discharge and poor maintenance. They are awfully heavy, but good batteries. I bought an icharger battery charger a while back to handle my higher voltage lithium batteries, and found out that it can do wonders for all types of batteries. I have saved a handful of batteries from being tossed by using the icharger on them first. It is a solid state charger that datalogs, can charge and discharge all the battery types I could see myself owning, and allows you to change charging modes, cutoff cell voltages, and charge rates. I replaced a 6 year old battery in my truck because it was going bad, but then I ran it for a couple cycles on the charger where I brought it up to a higher cell voltage, and its been in my integra now for the last year and a half working fine. That said, when I get time to work out a basic integrated BMS for a 3/4s battery, then I am going to build a lightweight lithium battery for my integra.