If the battery has only a one year warranty, it's not much of a battery,
and I would expect it to fail at or soon after the expiration of that
warranty.  So, for $30 or $40 more you could have gotten a five or more
year battery, which if not abused would in fact last the five years
warranted.  Hmmmmm.............. .  Dave MC

On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 11:47 PM, Doug Noganav wrote:

> Thanks, good info.
> I ended up at wally's because it was only $65 for the group 41 750cca.
> Its
> their basic battery with only 1 year replacement.
>
> You can tell when you lift it up that its not super heavy like some of
> the
> higher warranty group 41s.
>
> I have found most batteries to be good as long as you do not do what I
> did
> to my old one and run it flat with a radio left drawing. It created a
> bad
> cell according to AAA who came out and tested it. After that it would
> not
> hold a charge well.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Poppie Jagersand" To: Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2009 7:12 PM
> Subject: Re: Battery question
>
>
> The battery question invariably brings up strong opinions about
> different
> brands. Some swear by Diehard, some Interstate, some Optima etc...
>
> In reality the differences are not that great. While there are many
> brand
> names printed on batteries there are only a few manufacturers. If you
> buy a
> battery in North America with some 90% probability it is made by
> Johnson
> Control, GNB or Excide. I've had $200 Optima batteries, and $50
> Walmart
> batteries, Delco, Diehard, Interstate etc. They all last comparably
> long for
> me. Consumer reports buys loads of batteries and does a test about
> once a
> year. Winners vary between the years and types of batteries,
> suggesting that
> there is no particular manufacturer that is superior to the others.
>
> More important is to check that you get a fresh battery. Like milk
> they are
> date stamped and go bad if too old...
> Some have a clear text manufacturing date, others a code. A, B, C, D
> etc is
> Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr etc. 9 or 09 would be the year. The date stamp is
> often
> on a round sticker. Try to find a battery as fresh as possible, and
> not
> older than 6mo. You can also check with a voltmeter. The battery
> should be
> 12.7V Anything below 12.5 would be suspect.
>
> Martin
>
> --- On Sun, 10/18/09, Allan Streib  wrote:
>
>> From: Allan Streib Subject: Re: Battery question
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Received: Sunday, October 18, 2009, 5:29 PM
>> Doug Noganav writes:
>>
>>> Anybody know the least expensive battery available for
>> the vanagon?
>>>
>>> Wally world still the cheapest?
>>>
>>> It looked like group 42 might also work in the box,
>> not sure it the 42 is any cheaper than 41.
>>>
>>> looking for best deal
>>
>> Best deal as in you are selling the van and want to put the
>> absolute
>> cheapest battery in you can? Yeah it'll probably be
>> Wal-Mart.
>>
>> Best deal in that you can start the van on a cold winter
>> morning? I'd
>> go with Interstate. They have never let me down.
>>
>> Allan
>> --
>> 1991 Vanagon GL
>>
>
>
>
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