in the fall of 2019 i bought a 2004 Buick ,i figured it would need a battery soon?,i looked at it in its under the back seat home,it was dated 2011,as of today its still going strong!!,its a advance auto model
either 100 or 78,ive forgot which, its vents are on the ends and go to the outside through the floorboards,i havent took a close look in a while but if its a AGM would it have vents?

Mine usually last around 7 years, though I have one going on 11.
It's not in the car any more but I use it as a spare, believe it or not.
Doesn't matter if they're lead/acid or Optima in my case.
I use battery tenders on them.

I think it depends on use, back when they locked us all down in 2020 a lot of cars ended up sitting and their batteries died, including mine that was only 5 yrs old. All it took was to stop being used daily.

Yes, it does.

The Auto Zone battery in my 55 Dodge truck has been there 9 years and still going strong.

It would probably test bad if you were to put a load on it. Its probably a 700-800CCA but the car likely only takes 300cca or so to actually start up. Also the fact that it is under the back seat helps a ton, its perfectly clean and sees more consistent temperatures that way, batteries being out of the engine compartment helps battery life a fair amount.

I work in the battery business and its not uncommon to see remote mount batteries be 6-8 years old sometimes more. How far and how often the car is driven all play into battery life.

The oldest stuff I see usually is in old tractors. Where someone thought that little 30HP diesel needed 800CCA when it really needs like 125CCA and one compression stroke to start, the battery can test bad per its rated CCA for ages before it actually won't start the tractor lol.

Not n the sense of an old school battery with caps on it. Generally, the vents on an AGM are flush. You will see round circles in the top and those are only overpressure vents. If they pop your battery is pretty much wasted.

You can see the vents in this battery

https://www.walmart.com/ip/VMAX-XTR...ttery-for-Minn-Kota-Traxxis-45/726955426

Knock on wood, 2006 Dodge truck still has one of the original bats, and I have a tester to check it. Bought that tester ($18) to check junk yard 12 volt batteries for my golf cart, batterys are $26

Ok . . . so maybe I am the outlier here . . . I have the FACTORY batteries in my 2002 Cummins ! Both still show the 'green" eye, and test good ! . . . I have always made sure to check the fluid level and top up with distilled water. Also, have had battery maintainer on then when I am not driving the truck. I generally only use the truck in the spring/summer/fall, and even then it is for towing the travel trailer or the car trailer . . . it sits with the battery maintainer on there - I do check to make sure all is good, and have changed battery maintainers over the years. I also have the factory battery in my 2004 Crossfire & 2006 Magnum. Yup, when not in use, I put battery maintainer on them.

So, 20 years from original batteries . . . never heard of, but I can prove it can be done !

Like anything, it is how it gets utilized, maintained . . . figure if I can pop caps off to check fluid level, then I check it !

Best of luck to all !

Cheers

Batteries have date codes stamped on them, sometimes it's a sticker.

https://batteryglobe.com/how-to-read-car-battery-date-codes/

Post pictures.

Just replaced the Optima red-top in the RoadRunner, originally installed in 2009...
13 years isn't too bad..

Just my $0.02...

Maintenance and upkeep sure help get longer battery life, but I'm betting its as much the individual battery as it is the care it has received. I don't do battery tenders, don't want to burn down my garage because of them.

I've had batteries last 13+ years, and I've had a few of them fail in 6 months. I suspect the average battery life here is 7-8 years. I don't think the "newer" batteries (made in the last 10 years) last as long as the older batteries did, but really, I have no way to prove that either way. I have 3 vehicles, as long as all 3 vehicles don't kill a battery the same year, I'm a pretty happy guy. Over the years there used to be some brands of batteries that just didn't hold up well, and I avoided them like a plague. These days, I'm not so sure there is much differences in the battery brands, just some extra cost for some big brand names.

In 1984 I visited a Johnson Controls plant in South Carolina and they produced car batteries. While walking down the assembly lines I saw at least 10 different brands including Die Hard and Insterstate, different cases but the same internals...

