anyone got advice on a good battery brand?
im looking for the energizer of car batteries.

I bought a champion, great stuff so far.
Quite strong.

optima all the way. sealed, no matenance and around 900cca. Not cheap but 2year full warranty and 3rd year pro rata based...

In the limo we have a Catterpillar battery that will crank a frozen buldozer diesel motor for 10 minutes. Huge and Cost $240.

In the EH I have an Odyssey battery. Very small, very high powered. I also have a 'trickle' charger attached to it when it is parked as this is the trick to keeping an Odyssey battery good for a very long time. Apparently they dont really like being flattened dead too much. Cost $300

In the bus a Century Heatguard 540CCA cost about $120 I think and has been going for 5 years give or take a bit.

I can't remember what's in the Beetle, but it had to have a specific shape so the hard plastic top would fit properly to prevent any back seat fires.

A battery is only as good as it's charging system. If your charging system is over or under charging you battery will die sooner then it should.

I have an Exide battery in my car for 3 years and is still going strong.

Optima and Oddysey all the way.

I used to compete in stereo comps and i had a very large system (Combo Van) and i used to run 2 x Optima batteries.(Sold everything last month)
Yellow top and a Red Top.
Never had a oddysey or optima battery go flat on me. Never trusted any other brand for stuff that draws alot of power.
Every little bit of power i needed and the slightest voltage drop would cost me lots of money in new amps as i needed to keep the batterys at 14.4v during the comp otherwise the amps would blow.

Can post pics but i wont bore you.
I've always used big batteries. My first battery was a Powerdive, monster weighing in at 46kg. LoL I had to chop the engine bay up for this baby.

Depends on what you want to use it for.
If its just for standard stuff like daily driving no big stereo just go with a normal battery with a 3yr warrenty. If you want to run a stereo and other numorous electrical stuff id be defintly looking at the Dry cell like Optima,Oddysey. 100% No Maintance. but you would be looking about $250+ for a normal size.

Cheers,
Scott

[Edited on 15-4-2005 by FATBUG]

i use to work for odyssey, i reccomend it all the way.... other threads have discussed the merits and failures, do a search and you will get your answers..

My merc battery - Mercedes benz that is - was 8.75 years olde when it died
the orig stamp was on one of the terminal posts... The guy said i should frame it...
MADe in GERMANY


Anyone apart from myself used tha "Batrolite" additive with results ???
get it at supercheap and add it within 14 days to a new battery and they double the orig battery wnty as long as you reg it with the manufacturer of the batrolite

hey karmen thats some good bloody life out of a bloody battey mate! i read about an AC DELCO battery that was in an old fighter in ww2 that went into a lake... anyway, 30 years later the aircraft was recovered, battery charged for 30 minutes and it still cranked an engine over! mind you, they didnt say how many million amps they shot it with but either way, quite an achievement...

arr yeah always been using factory seconds $60 odd bucks
always been lucky and if one shits itself earlier than the usual
well you know saved da cash..
n the best thing about it majority of the time when i went to get a battery
they wouldn't have one in stock so they get a brand newy $120 and reduce the w'tee to match the 2nd and presto new battery for 2nd price..
sweet mate!
why pay full price..

[Edited on 17-4-2005 by h]

I've been a Fan of EXIDE Batteries ever since I used to sell batteries.... Century was the worst and boy were they bad..
but it looks like they have upgraded their game these days...
But I ONLY BUY EXIDE.... CHAMPION is an exide with different sticker....
EXCELLENT BATTERIES FOR AROUND $85-$90
BIG W or Most tyre centres etc....

EXIDE or CHAMPION - they work for Me....

Lee

ive got a century battery. bought new the day i got my baja. thats going on a year about now. but ive had cheapys in my superbug and no hassles.

Well I just bought a new (blemished) century battery yesterday for $50 from local century dealer Its a 58 440cca battery to replace my old (4.5years) century which was only 380 cranking amps- it did well cause I would only drive my car maybe every second weekend sometimes longer between drives and I've lost count how many times I drained it completly flat over the years- Its coped serious abuse with only offroad driving and still lasted that long- That makes me a century battery fan:thumb

From what I was told, Centurys are just a rebadged Exide, they all come from the same plant. The Centurys just seemed to be more expensive.

Although I'm sure the Optimas and Odysseys are excellent batteries, I think they're overkill for most old VWs unless you special requirements. The Exide I put in my fasty was a 660CCA and cost $140, i reckon that wil keep me going for a while.