Sky high battery costs, and dropping warranties

I recently discovered that lead acid batteries have doubled in price AGAIN recently, and Autozone and O'Reilys have reduced their 7 year warranties to just 2 years on their best, most expensive batteries after doubling prices yet again. They first doubled them back in 2009 when China shut down all their renegade lead operations due to environmental issues, and China cut exports of lead and many precious metals in 2009.

I have not had to time to shop around further, not yet, like Walmart, to see if all the majors have done the same or not. But the batteries I was buying for $35 five years ago with 5-7 year warranties are now $120 with a 2 year warranty. With 7 vehicles (5 jeeps) in my family fleet, and some sitting around as spares, back ups, this is now an issue I will be paying much closer attention to for cost reasons!!! Price, warranty, and quality.

At one time I use to keep the spares vehicles charged with trickle charges using solar changes, so I did not need to start them frequently to keep the batteries from going bad.

I know many here use the hyper expensive Optimas, so they must have gone into orbit price wise?

This thread is for discussion of possible options, and ways to deal with this.

Sears sells Diehard Golds with a 3 year full replacement warranty from anywhere $100 to $135. We did the Pro Rata but are phasing that out now come April-May. What's left of old stock we are getting rid of so if you're lucky you might be able to pick up the 100 month on top of the 3 year. Just a thought. We also have stopped using Johnson Controls as our supplier and are now using East Penn batteries, all 100% made in the USA. The $220 AGM is made by Exide, just an FYI.

I was just looking for a battery to replace my old red-top Optima. I went to Batteries Plus but they no longer carry Optimas saying they are made in Mexico now and are not as good as they once were. I have read posts from others on this forum saying the same thing.

Now Batteries Plus has their own brand and they are not cheap. Their best battery, which they suggest is good alternative for the optima, is the X2 series. They wanted 235.00 for the battery for my XJ. I'll need a lot of confirmation from others that the battery is good before I would consider buying it. In the meantime, I don't know what else to replace the Optima with.

Any suggestions??

I just posted in our chapter section about how I picked up a sears platinum group 34 marine battery - its a rebranded Odyssey AGM type. The marine version is deep cycle with auxiliary posts, which is nice. Had it out on an overnight trail ride last Saturday and in the morning with the temperature in single digits the XJ fired right up.

Costs me full sticker ($220) since mine was fried and I needed it that day. But comes with a 4 year warranty IIRC.

haven't been there for a while, but I buy them from costco.

My middle-of-the-road Autozone battery (red lid) was $60 or $70 in '05. I replaced it this summer with another one, although the price is now $100. It lasted seven years, regardless of their warranty policy at the time. I just haven't ever seen the benefits of the high dollar batteries in a pavement pounder or mostly stock Jeep.

Just looked, dura last gold group 75 is 109with an 8yr warranty...

MaxxXJ said:

Just looked, Dura last gold group 75 is 109with an 8yr warranty...

Click to expand...

If you are referring to Autozone Duralast Gold (which is what I use and bought recently) They have reduced the warranty to 2 years, so said the counter help 2 weeks ago. This link below shows 2 years on the red top and 3 years on yellow top (so called Gold).

Where did you see 8 years?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/landing/page.jsp?name=batteries

I have never seen one of these before, Duracell Auto battery?

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/duracell-agm-automotive-battery-group-size-78dtagm/prod3590233.ip#spec

$80 in TN:

http://www.samsclub.com/sams/durace...=prod3590272&navAction=push&_requestid=178498

Group 75

I just bought an O'Rileys "Superstart Extreme" with 36mo-full/84mo-prorated, which is what their website is showing. And yeah, it's about double what I paid for the last lead-acid battery I bought. 'Doesn't surprise me that battery costs are going up. Between international geopolitical crap and our own EPA, I'm kind of surprised they're remotely affordable.

Jeff: There was an issue with a few Optimas when they first moved their factory(around three or four years ago), but they got that straightened out pretty quick and were OK about warrantying defectives. The current production is as good as anything they made in the past, just no longer made in the US. If the Batteries plus X2 is a high end AGM battery, 235.00 is about the cost of an Optima yellow-top, so that sounds about right.

Just from what I know about Walmart purchasing policies, I wouldn't get anything that was produced especially for Walmart, I don't care what brand name it carries.(I'm not a Walmart hater by the way.)

This is the one I have been using:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/parts/1987-Jeep-Cherokee-2WD/Battery/_/N-iib9qZacy27

Why was this thread moved to the Non-Tech/off topic area?

tbburg said:

I just bought an O'Rileys "Superstart Extreme" with 36mo-full/84mo-prorated, which is what their website is showing. And yeah, it's about double what I paid for the last lead-acid battery I bought.

Click to expand...

I see they have (or still show) different warranties, some prorated, some not, interesting!!

Ecomike said:

If you are referring to Autozone Duralast Gold (which is what I use and bought recently) They have reduced the warranty to 2 years, so said the counter help 2 weeks ago. This link below shows 2 years on the red top and 3 years on yellow top (so called Gold).

Where did you see 8 years?

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/landing/page.jsp?name=batteries

Click to expand...

I just used a random vehicle to find the battery size I was after




There ya have it... Pics to prove what I saw...

Thanks, I will contact them tomorrow and find out what the current warranty really is now.

oh my god.... i was thinking bs but i just check and your absolutely right! i bought a battery 6 months ago for $50 now its $99? WTF?!?!?!?! i have had an Odyssey and loved it and now im running optimas in my xj and tj with no problems but jesus h christo wtf happened with the prices?!?!?!?!?!

weird that the lawn and garden/ marine/ atv batteries are the same prices as they were.

I have the X2 AGM battery Jeff 97 was looking at in my Rubicon. It is a blue top. Works great winching. This vehicle sit a lot and seems to start all the time. I gave around 220 2 years ago. 3 year full replacement 8 year prorated.
The next one Ill get for my XJ is the Duration AGM from Farm and Fleet. They run 115 to 140 3 year full 8 year prorated. Seem like a fair deal.
Now For a wet battery Id have no hesitation getting an Interstate.

Ron

My XJ is on it's second Farm and Fleet battery and I bought the '85 Lebaron Turbo as a first car that had one of their batteries in it. The one in my Lebaron lasted about 7 years (nearly till the car itself died!) as did the last one in my XJ that I replaced last November. When it comes time to put a new battery in my 200, that will probably get it's own Farm and Fleet battery.

It's all Obama and the EPA's fault.

At least thats what XCM told me.