Had to replace the battery in my home back up generator today. Still showed 13.2 but didn’t have the amp to crank the engine. The old one was Installed 6 Nov 2016. Paid around $80 for the old one. New one cost $219 today. Identical battery.

Not always, in the mid 1960's Dad worked for ESB (now Exide) in Kansas City. ESB was also OEM for the local Ford plant. One day he overheard a worker carping (he used much saltier language) about why such an inferior car company needed such a superior battery. This was just after tar tops ended, batteries were rated by amp hours, not this nutty cranking amps stuff, and how many lead plates they could cram into a case.

By the mid 1970's I worked for JC Penny in the auto center when they introduced the JC Penny lifetime battery. Dad is STILL getting freebies from Firestone. Anyway, there were two vendors, AC/Delco (flat top) and Gould (two big rectangular caps) We had FAR less troubles (replacements) with the AC Delcos. I gave up on Johnson Control products, Interstate, Optima, Duramax Gold and have been using AGM AC Delco Professional series of late. Pretty well satisfied with the AC Delco products. Corrosion and warranty issues just don't exist anymore. 2¢

Anything here (depths of HE77 in the desert SW) over two years and you’re on borrowed time for the most part. I finally retired the 11 year old Optima blue top. It was in the boat during the summer and racecar trailer during the winter for cool down on the car and winch duty. It fails the load test but still starts the boat fine. Optima red top on my daily driver Jeep xj is a 2013. No idea why it’s still alive…. It’s hotter n hellfire under that hood in the summer!

Depends on the climate and if you keep the car inside or outside. Mild climate and car kept in a garage the battery can last 20 years. Park the car outside in super cold weather and you might only get 5 years out of a battery.

Battery Tenders do have issues...
I had 1 that shorted out and melted the case...
I took a picture and sent a message back to their corporate headquarters, but they didn't want the unit returned but they did sent me a replacement.
But a week later, their head of engineering called me and requested I see back the defective unit for their inspection and failure analysis...
Too late it was already tossed into the dumpster.
Note that 1 drawback of a battery tender that it does not address sulphate buildup which adds resistance and can destroy a unit.
So I started using a battery minder product, that sends a high voltage spike every 5 seconds to burn off the sulphate buildup.
5 years later using the battery minder, to date no problems and unit remains cool....

Just my $0.02...

I have read more than once that OEM “Tractor Batteries” last longer in service because they can be heavier with thicker lead plates than what automakers demand solely for EPA fuel economy reasons, but do not have personal experience.

When I started in mining in the 1970s the huge, expensive lead acid batteries which powered “Ram Car” underground coal haulers had a fierce competition between suppliers for “more charge cycles”. Company field reps would visit and “educate” on proper practice.
These were “tar tops” and you could test and change out individual 2 volt cells.
Quality of replacement water was a big deal.
Variable rate current charging was preferred, fast at first, slow near last.
There were special 2 volt chargers to “bring back” individual cells that were weak.

The knowledge of how to make lead acid batteries last a long time has been around at least 40 years,
but has been ignored to gain 0.1 MPG on the EPA test.

I think my PulseTech Xtreme Charge unit extended the life of my last battery.
Its “charge acceptance” battery level testing method seems better than just voltage measurement.
I like to use a Kill-A-Watt meter with it so I can see the watts decline as the battery reaches full charge.

Seems like about 4 years is the life of a parts store replacement battery in a daily driver for me. Even in the old mopars that don't get driven regularly, or my old Ford tractor...around 4 years is it.
The factory installed batteries I've seen last 8-10 years usually. Then there was my '16 Caravan that the factory battery only lasted 3 years.
When I came back to work after the 2020 shutdown, several of our work vehicles had to have new batteries installed after sitting in the parking lot for 4 months.

My '01 Dodge Cummins needed new batteries in 2012. I bought a pair of new, but expired shelf life batteries from the Exide battery store and put them in. I was told they were brought back in from a retailer that had them on the shelf for too long. They were still going strong in 2018 when I sold the truck.