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-   -   Which is the Best Car Battery Brand? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/13371-best-car-battery-brand-7.html)

Hi,

DIN, JIS & BCI types specify the physical dimensions of the battery (LxWxH) together with the battery terminal size and placement (L or R for location of the positive terminal ).

This is generally prefixed or suffixed by a number that denotes the capacity. Therefore a DIN55 battery is a DIN size spec unit with a capacity of 55Ah at the 20 hour discharge rate. A 46B24L is a JIS spec battery with a 45Ah rating (at 20 hr discharge rate) with the positive terminal on the left side of the battery.

The 'RC' I referred to is the Reserve Capacity of the battery. This number that denotes the time in minutes that the battery will sustain a discharge at 25 Amps at 26.7 deg C or 80 deg F till the battery voltage drops below 10.5v. This is an important parameter that comes into play when your charging system fails. It will helps gauge how long you can drive your car before the battery dies out on you and the car comes to a dead halt.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

For small car batteries go for panasonic. I have used a small base terminal battery (35AH i guess) from a gypsy to start a 125KVA generator many times. This is amazing considering the generator manufacturer recommends 180Ah battery! Its still going good in its 3rd year and another one and half years remaining on the guarantee.
Invertor battery, i think Amaron is the best. I've connected an 180AH (rs.9000) to a 500w invertor. It gives a 5-6 hours back up at full load and mostly lasts a full day without power. Exides, from my experience die quickly. It will be for sure dead the next month the warranty expires.

Guys? Has anyone purchased a TG battery? Do give me your suggestions please as I need to decide next week.

Cheers

My dad's car requires a battery replacement soon, mentioned in my post below about feedback on a Tata Green battery. How is your experience with a Panasonic? One of the dealers has offered a 5 year warranty (pro-rata no doubt) which makes it tempting.

Regards,

I went for Amaron on my Petra. The OEM was the same brand and served me for over 3.5 yrs despite alternator dieing twice. The new one is flo model DIN type.

I think this thread will serve well with a poll, Mods is it possible to have one added?

Thanks dude. I think it will be either an Exide or Amaron. Tata Green is, well, green. Incidentally Dad's car came with an Exide OEM battery that lasted for 4 years before giving up the ghost.

Mods - I noticed I have been "promoted" to a BHPian from the "Newbie" that I once was. Thanks guys and cheers! clap:cheers:

R2D2

I would say Panasonic Base Terminal battery is the best I've used on a car. I used it in a Gypsy and has been there for 30 months and has another 20 months warranty left. I've used it to start big generators with 6 litre diesel engines many times. Sometimes the genset requires cranking upto 5-6 times before it starts. The battery still looks and works as new. The battery really endures. I will no doubt use only panasonic batteries in my cars in future. The only difficulty is to find a dealer here.

Yes Panasonic do make good and reliable batteries. One of my uncle zen (which has panasonic battery) was parked in garage for about 2 or 3 months and it was not driven at all. My friend was interested in buying that car and we went to inspect it. I thought that car will not start but to my surprise, after 5 or 6 tries it started and self motor was not struggling at all even at the 6th try. :)

Thanks Hashim, VEA. I'll have my father consider a Panasonic battery as well other than the Exide/Amaron duo.

Regards,

R2D2,

Congrats on your Bhpian status. :thumbs up

I have surprisingly never had a bad experience with Exide batteries, the first car my dad bought way back in 1993 when maintenance free batteries were a distant dream had an Exide battery. All our cars since have come with Exide. My current Santro's Exide battery will turn 4 years next month and has 50,000 kms on the clock and is still going strong. My Alto also has an Exide. But, Amaron and Panasonic are also good brands, the former benefitting from the hugely popular TV ads. TG is a new brand and will IMHO take some time to become popular among owners.

Cheers,
gpa

Just changed to an Exide Max battery for my Xing. Paid 3400 after giving my old battery for 200 bucks. My old OEM battery was also Exide and served me well for over 4 years. Got an 18+18 month warranty. Dealer also said Exide ATB was good. Came with a 24+24 month warranty but was some 600 bucks more.

Thanks gpa cheers:

Incidentally I've had pleasant experience with Exide in almost 2 decades of use in cars and bikes. As with yourself, almost all of them were the non maintenance free versions. This includes OE fitted batteries. In fact my father's Palio had an OEM Exide that lasted for 4 years. My new car, about 3 months old now, came with an Exide freedom. Lets see how long that goes. I begin to check my battery frequently after they cross 2 years from the date of purchase. My experience is that they last about 30 to 36 months with some exceptions lasting 4 years and over.

But opinions on TBHP forums are quite anti-Exide. There is a possibility their 70% OE market share and the huge volumes it entails has introduced some duds into the OE market. Most of my friends swear by Amaron. My feeling is that it will boil down to either an Exide or an Amaron this time. Panasonic is still untested (for us at least) but the 60 month warranty on offer is tempting.

Cheers!

Well, well- quite an active thread!. My dad's car used to have Exide (but then that was the time when only exide was there I guess), after that he switched to Standard Furukawa, and was happy with it. My personal experience has been with 2 brands- Exide - which powered a Matiz (For quite a long time I might add- and then conked), and Tata Green- which was suggested by the service station, as being one of the best available - well, one year down the line - I really don't agree with that chap. My tata green battery has conked again, and luckily it is within the free replacement period in warranty, so I got another one. Somehow, I'm not a tata green fan at all. My buddies have been shifting to Amaron with increasing frequency.

ascertain,

This is true in my case as well, many people I know switch to Amaron after using Exide for a long time. I suppose, its is all down to the perception of the brand in the minds of comsumers, where they perceive Amaron to be a slightly better brand when compared to Exide.

Cheers,
gpa

Ok guys. The old SF battery was load tested three times over as many days by the dealer who says the plates are shedding (as I suspected) but it still has about 6-12 months of life left. I advised Dad to keep it but definitely replace the battery before making a long distance trip. He mostly drives in city limits. Lets see how long this semi-crippled one lasts.

Thanks to all for their viewpoints.

Rgds.