Walmart Battery Comparison

[Eric212]

Roughly 5 years ago I installed three 12V Marine batteries that I purchased from Walmart. I can fit a maximum of 3 batteries on board, so I decided to go with 3 12V batteries instead of 2 6V batteries. Each was rated at 125 Amp Hours and I was very happy with their performance, especially for the low price.

I got a good 5 years out of them (with some winter use too) and now it is looking like it's time to replace.

Back at Wally World, I see they have 2 different batteries in the category I'm looking for. One of them is priced at $86.83 and is rated at 122 Amp Hours (1Amp @ 12V) Part #29DC

The other is the same basic dimensions, but the case looks slightly different. Priced at $99.97 and rated at 114 Amp Hours (1 amp @ 12V) Part # MAXX-29DC

So I would think that the more expensive "MAXX" ones are "better", but I also like the fact that the other ones have MORE amp hours for LESS money. I suppose the MAXX ones must be a little heavier duty, they are both Marine batteries, not "real" deep cycles. The cheaper ones would be a total of $260.49 for 366 AH, whereas the heavier duty ones would be $299.91 for 342 AH. That's basically an additional $40 for 24 FEWER AH. They are both made by Johnson Controls.

I have a good 4 stage charger which is always maintaining them when the camper is not in use, or when camping near shore power. But most of my camping is away from shore power so I like to have as much battery reserve on board as possible.

Which ones would you buy? I have decided on buying either one of these, so please don't turn this into a sales pitch for Trojans or Lifelines. I do realize they are better, but they are also a lot more expensive. for the purposes of this post I am only comparing the 2 batteries I have referenced.

Thanks for reading!

[MEXICOWANDERER]

.090" positive plates means a deep cycle battery.

Thinner than .060" means a lamb in wolf drag...

[Eric212]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

See if Walmart has a battery intended for trolling motors.

Both of those batteries say "For trolling and RV applications" on them.

[Eric212]

bcbigfoot wrote:
I would grab a scale from housewares, check the weights, and see if the premium one has 10% more lead for the money.

GREAT idea!! :C

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Battery acid tends to stratify - a little - During heavy recharging but that does not have any negative consequences to either the battery or the recharge. The total time of the battery being stratified is limited to a half an hour or hour or so. Big deal. for a long time on this forum I have been harping about charging the batteries until slight bubbling in the cells is noted this is for a reason. The bubbling is an indicator that the electrolyte is mixed and is stopping and reversing any stratification that may have formed.

creating a charging profile that allows the electrolyte to bubble before stopping the absorbtion charge is desirable. In fact it is mandatory for optimum battery life. Most battery smart chargers have inflexible charge profiles. This point is precisely why I am so adamant about performing periodic Top Charging cycles. Letting a smart charger undercharge a battery to the point of unequal specific gravity readings between cells is a sorry way to maintain a battery. You will pay the price.

And please keep in mind a battery that is deeply cycled many times is a different animal from a battery that is infrequently cycled to 60 or 70 percent level of charge.

I have come across many wacky suggestions for charge profiles in various forums columns articles and websites. Most of them feed the ego of the author and ignore the reality of proper electro-chemical battery management.

The day that a plug n play battery charger has arrived is the same day somone will announce they have figured out a plug and play automatic algorithm for raising a child.

Spending 10-minutes per month managing a bank of batteries is a patherically small amount of time to ask for. Sort of like asking a driver to please periodically divert his eyes from texting to watching the road.

[NMDriver]

In spite of all the info provided, this long time Wal Mart battery user likes the MAXX better, for me they do seem to last longer. PLUS they say MAXX on them 😄

Useless point of info: my two 6V golf cart batteries did not outlast my MAXX marine batteries.

[BFL13]

Interesting charging profile! The usual one has "bulk" end and "absorption" start when amps begin to taper when Vabs is reached.
Some chargers do 'trip' to tapering amps with battery voltage still rising though.

"SG Lag" is mentioned in a different way too. They note that the battery may become stratified during bulk. Would that be a fast vs slow charge issue? Then they say that the absorption stage (their constant current method--who has a charger that does that?) "completes the charge" as the electrolyte is mixed.

Makes you think that the final mixing (de-stratification) is what brings the battery to 100% SOC where usually the idea is that happens with the completion of the chemical changes on the plates vs electrolyte (de-sulfation)

[red31]

Additional info that I got from JCI when asking the specs of an EverReady 24DC

[jplante4]

dupe

[Tom_M1]

byronlj wrote:
When I bought mine for my boat I noticed the same thing you did. I looked at the number stamped at the base of the cases and they were the same number. Same battery, different marketing. I bought the cheaper one.
Dave

Typically the number stamped on the battery is a date code indicating year and month of manufacture.

