Walmart batteries ok for 89 7.3 ?

 

I bought from them but not for diesel. One for a gasser truck and once a pair for my boat. Held up good for 3 years in the truck until I sold it. Got 4 years out of the pair on the boat before needed to be replaced. Those were 1000 CCA, same as for diesel. Would still work on a truck for a while but I wanted 100% on the boat. You might hear different opinions though...With Walmart you never know.

 

If you have a CostCo available to you you can get Interstate's for less then the Wal Mart batteries.

My experience with Wal Mart batteries isn't very good, they only last me 2-3 years; which I didn't mind in a pinch when they were $29, but now they're too costly for a 'get by' battery IMO.

 

Around here Walmart now sells a battery called Value Power for $49 each. Their Ever Start batteries are twice as much. I'm tempted to try the VP next time I need one.

https://www.walmart.com/store/1073/s...ttery%2Bprices

 

Remember, Wallyworld gets its products from the cheapest bidder. I use Interstate or Exide, I've never had to replace one 'til years after the warranty expired. IMHO buying quality is the least expensive in the long run.

 

They are made by Johnson Controls

 

Just about all the batteries out there are made by Exide, Interstate, Johnson Controls or Deka (aka East Penn). That doesn't mean that all Deka or all JC batteries are the same. They build to a wide range of quality standards. Just look at Wall-wart's two different lines (see post #4). I'd be willing to bet a nickel and a nail that they're both made by JC, just to different standards. And I'll bet that neither of those standards are as high as batteries JC makes for other retailers.

 

I've had decent luck with Walmart batteries. They typically last 3-4 years. I figured out this summer that when I'm up at my summer camp, either during the summer, or on weekends, that I do a lot of short trips around camp. Short being like 1-3 minutes, and often they are 'cold' starts since the truck never warms up. This ends of drawing the batteries down faster than the alternator can keep up and I think has shortened the life on the batteries. This is just my opinion on what has happened, perhaps they would last 5-6 years if I wasn't abusing them as much.

As madpogue said, there are only a few battery manufacturers out there. I'm not sure how different the standards are from one label or the next, but the price for Walmart batteries, plus the fact that they are literally all over the place helps if you need to do a warranty swap.

 

i have been using costco batteries for around 15 years now. i average 5-6 years out of batteries. costco uses interstate batteries. they used to have them branded as "kirkland" but in the past 2 years or so dropped that name and are now tagged as interstate.

 

Pretty much every battery in the country is made by 2 or 3 companies. Granted, im sure they have different quality tiers, but any 5 year battery should be comparable to any other. Those real cheap ones are probably refurbished, not sure if i would trust them.

All that said, my grandpa bought our '03 new, batteries lasted like 7 years. for the next 2 or 3 years he kept having battery problems, one going bad, draining down when sitting etc. Some ol boy told him to buy ford batteries, and he did, and no more problems. Logic says coincidence, but maybe the ol' boy was onto something.

 

I use motorcraft batteries. Reason they don't leak acid out the posts like Wally World batteries.

 

I have been running the Walmart batteries for about 6 months now. I priced out everywhere I could and found they were the cheapest so thats what I went with. At the time I was just trying to see if my 7.3 IDI that had been sitting for about 8 years would actually run, so I didn't want to have a lot of money invested. Turns out the truck is great, and we'll see how long the batteries last. I can't tell you what level of Walmart battery I got but I'll tell you even though I said they were cheap they were pretty darn expensive. I want to say about $130 per battery, maybe closer to $150 since I didn't have a core to return, so it was close to $300 for the batteries. A lot of money for a truck I didn't know for sure would run. I have yet to do a really cold start on them, but they are working fine for what I use them for.

 

My Everstart batteries were bought new in 2016. Last year the lights were left on overnight and it caused the batteries to drain down. Charged them back and the truck has crunk slower than ever since then.
Winter is coming and the engine barely wants to turn over after heating the glow plugs. When I connect my battery load tester and apply a load, the indicator says "WEAK".

My question is do I have to wait till the load tester confirms "BAD" or will Wally world swap them out under "WEAK"? No way these batteries are lasting through this winter.

 

I don't know where you're located but if you go to the Interstate Batteries website and look for your local distributor you can usually buy blem batteries there for a fraction of the retail price. I have blemished batteries in all of my vehicles!

 

They will test and try to charge. You need to have the charging system tested also. My alternator went out and I had one bad battery. I got to find why only one died. A bad battery will kill an alternator and vice versa.