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Walmart $30 battery gives up after almost 2 years, is that normal?

1K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  KarlJay 
#1 ·
I'm looking at a new battery after just under 2 years with the Walmart battery.

Last battery was about 2X the price ($65) and lasted about 5 years. That price was some 7 years ago.

I don't mind paying a bit more, but it's hard to know if you're actually getting quality. The other issue is that I have to ride there, buy it, install it there. I don't want to wait for one to be shipped.

Got Walmart (if they actually stock them) then Batteries+Plus, Sears, Autozone, Napa, Cycle Center, etc...

Q. how much time do you get from a battery and what brand do you use?
 
#5 ·
Settled on this one:
https://www.batteriesplus.com/product-details/powersports/battery/xtreme/cylaz10sxta

Local battery shop that sold me my 5 year one closed too soon, so I got this one local.

Funny thing is that they did a check on my current one and it was fine, couldn't find any problem with it and even checked it with two different load testers.

I think the problem is my new phone charger is connected direct to the battery and is running all the time.

I need to work on having a switched power supply so it's only when running. I'd like to have the light on the same switched power supply as well. No need to have the light on unless the engine is running and that might have made the difference the other night because it almost started. The result was 3 hours waiting for a tow.

One other thing was that it didn't jump start when connected to a car, but I'll post about that.
 
#6 ·
I think the universal rule "you get what you pay for" still holds for motorcycle batteries. In my experience with the 6 'cycles I own, the OEM battery lasts 3 - 4 years when always connected to a battery tender. I've used 1 Batteries Plus battery which is still going strong after 4 years. My 2011 Aprilia Shiver still has the OEM battery in it. The rest have been YUSA batteries purchased from Amazon and all have lasted at least 3 years with some still going strong after 4 years. I gave up buying cheap batteries some years ago.



All of these batteries though are shamed by the battery in my Kubota tractor which passed it's 15th birthday this summer. I got worried about it, took it to my local NAPA dealer who load tested it and it came up with about 95% of its listed cold cranking amps. He said he'd like to sell me a battery but wouldn't recommend replacing mine. Tractor gets run every day during the summer, sits on battery tender over the winter months.
 
#8 ·
I bought an OEM yausa or w/e for 120 dollars a few years ago, and it was dead dead after only one year, 0 winters, with me riding almost every day. Then I got a 12 dollar battery from batteryshark or something and it's on its 3rd winter powering all my heated gear, going strong. It was 17.69 shipped.

 
#9 · (Edited)
BatteryShark was where mine came from, sold thru Walmart Marketplace. Just in case it was missed (I posted to a new thread too) my battery isn't actually bad.

Seems my iPhone charger was enough of a drain that it was killing the battery. It was tested on two different load testers and is in great condition. So I kept it and I'm going to look for a switched power supply for the charger.

I thought it was strange that it wouldn't make it 2 years, but I really didn't want to take a chance because the jump failed and I waited 3 hours for a tow home. So I could have stuck with the old one and fixed the iPhone charger/holder, but I didn't want to be in the same spot. I was left stuck close to home, but it could have been anywhere. I think I need to make or buy a jumper box. I'm looking at those 18650 DIY jumper boxes that transfer charge to your dead battery.

What item number was $17.69?
 
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