Consumer Reports has a couple rated as Best Buys. The article say they put more emphasis on longevity than other factors. The north designation means they're good for cold climates. Everstart Maxx-24FN (north). $90 Everstart Maxx-35N. (north). $90
Many things are made by one or two companies. As you mentioned all that is different is the label and price. Sometimes one company will make several items of different qualities. AS the old Sears catalog, good, better, best.
Looking it up seems that Johnson Controls or a sell off of the company makes many brands. Then the ones sold at Autozone and Advanced may be made by several companies.
One never knows what company actually makes things any more. Sort of like the Jeeps used to be. You had to know almost what hour of the day the Jeep was made to tell what parts were in it at the time.
It is usually in the fine print on the label. Johnson Controls seems to be the most prevalent. Union Carbide is the other big US manufacturer. Other than OEM supplied batteries on new foreign cars, that is usually what you see.
On Thu, 4 Nov 2021 21:06:24 -0400, Ed Pawlowski snipped-for-privacy@snet.xxx wrote:
It is NOT just having the cables reach. The reason for "reversed" batteries is to keep the live side as far away as possible from grounded items that could contact the postive and short. (and in many cases so that if someone takes the live off first there is little danger of shorting the wrench to ground) It also helps prevent the battery shorting in a colission as the grounded terminal is closest to the parts most likely to get pushed to the battery (inner fender) and the postsa are farthest from the rad saddle which is also quite likely to get pushed back against the battery. On some cars even the cross bracing on the bottom of the hood is designed so it is not over the positive terminal. "Generally" a battery is installed with the posts at the back with the ground to the outside - so whether right or left battery mounting will "require" opposite polarity. If the battery is in long-ways the positive is to the back and the terminals are towards the center of the battery (and on SOME dual battery setups on pickup trucks they specified 2 different batteries - with a 27 on one side and a 27F on the other - one on either side of the engine bay) There ARE exceptions to this of course - I've seen cars where the ground was closest to the engine and the live was closest to the (plastic) inner fender which allowed the shortest routing of the ground to the engine, and the shortest live to the starter solenoid and fusebox/batery junction.
All tnhis to say there is GENERALLY a solid engineering reason for the battery configuration specified for the vehicle and it is USUALLY a very good decision to stay with the specified configuration - for numerous reasons.
battery business since May of 2019. They sold the battery dividion to Brookfield Partners (a Bermuda company headquartered in Montreal Canada) and it is now known as Clarios, headquartered in Glendale / Milwaukee. They produce automotive batteries in Kernsville North Caolina as well as in Mexico, Saudi Arabia (51% owner of Middle East Batteries- which prduces AC Delco batteries) and China. (may be other plants but I am not aware of them)
ACDelco closed their North American battery production plants in Anaheim Ca, Olathe Kansas,and New Brunswick New Jersey in about 1994. They may still be operating a plant / plants in Mexico - I am not sure.
East Penn / Deka is another (large pand prominent) north american supplier of automotive lead acid batteries - under MANY third party names. It is a privately held, family owned, battery producer in Berks County Pa - They have recently expanded to Corydon Iowa and employ over 10.500 people
Crown in Freemont Ohio also builds lead acif batteries - mostly deep cycle/marine/ondustrial - along with TrojanC&D
Exide ESB located in Milton Georgia with a plant in Vernon California is now owned by Atlas Holdings as Stryten Manufacturing withit's recycling business operating as Element Resources, with MOST oftheir North American production and recycling facilities slosed down
If you want the longest life out of the battery, you would provide it a benefit by buying an intelligent charger and topping it off now and then.
You and me both. I didn't even change out the last two new batteries on our cars - let the breakdown service do the one on my wife's car and jump started mine when the battery failed, drove to the battery supply, and let them fit it.
I didn't know that. Thanks.
<snip>
Many years ago when I was deployed overseas, my wife took her car to a local Pep Boys for a battery replacement. Months later when I got back, I noticed that they had needed to install about a 6" extension to the positive cable to make it reach, so I dropped by the shop to ask about it.
Their responses, in order:
Aarrgh!
Or do what I did. I bought AGM batteries for the pickup and the Taurus (had to modify the hold-down on the Taurus) and kept the battery when I sold the Taurus. Still havet the one in theRanger and the "spare" will go into the Kia when the OEM one finally croaks
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