Car battery?

costco or cdn tire

nasa25 wrote: ↑ costco or cdn tire

@PFC353 wants a site to buy a car battery from

Costco.ca has Exide Edge AGM Car Batteries
https://www.costco.ca/Exide-Edge-AGM-Ca ... 16825.html

afaik, Canadian Tire site does not allow you to buy car batteries online

jackrabbit000 wrote: ↑ Costco's Kirkland battery is pretty good.

These are only available at in Costco warehouses, not available on Costco.ca
@PFC353 wants a site to buy a battery from

tk1000 wrote: ↑ @PFC353 wants a site to buy a car battery from

Costco.ca has Exide Edge AGM Car Batteries
https://www.costco.ca/Exide-Edge-AGM-Ca ... 16825.html

afaik, Canadian Tire site does not allow you to buy car batteries online

tk1000 wrote: ↑ These are only available at in Costco warehouses, not available on Costco.ca
@PFC353 wants a site to buy a battery from

You can't buy that battery from Costco.ca either...

BeaverLiquor wrote: ↑ You can't buy that battery from Costco.ca either...

You can buy Exide Edge AGM Car Batteries from Costco.ca

https://www.costco.ca/Exide-Edge-AGM-Ca ... 16825.html

tk1000 wrote: ↑ You can buy Exide Edge AGM Car Batteries from Costco.ca

https://www.costco.ca/Exide-Edge-AGM-Ca ... 16825.html

I'm on mobile and all that it does is send me to the Exide site to find the size for my car.

Why do you want to buy it online?

And Napa allows you to order online but pick-up in store.

BeaverLiquor wrote: ↑ I'm on mobile and all that it does is send me to the Exide site to find the size for my car.

I am on desktop, Costco.ca sends me to https://apps.exide.com/ca/en/product-so ... ab-en.aspx
After I chose the battery and click on the order button, the battery is shown on Costco.ca and can be added to the cart for purchase

Op should just go in store and buy it

I've never seen an Exide AGM in store at Costco.
You can order online and get it delivered.
I ordered one (boat AGM) and it was delivered by UPS.

site doesn't automatically mean website.
I would go to a costco store and buy it there

Best to buy in store as you can trade in the old battery for the core charge. Partsource is another good place to buy.

Buy the highest CCA battery that will fit your battery compartment or even upgrade base if there is more room. Helps during cold winter starts.

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Do you guys use smart trickle charger like Battery Tender?

Does it really help prolong battery life if done say once a month and maybe biweekly during winter?

I know the issue is you can get stuck with a dead battery coming home from else's since the charge in the morning will mask a soon to be dead battery's condition.

alanbrenton wrote: ↑ Buy the highest CCA battery that will fit your battery compartment or even upgrade base if there is more room. Helps during cold winter starts.

I would go for manufacturer (ie. buy Johnson Controls) over CCA any day if you are worried. CCAs are typically rated when the battery is new and does not take into account aging or the speed at which it ages. Example - two batteries having 600 CCA and 500 CCA when new might end up in the same spot after 3 years or even the 600 CCA might be lower.

alanbrenton wrote: ↑ Do you guys use smart trickle charger like Battery Tender?

Does it really help prolong battery life if done say once a month and maybe biweekly during winter?

I know the issue is you can get stuck with a dead battery coming home from else's since the charge in the morning will mask a soon to be dead battery's condition.

Flooded lead acid batteries (which 99% of the car batteries are) like to be fully charged and used often to prevent/reverse sulfation and stratification of the acid. Unfortunately, most cars (ie 95%) do a poor job in keeping the battery fully charged - they do bulk charging which typically takes the battery to 80-85% of capacity but don't have the systems in place to go to 100%. Also, if you let the car sit for a while with partially charged battery, sulfation starts occurring and the longer it sits in that state, not only is there more sulfation but the sulfation becomes harder to reverse.

Trickle chargers are great to keep a battery at X condition over long periods of time. What you want is a smart charger which will go through the 4 stages of charging - bulk, absorption, equalization, and trickle - which will give the battery a 100% charge and address some of the stratification issues as well.

And one more thing, many (ie 90+%) of the so called maintenance free batteries require semi-annual maintenance of checking and topping off of fluid levels (ie. adding distilled water). It's a 5 minute exercise of popping off the vent lids (and they do pop-off), checking to see if the fluid level is sufficient, and then topping it off if it isn't.

If you don't top off the fluid levels and you let the levels drop so that the top of the plates are exposed, the exposed portions of the plate will break down causing a permanent lost of capacity which will lead to premature death of the battery. This is probably the number 1 thing that causes many of the batteries to be replaced early.

Good discussion.

^ would debate some of the above. AGM batteries are probably about 15% of the domestic market now (more like 50% in Europe) mainly because of stop-start technology in many newer cars.

German automakers with intelligent alternator control migrated away from wet cell batteries several years ago.

Johnson Controls seem to be investing a lot in new AGM battery plants in countries where the changeover is lagging (China, U.S.) and the higher retail price of these batteries clearly justifies their investment.

re. topping off a "maintenance-free" wet cell battery - by no means all of them have "sealed" vent caps that can be pried off. Even after peeling off large decals, some batteries don't have removable caps (or ganged vent covers).

Especially the bigger and more expensive ones in European sizes. You would have to drill holes to be able to add water, or cut off the entire top, so not recommended.

Agree about sulfation being exacerbated by not using a car on a daily basis and for decent distances, but not sure low electrolyte level is likely the main cause of premature failure - except maybe in very hot climates.

A persistent low state of charge is the main killer in most instances as you referenced first. But not all batteries are created equal, and they can fail in a number of ways (plates collapsing, post seal failure, cracked case, etc.)

Even with new cars having stop/start technology, the number of new cars introduced into the existing fleet of cars is relatively small if you take into the account the number in the existing fleet. In addition, not all manufacturers use AGM batteries in their stop-start equipped vehicles. Many battery manufacturers (especially in Japan) have created a 'stop-start' battery especially for hybrids which isn't an AGM but a combination of a normal and a deep cycle battery using standard flooded lead acid batteries in order to keep the cost down as well as have a specialized battery so that you have to go to the dealer. An AGM battery can be used in those situation but the car doesn't come equipped with one.

Note - my numbers were approximations and even then, none of the numbers presented was representative of 100% of the population.

As far as the level of electrolyte, think of it as the root cause of the failure rather than the initial cause. Low electrolyte levels may cause plates to be exposed to air which in turn causes corrosion on the plates which may cause pre-mature plate failure/collapse. Low electrolyte levels may cause the battery to be hotter during recharge cycles as the reaction can only happen in the presence of the electrolyte and a low electrolyte level will concentrate the area where the reaction can occur resulting in more of a reaction in a smaller space as well as it being harder to dissipate the heat. A hotter battery may cause plastics to fail or post seals to crack....

All excellent summaries. Without getting too complicated, car batteries do not take well to being deep cycled. Sulfation slowly starts after 24 hours of not being started in hot weather. If you've left lights on and drained the battery completely you've just shortened the life of that battery by 6-12 months. If you start your car just once a week expect to be replacing the battery every 3-4 years. If you want a healthy battery, start it every day and drive it for 15-25 minutes. If you're leaving for more a week or weeks at a time disconnect the negative terminal or put it on a tender or you will also be replacing batteries every 4 years. All you need is 0.75 amps tender Junior (slow charge always better than fast) connect and forget about it and the battery can last a decade. My summer car that gets driven once or twice/week or less is connected whenever it isn't getting used battery is approaching 8 years old and still strong because it's never allowed to discharge.