I had a 6 volt battery last me from 1999 to 2009. The replacement battery is currently in my truck going on 6 years.

About price and Walmar..... my wife's Town and Country needed a new battery. Walmart wanted $150 for the battery. The local parts store had one for $101.

 

Believe it or not, Walmart recently switched over to Johnson Control Industries batteries. JCI makes about the best battery you can buy. Walmart carries AGM as well as conventional batteries. Walmart may be bad to deal with when returning batteries, but so far they beat the H out of any auto supply around here.

 

Actually, JCI has been supplying Wal-mart for a number of years.

 

Wow do I love this list!

OK, Mark you really got me goin' on the idea of two 6v batts wired in series--only the size of these guys may be a challenge. Length and width of two of these may squeeze into my battery bay--but the height! The ones I'm looking at are just under a foot tall! My bay height at best looks to be a scant 10 inches. Do they come shorter than 11 or 12"?

What tempts me at CostCo is their 42-month free replacement. Though most places will replace free if a batt fails the first year, I don't know anybody who will do that for 42 months without pulling out their prorate calculator.

Thanx y'all for all your great responses.

 

I agree completely.


Hey Bob, remember the day at TS when you told us about dropping a battery a few inches onto the floor helps it last longer by theoretically knocking some of the deposits off the plates? Two years later, my battery is still going strong. A rarely used 6 volt battery going strong five years later is pretty good in my opinion. BTW, it's an Exide.

 

That pretty much says it all.
I have 6 antique farm tractors, all on battery tenders, all get run several times during the year. Some batteries last, some don't.
I won't ever buy an exide battery for one reason - the last one had a $20 rebate that never arrived. Follow-up proved fruitless.

 

Motorcraft batteries are also made by Johnson Controls. 93 CV -10+ years, 04 GM - 10 years, 97 CV 10 years.

 

About a year ago I had to replace the battery in my Suburban but I get perturbed with the dinky group 78 battery in a Suburban sized tray. I complained about it to the kid at the counter at O'Reillys and he suggested a group 31. Bigger, more amp hours, more cranking amps for less money. The tray I put in my 54 is just as big so now I have a group 31 in it too.

 

I had a very bad experience with interstate batteries and I promised the owner of the interstate battery dealership here in Beaumont Texas on College Street that I would share the experience I had with EVERYONE. My dad used to sell interstate batteries in the eighties and I never saw a side post battery that didn't leak. The top posts were ok but they leaked too. Years later I needed a new set of batteries for my 1984 Ford 6.9 diesel rollback . Wal-mart batteries were junk after about 6 months so I called around and took a chance and called interstate . I was told they had a 60 month battery for 89.00 and change. I towed the truck to them so they could install the batteries, check my charging system, and make sure the warranty would cover the commercial ,diesel rollback truck. I was assured that the warranty would be honored if anything were to go wrong. I was told this no less than FIVE times that I was covered. Fourteen months later ,without warning, the truck would not turn over .Well , I put a slow charge on the batteries after checking the acid levels . The batteries would not take a charge so I called interstate , receipt in hand . They asked what kind of vehicle it was in . I told them it was a 1984 Ford F350 diesel rollback and was told immediately "oh that's a commercial vehicle that's not covered". I explained that I was assured that the warranty would apply. Then I was told that They would of had to install them for the warranty to be good . I reminded him that they installed the batteries and checked my charging system also. He then said, "well all we can do is charge you another 89.00 +change each . I asked for a complaint line number to call about my experience. He finally gave me the number. When I called them ,I got the same runaround. Needless to say, I've never used any interstate product since.
I have had real good luck with Duralast Gold top batteries from Autozone. They last a long time ,and if there is any warranty, they take care of it right away. If you run one down , it will charge right back up. interstate= junk

 

Pretty sure that Duralast and and Interstate are both JCI products.

 

That may be , but the service is way better at autozone. And the batteries don't leak .

 

Fair enough.