Interstate, Johnson Controls, and East Penn manufactures some of the Batteries sold under the Advanced/Car Quest label

http://www.carquestprofessionals.com/batteries/Battery-Spec-Sheet.pdf

Lead Acid auto Batteries are now so light that it is impairing their service life, in my opinion.

There are much better chargers and diagnostic meters for evaluating batteries.

https://www.pulsetech.net/xc100-p-xtreme-charge-12v-battery-maintenance-charger-desulfator.html/

https://www.amazon.com/Associated-Equipm...uct_top?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/East-Penn-Tempera...ctrolyte+tester

To the bests of my knowledge Interstate does not manufacture any batteries. They are all built to their specs by others, mostly Johnson Controls.

Just because a company manufactures a battery, tire or whatever is no assurance that it is the same quality. Could be better, could be worse.

Bill

As said above, I`m pretty sure Interstate doesn`t manufacture any batteries. The longest lasting batteries for me have been OEM ones that came in the car. Any replacements never seem to last as long.

I agree. I wonder if they don't make them a little better to keep from having damage to the electronics from low voltage during the warranty.

Nonsense. The battery voltage is determined by the chemical composition of the battery components.

Weight? Prove it. This is just another irresponsible version of "the sky is falling!" This is old fogyism at its best.
"The world is going to Hell in a handbasket!"
This has been spoken as long as there have been new generations coming along.

I've been buying batteries for 45 years. The weight of a top line 27F has stayed pretty constant over the years. As battery construction becomes more advanced, auto manufacturers have been specifying smaller batteries to save weight which will improve the fuel economy.

STILL, battery manufacturers have to manufacture product that meets the automakers' specifications.
Battery manufacturers have to produce a good product or word of mouth will kill them.
Auto shops don't want bad batteries that come back to the shop
There are other magazines than Consumers' Reports who periodically test batteries.
As much as you'd like to not believe it, there are Truth in Advertising laws.
There are greedy lawyer groups trolling for new Class Action Suits.

Way back in the day, say 1975, one could expect 5 years of life from a battery. Exceptional ones would last seven. That is still true today. Battery life is on a bell shaped curve. Some of the long life stories from here obviously represent cases on the outer limits of the bell shaped curve.

Generally any "non open" lead acid battery, you can pop the caps off . . . always, always, make sure the electrolyte level is to bottom of the top hole. I have always done this and used distilled water for top up . . . AND . . . keep the battery charged (maintainer/tender) . . . or charge it manually and remove the charger . . . I have original OE batteries in my 02 cummins, in my 04 Xfire, and my 06 Magnum . . . all check out great ! . . . it is the heat and lack of electrolyte that will kill a battery, along with the low charge state . . .

Battery voltage is determined by the number of cells.

Voltage per cell depends on
amount of either Antimony or Calcium in the lead alloy,
and also the specific gravity of the electrolyte (long life stationary batteries generally lower sg) and today either
traditional wet or
Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM)

Voltage per cell at full charge is actually rather tricky to determine

I had to replace the original battery in our 04 PT Cruiser last year. I had to replace the battery in the coupe in 2016, because one of the cells got a hole melted into the bottom of it, it was 4 years old. I have no idea what battery is in my 93 Dakota, we put together 3 new to us rides in the past couple of years, and the mostly winter use Dakota battery was an easy target to hijack.

My luck with interstate batteries has not been so good, I won't be buying a new battery from them.

I get my batteries from our local Farm & Fleet store, and its their store brand battery line. I usually buy the 5 year batteries, and often end up on the extreme side of the bell curve. I'll be buying a new Farm & Fleet 5 year battery for the new hot rod next spring. Gene

original battery in the 2002 1500 I finally replaced in 2014, by the date sticker on it that battery was almost 13 years old, during the first cold period in fall of 2014 it cranked over slower... it was replaced the next day. No idea who made it for chrysler, no replacement batteries have ever lasted like the OEM. I added water to that battery twice over the years.

the OEM battery deal has been a mystery. I've noted at work in the past that the batteries that new Chryslers were born with often lasted much longer than the "Mopar" replacement batteries. For years these have been Interstate, but our parts manager just told me last week they had lost the contract. Exide had it before them.

factory and service parts often have different suppliers or different specifications.

My Son is sold on interstate batteries. I always get a marine battery with at least 800 cold cranking amps. The marine batteries always last me a long time. Plus the extra nutted connectors come in handy on top posts.

OEM batteries are made better and will typically last around 6-7 years from what I have seen.
Batteries are made different than they used to be. Instead of having a solid lead sheet they have really thin lead foil that wraps around a paper insulator many times around. The problem is these are much more likely to flake and the deposits create a short in the bottom of the battery.
My battery of choice is Deka. I have never had one that lasted less than 5 years, and I have had many of them. You can keep those wal mart batteries. Only last a couple years tops.

I don't even know where to start, so I won't.

JC Penney battery and a Schlitz

I had a battery that was ten years old and still going strong up until I replaced it late last summer. They usually fail when the weather changes and I'd rather replace it before it dies cuz you know it's not going to quit in a convenient location.

I also know of another battery that was close to 10 years old that was replaced before the car was used on a long road trip. Figured it was old enough, and they more than got their money's worth out of it.

I have an Interstate battery in use right now and so far it's fine.

So the actual manufacturers of auto batteries with USA plants are
Johnson Controls, Exide, East Penn and Decca?

Trojan concentrates on industrial batteries only?

Yuasa concentrates on SLA batteries only?

I switched to Optima gel cell batteries after 2 incidences that destroyed paint. I have had great luck with them, my truck however just sits and I've warrantied it's Optima battery 2x's in the last 2 years. Then within a week of the truck I had to buy a new optima for the Cuda, that one was about 10 years old, and so was the one it once it replaced many years ago.

Napa's policy is the 3 year warranty starts over upon replacement. I though that was an optima thing and got the cuda's battery at an Autozone. Apparently they don't have the same policy?



Both of my kids 2013 Darts batteries were warrantied at just about 3 years