Believe it or Not.......the facts don't lie.

[Mopars & Missiles]

Today I was doing some routine maintenance on a couple of my cars when I noticed just a touch of corrosion starting to form around the battery terminals of the R/T. Better get at that before it gets worse, I thought.

So out comes the battery so that I can soak the cable ends in baking soda water and then clean them up and reinstall the battery. While doing so, I was checking the battery over and cleaning it when I was reminded of the "VERY UNUSUAL" service life I've gotten from this particular battery. Just thought maybe some would find this as interesting as I did?

Here's the battery.......

Manufactured in October of 2005

This battery is STILL cranking over one of my 440's very reliably after very nearly 20 YEARS of service!

Now I'll admit, it hasn't been just "Installed and forgotten about" for those 20 years. It has been well maintained, obviously. Some will probably claim "BS", but facts are facts. Your mileage may vary!


PS. I have several other batteries that have been and still are in service on my cars that are OVER 10 years old.

 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Impressive.

 

[davek]

Yep I had a battery last 17 years. New ones are junk.

 

[cr8crshr]

Yep I had a battery last 17 years. New ones are junk.

Are they ever!!! I have had to replace my truck battery 3 times all ready as they will not hold and keep a charge. O'Reilly's batteries are not at all good, nor Wally World's, as they are also crap. I finally decided to use a battery quick disconnect to try and save the trickle drains with the newer electronics now in vehicles, so we will see if that helps. But I'm guessing not!!! I also try to keep an occasional charge on the battery just to try and keep it at peak output...cr8crshr/Bill

 

[1967coronet]

That's cool !
I have a Gold Die Hard that lasted several years.
Still was working when I pulled it.
I figured it would give up at a bad time , lol

 

[eldubb440]

every 4-5 years for me

 

[Richard Cranium]

My Hellcat battery is 5 years old now & it'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.

 

[Ron H]

I can't remember the last time having a battery lasting more than five-years. A few went a bit less. I disconnect the one in my '63 as weeks might go by before starting it and months over winter. Could be older batteries were better, who knows? Yeah, there's tons more electronics in newer cars so that can't help. I'll stay surprised you have a 20-year battery working fine!

 

[moparedtn]

every 4-5 years for me

Yep, that's about what you get from store-bought batteries anymore. $250+ ones from chain parts stores don't go
much more than that even.
I learned my lesson last time with the Ram, for example. Screw the recommended "Gold" AGM nonsense - I put an
$89 special from WallyWorld in him and to date, it's lasted 5 years (and still going strong, including being used most
recently as a test mule for diagnosing Fred on his own electrical woes).

 

[YY1]

FYI- Duracell is now owned by the Chinese.

 

[Ron H]

FYI- Duracell is now owned by the Chinese.

I'm shocked (pun also intended)

 

[440 4 speed]

I can remember the days when I was not happy if I couldn’t get 12-13 years use from a battery.

 

[kiwigtx]

I normally have to swap out the battery every 3-4 years in my daily driver van. Only a 4-cyl 3.0l diesel, but it get a lot of use.

My A100 has a cut-off switch and the battery lasts a bit longer now. Haven't cranked it over in 4 months now.....so I need to check that out later today.

 

[JackR]

3 years max in Phoenix but my grand Cherokee with the batteries under the passenger seat get 4 years or so.

 

[440 4 speed]

Our 92 4Runner got 15 years. Replaced 1 starter, 1 clutch and normal brake stuff. Bought our 2006 in 2011. On the second battery about 2012.

 

[1967coronet]

Since we are on the subject......
Just today I had a strange thing happen.
Checking the oil on my f 150 I seen some corrosion on the negative battery post.
Cleaned both the negative and positive.
Put a finger full of gun grease on each post and end.
Re assembled, started it up and my dash gauges were going wonky. Just moving back and forth.
Did some phone research that told me that grease is not a good thing on later model trucks.
Cleaned the ends and posts again with brake clean.
All back to normal when started up.
I have used grease on battery posts for years.
But I guess not on 2011 - 16 Fords

 

[Detective D]

East Penn made some amazing batteries back then. I had an Interstate Megatron last 14 years in a truck, and I just swapped the mini-megatron out of my lawnmower that had been in there since 2008 last summer.
Now they built a new factory and you can't buy any battery of any brand(except maybe Optima) that doesn't have recycled content. That's why warranty times have dropped to 3-4 years instead of 84 months like they were a few years ago.
Johnson Controls batteries are pure hot garbage. But they always sort of were. It's too bad their competition decided to "go green" and incorporate the recycle center into their new factory. It's fine to recycle the old ones, but not particularily "better" if the new battery last 3 years instead of 12. Is it better to recycle the battery 4 times instead of once? Somehow I doubt it.

 

[Kern Dog]

How did I get so lucky? Is it because I am so sexy?

The 2015 Challenger battery lasted 9 1/2 years.
I have a 10 year old battery in my 72 Duster.
The one in our Honda crapped out at 10 years.
The last one in my 412,000 mile 2007 truck lasted 8 years.

 

[YY1]

Someone told me Duracell was Chinese a while back, after I complained out loud that they didn't seem to last as long

I was also shocked (!) and "trust but verify" had to look it up.

Sure enough.

Another American icon quietly sold off to China.

I used to prefer them to Energizer because I got slightly longer life.

...but now I am an Energizer guy for dry cells, and I'm also trying high end Ever-Ready.

Remember when Ever-Ready was king of batteries?

 

[WileE]

I've had good luck with batteries manufactured by Johnson Controls