I would buy the one that weighed the most. It may be lower amp/hours but most likely would last longer.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

That's exactly what I am implying. I would tend to favor DEKA if they still make all their own batteries. A phone call to Pennsylvania would resolve that. On average the construction therefore the life-span of car jar batteries has tumbled the last 10-years. But then again 30-years ago I found through trial-and-error RAMCAR batteries which were manfactured in the Philippines to best by far the best of made-in-USA starting batteries. This is exactly why I presently have very deep suspicion about the integrity of using recycled lead. The Ramcar Philippines battery used pure virgin lead and just beat the heck out of made in USA Ramcar batteries for number of warranty rejects. This involves thousands of batteries.

Deka is the sole USA OEM that has their own lead refinery. They may or may not use processes to render their recycled lead to a higher level of purity. If you want to yank on a battery manufacturer's family jewels than to stick your nose into the degree of purity of base stock lead. It costs a lot of money to recycle lead and a frightening amount of money to render it more pure than ninety eight and high points percent pure. To me this is a voodoo area and OEM engineers like nothing better than to ignore or divert questions away from the subject. Mexico recycles very little lead because the country is overflowing with lead mines. The LTH battery has had an excellent reputation warranty wise. It is curious that Optima batteries are made in Mexico and that ALL AGM manufacturers make a big deal out of their guaranteeing of using 100% virgin lead. None of this is coincidence. Most curious...

[Huntindog]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
It is hard to argue with prior success. The battery industry is consolidating and subletting production to contractors so frequently that it is impossible to determine who makes what battery and to what standards that battery is made for. So it is best to rely on prior experience or mass recommendations by a lot of people rather than by specification labels pasted on the side of a battery. A general rule when comparing cyclable batteries is to find out the amp hour rating then divide that by the weight of the battery a true deep cycle battery will have less cranking amps less ampere hours yet weigh heavier than a light duty or marine battery. this is a question of the thickness of the positive plates Thicker plates have less surface area and the smaller the surface area the less the cranking amps and the less the amp hour capacity of the battery will have.

If what you are saying is true... Then some one looking to replace batteries they have had for 5 plus years, would have no useful prior experience.... As the batteries they presently have are likely not going to be found under the same nameplate.

That would pretty much make it a crapshoot of whether to believe people on the net, or ones own prior experience. :?:@:B

[Wanderin_fool]

I agree with many products, you get what you pay for. But myself included, many people have voiced good luck with Everlast. I would probably go with the cheaper one since ratings appear very similar. If one is sturdier, does it really matter in a truck camper?

[Devocamper]

If you go to the interstate battery site which are also made by Johnson Control they call the interstate version of the maxx the pro line. Same group 29 which only Johnson makes anything in this group and the maxx and Pro lines have larger plates and better recharge cycles for what that is worth. I have been looking for new batteries all winter and decided to also go with the group 29 Wal-Mart maxx , I was going to go AGM but for the cost of those I can get two set of these .

[Canadian_Rainbi]

Ed_Gee wrote:
I can't offer you any opinion on which you should get, but I want to point out the rather devious marketing ploy they are using by providing Amp Hour specs at a measly 1amp draw. The Industry standard specification is a 20A draw. I suspect that for a 20A draw neither of these batteries would be rated at even 100 AH. Also makes it hard to compare to the other quality vendors who do rate their batteries at the 20A spec.

I believe the standard is the 20 hour rate, not 20 Amp rate.

[landyacht318]

The JGdarden site linked to 2 posts above updates their site at least every two months. I've no idea how accurate it is, and of course the battery on the shelves does not necessarily represent who made the battery 2 months prior, much less two years prior.

I've never had good luck cycling any Wal mart battery, but then again I knew less about properly charging batteries back then. One Wally World marine battery which was cycled shallowly for a year then got transferred to engine starting duties only, lasted 7 years, but the batteries I cycled shorted cells quickly.

I am not a 'kill it before the warranty expires' type of person. I don't want anything for nothing. I'll pay for what I believe is a better built battery, and make sure I can recharge it properly. The battery manufacturer recommendations are a good starting point.

Try and get a definitive answer from Johnson Controls as to recommended initial bulk current and Absorption voltage or float voltage, just don't hold your breath waiting for a response.

I might buy a Wally world starting battery, but am unlikely to buy their batteries which will be cycled unless they have a good weight to them.

But I try not to enter Wally worlds in the first place. Too many things in this world ignite the fires of my considerable misanthropic tendencies, and Walmart has that ability in excess.