New Battery from Sears

[Jimmy Buffett]

I bought two D34M blue tops a month ago at Batteries Plus. She tested them and they measured 1200 cca! Only rated at 800.

[skistud1]

I bought two D34M blue tops a month ago at Batteries Plus. She tested them and they measured 1200 cca! Only rated at 800.

Any reason why you went with the D34M vs. the stronger D31M? The $$ is about $16.

[Jimmy Buffett]

The D34M is strong enough, is $20 less each and they had them in stock.

[skistud1]

The D34M is strong enough, is $20 less each and they had them in stock.

Sam's Club only had the D34M in stock for $155 + 6% tax, not bad. I think I'll pony up the extra $20 for the D31M and see how the lift works on only 12 volts. If I want more lift speed I can always buy another blue top.

[Bill_AirJunky]

I'm at a point where I need to do something about my batteries. When I bought the boat 2 yrs ago, the PO had a Nautiqua Excel Deep Cycle & an Optima Blue Top with a Perko switch in it. Ironically the Optima is taking a dive.

So I've been doing some homework & the AGM batteries are the better batteries these days. I ran across the Sears Diehard Platinum PM2 AGM last night, $199 with a 3 yr swap warranty & another 100 months pro-rated. Not too bad. And their supposed to be the same as Oddysey's Extreme AGM batteries, made by Enersys.

I also looked into Deka's line of AGM. I can get a group 34 for like $10 less. And the warranty is a 1 yr swap, 5 - 10 yr pro-rated. So the fact that the Diehard is from Sears, tried & true, tough to imagine them going away any time soon. Pretty attractive if their good batteries.

Which is why I dug up a 2 yr old thread. I'm wondering how those have worked out for you.

Still not sure what I'm going to do..... replace both batteries or?? I understand I can get an isolator & run an AGM & wet cell together..... at least till the Excel dies & needs to be replaced by another AGM.

Thanks for any update you can throw out here.

I have researched the mess out of batteries here lately. I had pretty much sold myself on the Optima Blue Top D34M but then started calling around. I called Sears, as they are supposed to be an Optima dealer. They quit dealing them and now sell the Die Hard brand of AGM Battery, called Marine Platiunum AGM or something. It is exactly the same price as the Optima Blue (could not find any better than $189 around locally), supposed to outperform the O.B. by 40% according to the sales dude and has 800+ CCA and 135hr RC at 30a draw. Pretty competent and maybe a tad better than O.B.

Oh and the selling point for me is a 6 year warranty with the first 3 YEARS FULL REPLACEMENT! BAM! I bought me one.

Optima is 3 yr I think, with the first 18 mo. full replacement.

Heading down to the boat to slap this puppy in!

Just thought some of you might like another, seemingly "better" (on paper and warranty) option than Optima. Not blasting Optima, so no flames please, rather...the market is now wide open with all sorts of AGM batteries and this seems like a decent deal with a smoking warranty.

Later,

[DONTW8]

I've told the story previously where once an Optima Red Top has gone flat the battery life is no better than a conventional battery. I have gone away from the Optima's because they are so dagnab expensive. And I did not get longer life although they look cool.

Instead I have replaced my batteries in my Duramax and the Porsche with a conventional battery. The Duramax batteries I replaced at 6 years and 50,000 miles. No problems just decided it was time.

The Porsche battery was replaced after one year and 5000 miles. If you leave a 2006 Porsche in your warm garage over the winter without recharging it the alarm and computer systems will drain that baby flat and the battery is ruined. This year I made sure I drove around the block every 3 weeks or so through the winter.

In my boat and travel trailer I used a conventional battery but found a size and type that gave me the maximum rating statistics at a reasonable price. In those cases I had the room to go to a bigger size whereas in the Porsche and the Duramax I could only fit the original size.

In the boat I actually use a GM spec side terminal battery with 3/8" bolts rather than a designated marine battery. I've tended to replace the boat battery every 4 years or so just to be safe. Because of the severity of getting stranded in a boat I'd rather have a new battery every few years than an expensive older one.

[Bill_AirJunky]

Yea, thats my other option..... just get another wet cell deep cycle. I have them in battery boxes, bolted down. So it's not like their in the way or getting beat up. Would definitely be less expensive.

[Bobby Light]

Yea, thats my other option..... just get another wet cell deep cycle. I have them in battery boxes, bolted down. So it's not like their in the way or getting beat up. Would definitely be less expensive.

Bill I would just get a group 27 interstate marine battery.

[Pistol Pete]

I've got wet Interstates in every vehicle I own except the bike.

Could not be happier. Had an optima blue top in the boat that only lasted about 2 yrs. Never again.

[Lance B. Johnson]

I used to teach a class where students designed, built and raced an electric car against other schools. (not electrathon but kinda similar) A lot of schools used fancy looking batteries made from manufactures I have never really heard of.

We ran interstates that we pealed the stickers off of........it took about 3 seasons before the other schools caught on and then it was tougher for us to dominate.

Long story short........Interstate