Battery Lesson of The Day lol

Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
All my life in powersports (30+ years) I've always said and stuck by this saying, don't buy cheap batteries! Well, times are really tough for me right now and I went against my own advice. I bought a Kimpex battery for my ATV and a Magnatron for my GP760. The GP battery was bought in August, the ATV battery in the end of November. Both machines rarely got used in that time span. The ATV actually never left the house for trail rides, just in and out of the garage, the ski, just enough to get it started and dial in the carbs after rebuild kits went in. Tried to start the ski yesterday because it has to go up for sale thanks to the current situation we're all going through with this dam scamdemic. So I puts the battery in and gives it a try...click click click :mad: Pull the battery back out, charged and load tested it yesterday, failed. 4 months old, used to start the ski probably a dozen times at the absolute most. The ATV battery, maybe 6 weeks old, I goes to start the wheeler click click click :mad: ...pull it, charge it, load test it...failed...dammit!! So here I am browsing around a small town with nothing to do for another 3 hours while the dealer fills and charges my replacement Yuasa. I could do that myself but "it voids warranty if I do", on top of the added expense for the Yuasa I got to travel this one hour each way trip...again...adding to the fuel cost I currently can't afford. The $200 Yuasa just became a $320 battery :mad: ...should have just bought the Yuasa in the first place. Hindsight is 20/20, if you're not going to need small batteries for freestyle or ATV racing, just get the OEM replacement Yuasa. Do it right and do it once. My original Yuasa in the wheeler lasted from 2015 until 6 weeks ago, my last Yuasa ski battery in my SuperJet lasted 7 years. I'll never argue with my gut instinct again lol
 
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Okoblowji

Okoblowji

Location
South Dakota
I finished my second season running Sigmas Tek YTX20 batteries in 2 skis. One of them running total loss Zeel. No issues at all. They are physically smaller than the Yuasa YTX20. Maybe I've just gotten lucky but for $50 I'm happy and can afford a spare to keep on hand. However, I won't argue the quality and life expectancy of the Yuasa.
 
Big Kahuna

Big Kahuna

Administrator
Location
Tuscaloosa, AL
I made the mistake years ago of using the Batteris Plus AGM batteries. Had one for my SJ. Lasted 6 months. Took it back, did not have the receipt, but they took my info on their computer at time of purchase. "Sorry, I do not find any record of you in our system." Ok, fine, will, the battery is your private label, and it has the date stickers on it from when it was purchased and the warranty was listed on the label........... "Sorry"......... Did not even leave the bad battery with them. Not stepped foot in there since. Ran Powersonic (Same as old Jetworks battery) then DEKA ETX16 ever since. 2nd Deka since 2012 or so.
 
Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
I've made my mistakes in this department before lol. I haven't always stayed with Yuasa when in tough times but I have always paid the piper dearly for my decisions lol. I bought a wallymart battery for my SuperJet once...and only once lol. It lasted 3 rides then folded, left me stranded floating in the lake 200 yards away from shore. It was windy enough that every time I made progress swimming my ski in pulling it by the rope, the wind would pick up a gust and drag us both back out lol. I'm happy it was a really nice summer day because I was stuck out there floating for 2-1/2 hours until a boat happened to poke up over the wave tops lol
 
Big Kahuna

Big Kahuna

Administrator
Location
Tuscaloosa, AL
Pro-pulsion said:
I've made my mistakes in this department before lol. I haven't always stayed with Yuasa when in tough times but I have always paid the piper dearly for my decisions lol. I bought a wallymart battery for my SuperJet once...and only once lol. It lasted 3 rides then folded, left me stranded floating in the lake 200 yards away from shore. It was windy enough that every time I made progress swimming my ski in pulling it by the rope, the wind would pick up a gust and drag us both back out lol. I'm happy it was a really nice summer day because I was stuck out there floating for 2-1/2 hours until a boat happened to poke up over the wave tops lol
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I ran them in my SXR. They had a nice AGM battery 20 size for the Kawi. Wait, I bought one to replace another batteries plus battery that died (It lasted 2 years I think!)
 
Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
I've heard mixed emotions over Deka. Up here a Deka 16 battery I assume is in the range of $340. Last time I priced one at the only Marina I could find that sold them, it was maybe 2013-2014, when I bought my last Yuasa anyway, the price then was $289 or there about. At that time my Yuasa was selling for about $150
 
Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
Nah, we have Napa, Auto Parts Center (APC), CarQuest and I think there's one more that isn't like a hardware store with auto parts included like Canadian Tire. Canadian Tire batteries are made by Exide...terrrrible quality lol. I've killed several of those in less than a few years on all fronts, truck, ski, ATV...none of their batteries are good and their "prorated warranty" is a laughing stock. It's only good if you need to replace it within the first year of manufacturer warranty. After that, might as well just buy new again. Costco batteries suck as well. They're made by Johnson Controls, garbage. I got 3 years out of my truck battery from Costco. Now it will only have Interstate in it. The original Toyota one didn't last all that much better over the Costco one either but this Interstate has been going strong for a few years now.
 
C

Chad24384

Location
Granite Falls, Wa
I know in regular batteries not sure about powersports, napas high end, oreillys high end, and advance (cq) are all made by East Penn manufacturing (aka deka). If you see anything about made in the USA, it's probably east Penn's stuff. If it says anything about Pennsylvania on it it is 100%... they are the only lead smelter still allowed in the USA for new and/or recycled lead. That's been my dead giveaway for years. We only run deka batteries in our fleet.
 
WFO Speedracer

WFO Speedracer

A lifetime ban is like a lifetime warranty !
Location
Alabama
I have used all kinds of batteries over the years everything from Superior brand , INTERSTATE lead acid to , WSM, Deka AGM, the best bang for the buck so far has been Chrome batteries, I have been selling them for about five years and in that time I may have replaced three. I replaced DEKAS like they were going out of style, INTERSTATE held up really well also but they are expensive.
 
OCD Solutions

OCD Solutions

Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
Location
Rentz, GA
I went to crank my 18 month old Honda EU3000i generator last weekend and it was stone cold dead. I pulled the Yuasa YTX10S battery and found it was toast.

So, does it really matter if you buy the Yuasa or a cheaper model? Either will fail if you don’t keep them fully charged.
 
Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
Well, I'd say if it wasn't given any charge after almost 2 years then yeah any battery won't be happy about that lol. But the proof is in the pudding when you get 2-4 months with run times and charges and it still bites the bullet.
 
X

X2Kid

Location
Canberra, Australia.
Leave batteries with the negative disconnected to eliminate any chance of a parasitic draw (and subsequent battery-killing total discharge). I’ve run Deka’s for years with no issues.
 
Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
My ski batteries always get put in the house for winter storage and charged every month or two. My ATV battery never got disconnected and lived in the ATV ready to go always, it lived for 6 years that way getting charged when the I would go for trail rides. That's why I will always stick to the original Yuasa from now on.
 
Pro-pulsion

Pro-pulsion

Location
Ontario, Canada
Sanoman said:
How many company’s actually make batteries
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There's probably not a lot, certainly a few but it's not so much about who makes it as it is about the specs the selling company requires. When I worked in the aluminum foundry we would make several grades of alloy, depending on the recipe and application the alloy could be ultra soft, super pure aluminum only, commercial pure aluminum only, 7000 series which is extremely hard and highly durable to very special short lived alloys. Case in point, we made alloy logs about 10" diameter by 12' long for a company that made batteries. The batteries were designed to completely dissolve by the time their rapid discharge was spent. Something about the alloy recipe that made them dissipate that way, they could have wanted them to be very long lived batteries if they chose a different alloy but this the level of life span they designed into them. I won't go into detail on whom was the company and for what purpose, that's irrelevant but it's about the point that anyone can make them, it's the retail company whom is the customer to the manufacturing plant that says how good the quality has to be.
 
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