Ratings of Car Batteries

[SRT-Tom]

Did you know that all car batteries are made by only three manufacturers? They are Johnson Controls (the largest), East Penn Manufacturing and Enersys.

The six most popular batteries were tested. It was found that price was not an indicator of quality.

Here were the Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) at -20F:

Everstart (Walmart)- 708
Duralast (Autozone)-708
Autocraft Silver (Advance)- 651
Super Start (O'Reilly)- 683
Optima (Amazon)- 629
Diehard Gold (Amazon)- 580

Which Car Battery is Best? Let's find out!

 

[HellKitten]

Duracell too?

 

[fritzthecat]

Interesting, but not very conclusive. First of all, comparing regular lead-acid batteries with AGM batteries is like comparing apples and oranges. They are different technologies and way different prices. Although, after watching this it seems like AGM are not nearly as superior as their marketing hype would have you believe. Second, none of the batteries tested met their CCA specification. But, I live in south Florida, so I could care less about CCA. What I care about is longevity, I wanna know what battery is gonna last the longest. This test did nothing to address that.

The only thing I got from this was I’m gonna buy my next battery from Costco, and that wasn’t even one of the batteries tested! Supposedly the Interstate batteries Costco sells are also made by Johnson Controls (like the EverStart ones) so you would expect similar results.

 

[jamesckelley]

Interesting, but not very conclusive. First of all, comparing regular lead-acid batteries with AGM batteries is like comparing apples and oranges. They are different technologies and way different prices. Although, after watching this it seems like AGM are not nearly as superior as their marketing hype would have you believe. Second, none of the batteries tested met their CCA specification. But, I live in south Florida, so I could care less about CCA. When comparing rv batteries, what I care about is longevity; I wanna know what battery is gonna last the longest. This test did nothing to address that.

The only thing I got from this was I’m gonna buy my next battery from Costco, and that wasn’t even one of the batteries tested! Supposedly the Interstate batteries Costco sells are also made by Johnson Controls (like the EverStart ones) so you would expect similar results.

That’s pretty interesting, especially how much the CCA numbers vary despite some of these batteries costing more. It shows that price and brand name alone don’t necessarily indicate performance. I’d also like to see how they compare in reserve capacity, warranty, and long-term durability, since CCA is only one part of the equation. For a daily driver, getting the correct group size and a battery with good warranty coverage may be just as important as having the highest CCA rating.

 

[Mogleybear]

I just had to put a battery in my pickup, it's a Duracell from Batteries Plus, 3 year replacement warranty. Hopefully it holds up. Replaced a 5 year old battery that died.