WHICH are the best batteries??

Johnson controls, Exide, and East Penn manufacture all the batteries in the US and all three have a top line of batteries sold under different Labels. Johnson Controls is the top dog with over 50% of the market.

You can buy a premium johnson controls battery at Walmart for cheap with a 3 year full replacement warranty and never buy batteries again, just run them down every two years and take them to the store for a free replacement. Anyone can sell good batteries so don't overlook the obvious sources.

 

Yellow Top OPTIMA Batteries are the best you can get.

http://www.optimabatteries.com/us/en/

 

Optima D51R batteries for me. I bought 4 of them 3 years ago from a sears store (only because I had a sears credit card with no interest lol) and they are still working good today. I paid $185 a piece for them. I don't idle and run my inverter and fridge all weekend while im off and have yet to go back to a dead or weak battery!!

 

NAPA batteries have a 36 mo warranty, 18 mo replacement... nation wide for about $110 ea

 

You didn't say what you needed them for.

Strictly cost? Cat 825 CCA batteries will last you 3-4 years easily. Avoid any 950+ CCA battery their lives are much shorter.

Battery life? Any good AGM battery should do the trick, look into Odyssey PC-2150.

 

If you heavily use an inverter, you want dual-purpose batteries, not starting batteries. Dual purpose are a cross between a starting battery and a deep cycle battery.

 

You can use deep cycle batteries for starting as long as they have enough CCA. That should be better for your inverter use.

 

I worked at freightliner, and there batterys are very good, as allen5oh said you do not want the big CCA numbers, at Freightliner they sell the 1000, and the 760 CCA batteries, The trucks hear run 4 batteries, and we had very few problems with the 760's, If yearly you disconnect them and charge them independently with a regulated charger, they will last 5 years.
Warranty claims on the 1000s were a lot higher than the 760s because the 1000's do not have any space for the material that all batteries slough off, causing shorting.
Keep you batteries clean they will love it.

 

I get my batteries at Batteries Plus. I also get a discount as I run all of my purchases through my business.