Battery differences

With the varied interests and experiences of the member on this board I bet someone knows the answer to this question.

Is there any difference between automotive batteries? Is there a great difference between say the 72-month battery and the 36-month battery? Are you paying more money just for the longer warranty period? What is the difference between the batteries at Sprawl Mart and PepAdvanceZone?

I seem to recall mention years ago that there were only about three battery factories in the USA. Still true?

I can help a little. I used to work for a local NAPA, and then a mom-and-pop style store. We all got our batteries from the same warehouse. They were recycled cases (and often innards as well, just new posts/acid) and we'd have to sticker them up. The only difference between the 36 month and 72 month batteries we carried was the warranty.

I have real Optima dry-cells in everything I own now except the Crop Duster.

I can't say I believe there's much difference in any of them. I've been running the same lawn tractor battery in my car for the last 5 years or so and it's never left me stranded. It's light, small and it cheap.

FWIW, I bought a run of the mill car battery at the same time as the lawn mower battery. The lawn mower battery still starts the car, the "real" battery in my driver has been replaced since.

Pat wrote: I can't say I believe there's much difference in any of them. I've been running the same lawn tractor battery in my car for the last 5 years or so and it's never left me stranded. It's light, small and it cheap. FWIW, I bought a run of the mill car battery at the same time as the lawn mower battery. The lawn mower battery still starts the car, the "real" battery in my driver has been replaced since.

That's both funny and interesting.

I used to work at Autozone and there is a big difference between the Valucrap, the Duralast, and the Duralast Gold. Apart from a pretty large difference in CCA (which is easily verified), the Valucraft has a failure rate atleast 3x higher than the Duralast or Duralast Gold. The hicks rarely bought Optima's so I can't really compare them.

If you have a couple of absorbent glass mat, you can stick weld with them. I've seen it done. Granted, it didnt last too long, but that could be contributed to many factors. (Stick welded a shock mount on a gravel road up north)

I worked for a battery manufacturer (the largest in the country) and I was told premium batteries were built with more plates in them. The extra lead is really the only added material cost as everything else is relatively constant.The other thing to understand is that my employer built two dozen or more different brands in the same factories, so the fundamental difference between them is generally the amount of plates. The heaviest lead-acid battery for the buck is normally the best buy.