Car Battery Recommendations

[dannyp]

i tend to go for vatra in preferance but depending on what its going on depends how fussy i am about the price differance. tho numax see ok ive got a few here and there ding well

the compressor and genorator have dual pourpose starting / leasure battries on them, put the fancy varta ones on mates diggers and dumpers as they can be stood for months ist some stimes just a bit of start stop to move them out the way and hey take it well.

 

[Turbo]

what car is it for?

Its a Peugeot 306 HDI. A smaller battery is specced for it but an 096 fits & is a good upgrade. I had a 406 with the same engine & fitting the larger battery cured the sluggish winter starting problem I had. An 096 should have been fitted anyway according to my motor factors battery book.

The battery currently in the 306 was from the 406, unfortunately it is now goosed due to my bad memory. It was fitted to the 306 then sat over the winter unused & I forgot to trickle charge it. It has enough juice when charged for one start but nothing after that.

Good to see some agree with my short list for decent batteries, Yuasa, Varta & Exide were on my shopping list. Bosch is not as they recently had a lot of batteries failing under warranty.

I'm limited on where I can get a battery, I've tried most of the local motor factors, the nearest ECP is 90 miles away. I'll get on the phone tomorrow & try a few further afield plus the auto electrical places.

 

[DrDeAtH]

ECP will post out to you. Look on eBay for their listings. Also cheaper than the in-store price....

 

[Turbo]

Did some ringing around today - both auto-electric places & a good motor factor all recommended a Fiamm battery. One of the a/e places has a reputation for top quality work so should stock good quality parts. They were also the nearest so I called in today & got talking to Cahal, the owner & a very experienced auto electrician.

He rated the Fiamm batteries very highly, as good or better than big name brands. I mentioned reading about recent warranty returns on bosch batteries & he admitted that he had a few failed bosch units but never any fiamm ones! I also discovered that varta & bosch are made in the same factory.

So I did a deal for a Fiamm battery - £55 +vat so not much more than the unknown ones from the other retailers. It's now fitted so no more running around with a jump start pack.

As an aside I've been using my Li-Po mini jump starter I bought in Lidl. It has worked most times but sometimes it was unable to start the car (maybe when the car battery has been completely flat) & I had to use a proper jump starter. So a useful tool that will work in most cases but I think I'll still carry jump leads!

 

[Farside]

Nice to see some recommendations for Numax. I'm about to jump into ownership of a Numax AGM bike battery for the first time and wondered how they fared against others, as a make. Of the conventional wet-cells, I've had a few makes, and in regular daily use they all lasted well, including the cheapies, but Yuasa consistently rose head and shoulders above the rest for longevity. This time around, Yuasa AGM is too pricey for my taste, and the Numax comes in quite well, being the same price mail-order as I'd pay for another wet-cell locally.