How much Battery should I buy?

[CDA 455 II]

Should I buy the best battery I can afford?
Or should I buy a pretty good battery?
Or should I buy a good battery?

The best I can afford that I'm looking at is an Odyssey:

The pretty good battery:

The good battery:

The best battery is highly rated on several reviews ($380+).

The pretty good battery I used before my current battery (Christmas gift).
It lasted me 5.5 years and I think it could have went 6 years.

The good battery is my current battery ($100).
It's a 5-year battery but it's dying/dead at 3-year/10 months.

My environment has four distinct seasons:
Winter: -02*
Spring: 35*
Summer: 110*
Fall: 50*

 

[Bebop]

Get the pretty good battery and use a switch when it sits.

 

[Yotota]

Daily?
Camper?
Wheeler?
Winching?
Big electronics or stereo demands?
Bone stock Ford Focus?

Huge "it depends" situation...

Odyssey is my go-to for woods rigs that need reliability and higher demands.

O'Reilly has their Super Start AGM batteries that are good enough for a tow rig or daily.

I try to stick to AGM on my rigs because I hate leaky wet batteries.

 

[CDA 455 II]

Daily? Yes
Camper? Camper will have it's own deep-cycle
Wheeler? Yes; via fire roads/unmaintained fire roads.
Winching? Near-future/within 18 months
Big electronics or stereo demands? None
Bone stock Ford Focus? Bronco's 5.0L engine is stock

Huge "it depends" situation...

Odyssey is my go-to for woods rigs that need reliability and higher demands.

O'Reilly has their Super Start AGM batteries that are good enough for a tow rig or daily.

I try to stick to AGM on my rigs because I hate leaky wet batteries.

Agree with Odyssey; that's why I'm looking at it: reliability in the back country.

 

[Etyler2]

Go big in the woods.

 

[M92PV4U]

We have a different climate than you but have pretty good luck with ACdelco batteries.

 

[Yotota]

Agree with Odyssey; that's why I'm looking at it: reliability in the back country.

Go big in the woods.

Definitely get the best and biggest battery you can afford. Stretch the budget if you need to. And I've never really found Odyssey batteries on sale, aside from a small military discount at 4WP. My last one was purchased and shipped directly from Odyssey.

 

[CDA 455 II]

Get the pretty good battery and use a switch when it sits.

Yeah; I'm leaning in that direction.

1) Owned one before/lasted longer than 5 years/cost's around $200.
2) Vs. Odyssey costing almost twice the price.

 

[Slander]

I used a parts store AGM, specifically a carquest one. No issues really, I even killed it and jumped it with my daily and slapped it on a battery maintainer for a week and it's been fine 2yrs later.

 

[CDA 455 II]

Go big in the woods.

One definite way I can do it is take the full-tank-of-gas budget for Feb. ($125) and apply it to the battery purchase.🤔

Reviews have stated the Odyssey started the best in cold weather.✔️

 

[Stingray]

We have a different climate than you but have pretty good luck with ACdelco batteries.

I gave up on AC Delcos, Seems like they lasted right to the warranty and died.
Started switching over to the X2's power plus.

 

[CDA 455 II]

Definitely get the best and biggest battery you can afford. Stretch the budget if you need to. And I've never really found Odyssey batteries on sale, aside from a small military discount at 4WP. My last one was purchased and shipped directly from Odyssey.

Agree in general on your first point.

You're last one brings up another point:
If I go with Odyssey; Amazon has them for $385, SHOULD I BUY FROM AMAZON?
If it ships straight from Odyssey, then I will.

How was your Odyssey battery packed; with a strong box?
Was it even packed?😬

That's what I'm mainly concerned with ordering from Amazon: crappy packing where it arrives damaged.

 

[CDA 455 II]

I gave up on AC Delcos, Seems like they lasted right to the warranty and died.
Started switching over to the X2's power plus.

I was a Sears Diehard Platinum battery fanboi from '85 until about '05.

Once Sears went to 36month warranty AND their company really went under; I looked elsewhere.

 

[Yotota]

Agree in general on your first point.

You're last one brings up another point:
If I go with Odyssey; Amazon has them for $385, SHOULD I BUY FROM AMAZON?
If it ships straight from Odyssey, then I will.

How was your Odyssey battery packed; with a strong box?
Was it even packed?😬

That's what I'm mainly concerned with ordering from Amazon: crappy packing where it arrives damaged.

