How long does you battery last

I've gone five years so far (and still going) on my Costco "Kirkland" battery. Weekend driving mostly with similar mileage.

 

The battery should be replaced every five years, just like belts and hoses. The reason is, that just like belts and hoses, it may last much longer, but the odds of breaking down on the road go up dramatically with each year past 5.

 

here's a question, on some cars the battery is part of the electrical circut on some it's not. i had a volvo and a bmw yrs ago and one battery, to lazy to buy another becouse i could start the volvo and remove the battery and it would stay runing. oddest thing i've ever encountered. the bmw would die the second the battery was pulled.

if your wondering what i was doing was using the volvo to jump the bmw to life. the battery did not have enough CCA and the combination of the running volvo and battery would get it started. i'd then take the bmw for a spin. i did get a battery eventually.

 

With a battery tender the battery will last many years. Newer batteries like to stay near full charge and ususlly fail when deap cycled. I used to go through a battery every 3 years in my GTX. I have had this car for 25 years so that is a lot of batteries. Just starting a 440 cycles a battery pretty hard. Since installing a battery tender I have not replaced the battery in about 7 years.

My Ferrari had gone through 3 batteries in 3 years with the previous owner, the last replaced just before I bought it. There was a short to ground that needed attention but I fixed that and installed a battery tender and have had no problems with the battery in the past 3 years.

 

I got one of those Autozone batterys, the top one, i think it's a 7 year, 5 years full and then it's prorated.

Mine is going into 5 years, but i swap it in the winter with my plow truck, so it's always going.

 

I finally gave up on regular batteries and went with a deep-cycle RV battery, since the car keeps running the battery down to zero. That's my 2-bits worth. Deep cycle batteries are made to run down to zero and get recharged over and over, where regular car batteries aren't.

 

Scott, many cars will continue to run without the battery, but removing battery cables with the car running can wipe out the alternator. In fact, it can and has done a lot more, as voltage spikes can knock out computers and other electronics. But it may not be instant, could weaken something that fizzles later. So all the advice in the world is to never disconnect the battery or any other electrical parts with the key on or the engine running.

I have spent good money for big buck batteries in the past, and they generally have been the shortest lived batteries I have ever owned. Think about it. You pay $100 for a battery, and it fails after 18 months. Battery place gives you 50% credit for a new one that lasts another 18 months. I buy the 12 month or 24 month batteries and they last three years?

 

I'm with Javelin276, I use a std deep cycle RV battery. They seem to hold up well & tolerate the occasional deep discharge much better than any std/exotic battery.

BTW,
Starting up your car in the winter w/o taking a good long drive is a great way to build up water in the exhaust system & oil. Better to disconnect the battery, or hook up a battery tender, & not run the car at all while it's off the road for salt season.

Lots of discussions of this in the old fchat & a few in the current one. Do a search for 'winter' and 'storage' in the body of messages.