If it's on Amazon but the seller is Odyssey themselves, it should ship straight from Odyssey. Otherwise I might not trust some random seller due to age and storage of the battery. Amazon themselves, 50/50. See if Odyssey will price match to buy it direct.

Mine was packed in the thickest cardboard box I've ever seen that was maybe 1-1.5" larger than the battery on all sides. The battery was encased in stout cardboard custom-shaped packing molds that held it in place with zero wiggle room. It arrived with no issues.

 

[TTMotorsports]

I also am running and have run in the past the Napa Legend series AGM batteries. They work great never a problem.

 

[M92PV4U]

I gave up on AC Delcos, Seems like they lasted right to the warranty and died.
Started switching over to the X2's power plus.

Interesting. Ours were lasting 5-6 years. Unfortunately our newest one is about 5yo. We switched to powerstride battery exchange, I'm not thrilled with them, but they seem fine.

 

[Stingray]

Interesting. Ours were lasting 5-6 years. Unfortunately our newest one is about 5yo. We switched to powerstride battery exchange, I'm not thrilled with them, but they seem fine.

In my Duramax I only bought AC Delcos, Factory equipment deal, We have a supplier through work I was getting 36% off, so no real issue, But they just made it right to the number on the battery.
Granted it sits, but in a constant temp garage in Ca. So no real temp swings, And I kept it on a tender so if it sat a couple weeks the general electronics would not kill it.

I popped for some expensive ones this go round, it may backfire on me, but so far no issue, and up to 5 of them now.

 

[EndlessMtnFab]

Optima, IMO, would be one of the top 2 choices. An alternative would be the NorthStar battery. Functionally the same, but a slightly better distribution system. I believe the warranty might be SLIGHTLY longer -- but don't hold me to that.

 

[Outahand]

I have Odysseys in everything I own.

Have not changed one yet. The one in my wagon is over 15 years old. The 2 in my Bronco are not far behind.

Hope they are still as good. Just put one in my Camaro and one in my Wife's Vibe.

 

[Leadfoot21]

Get the everstart . There is zero reason to run anything more in a daily . Walmarts warranty is better than the expensive ones also more than likely .

 

[Stingray]

I have Odysseys in everything I own.

Have not changed one yet. The one in my wagon is over 15 years old. The 2 in my Bronco are not far behind.

Hope they are still as good. Just put one in my Camaro and one in my Wife's Vibe.

I hear the older ones are better than the newer ones, Guys like you with 10+ year old ones seem to hang better.

 

[Octane]

I also am running and have run in the past the Napa Legend series AGM batteries. They work great never a problem.

I have a napa battery, it's not an AGM. Bought it in 2013 and slow charge it over 2 days about twice a year @ 2 amps. Still good battery. Only about 15k or 20k miles put on truck since 2013 tho.

 

[IowaOffRoad]

Puts on [486] hat-

Why buy a new battery? Go behind -insert parts store in your area- and test the core pile for a good one and swap with your bad one. Profit?

-takes off [486] hat

 

[NDCjeepsmith]

Optima, IMO, would be one of the top 2 choices. An alternative would be the NorthStar battery. Functionally the same, but a slightly better distribution system. I believe the warranty might be SLIGHTLY longer -- but don't hold me to that.

I've swapped all my optimas to odyssey once they died after two "new" optimas died in quick order.

Northstar if you can find them cheaper would be the way to go. They're the same as odyssey, made in same plant in Missouri.

 

[Jbevs]

Run of the mill farm store batteries have been doing it for me for 10+ years. I may try a Cat battery sometime as I've heard great things about them.

 

[arse_sidewards]

You have fucktons of space under the hood of that bronco if you move the smog pump filter and vacuum reservoir.

Run a group 35 or whatever the common MDT battery size is, I'm pretty sure it's 35.

If you step up the group size you can probably run a deep cycle and still have enough CCA.

 

[NorCalJalopy]

If your I’m not cal I have an account at orielys and Napa and can get stuff cheaper. If you wanna switch to a group 31 I got lead acid and agm’s i can get super cheap. Anyone want some 8d’s?

 

[CDA 455 II]

For shits and giggles;
Is there such thing as too much CCA?🤔

Odyssey has a group 31 Extreme battery with 1150 CCA.
It's about an inch bigger in each direction, and 20+lbs heavier (77lbs).

$525

 

[IowaOffRoad]

For shits and giggles;
Is there such thing as too much CCA?🤔

No, but there is such a thing as buying a multiple-benjamin battery for a shitbox being 'too much' so these battery recs aren't for me

 

[mobil1syn]

is your concern failure or capacity?