Battery Recommendations

If you have a costco membership go with an interstate. 3 year warranty then resets every time you replace the battery. So in theory you will never need to buy another one. If you replace it every 2.5 years. They do not test them they just give you a new one.
 
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jtf440 said:
I'm looking for a new battery as I'm starting to have a slow crank. I have done the "big 3" and the jeep barely cranks over in the mornings, even though it really isnt that cold (~38°) compared to other places. I have looked at the Odyssey 34/78-PC1500DT on Amazon and it looks to be my best option. Any suggestions?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TCTD3Y/?tag=wranglerorg-20
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I don’t think you’ll go wrong with an odyssey. I haven’t owned one long, maybe a year. But I currently have 2 red top optimas. Never had an issue out of them and they are both 6 years old. One is a daily driver and one in my Jeep that doesn’t get driven everyday. Buddy of mine has had a yellow top for 4 years or so and he doesn’t have issues. His Jeep will sit a month or more without being cranked and it always fires up.
 
jtf440 said:
I'm looking for a new battery as I'm starting to have a slow crank. I have done the "big 3" and the jeep barely cranks over in the mornings, even though it really isnt that cold (~38°) compared to other places. I have looked at the Odyssey 34/78-PC1500DT on Amazon and it looks to be my best option. Any suggestions?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TCTD3Y/?tag=wranglerorg-20
Click to expand...
You absolutely could not do better than that particular Odyssey battery. Most consider it to be the best battery made today for our Wranglers.

When my ten year old Sears Diehard Platinum, which was made for Sears by Odyssey, goes bad I'll replace it with that very same Odyssey PC1500DT battery you gave the link to.
 
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The Odyssey battery is at the top of the list if you need or want an AGM battery.

For conventional lead acid batteries it is hard to beat the 800 CCA Interstate Group 34 battery from Costco (Item # 850241). It is exactly the same as the Interstate MTP-34 but costs substantially less.

Costco's "no questions asked" warranty on batteries has changed. It is still better than everyone else's warranty, full replacement within 42 months rather than the past warranty of full replacement until 36 months with pro-rata replacement on a sliding scale after that. This new policy prevents exchanging batteries every 35 months + 364 days for life as was theoretically possible in the past.

https://www.costco.com/wcsstore/Cos...e/Attachment/Costco+Battery-Warranty+2018.pdf
 
FYI, I bought an Odyssey red top from Costco and agree it is the best battery for the TJ. Mine went flat and would not recharge so I returned it to Costco for a replacement, but they no longer carried them, so I had to get one Mr Bills mentioned in his post above. I think the reason they stopped carrying them is because they were getting a lot back that would not take a charge.

I later found out that a flat Odyssey battery will not trigger the charging cycle on some battery chargers - you need to hook another battery with 12v in parallel in order to trigger the battery charger. Once you have the Odyssey partially charged, you can disconnect the other battery. I wish I had known this, I'd probably still have the Odyssey in my Jeep today. I was not able to test this since I had already returned the Odyssey, so if I'm mistaken I'm sure someone will reply with the correct information.

I do agree that Costco has a great return/replacement policy, it's a shame they no longer carry the Odyssey line.

From an Odyssey document: "For safety reasons many 6V/12V automotive/commercial type chargers will not turn on when an attempt is made to charge any style 12V battery that has a very low open circuit voltage (OCV). For example, a charger set for 12V charging connected to a 12V battery that has an OCV less than 4-5V, the charger senses it is connected to a 6V battery (which it is not) and therefore will not initiate a charge because it is set for 12V charging. "

http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ProceduretorecoverdeeplydischargedODYSSEY.pdf
 
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jtf440 said:
....... because a warranty isn't going to get me home when the battery dies.
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ALL batteries die. This is a fact of life. Now limiting the number of times it dies is a good point. But in the past 25+ years that i have been driving all i ever needed was a jump start to get my vehicle the local automotive store and grab a new one.

Buying a battery with winch load as a factor is another good reason to go with a top of the line battery.

Slightly off topic but I am amazed that so many people don't have jumper cables in the vehicle.
 
RubiconMike said:
FYI, I bought an Odyssey red top from Costco and agree it is the best battery for the TJ. Mine went flat and would not recharge so I returned it to Costco for a replacement, but they no longer carried them, so I had to get one Mr Bills mentioned in his post above. I think the reason they stopped carrying them is because they were getting a lot back that would not take a charge.

I later found out that a flat Odyssey battery will not trigger the charging cycle on some battery chargers - you need to hook another battery with 12v in parallel in order to trigger the battery charger. Once you have the Odyssey partially charged, you can disconnect the other battery. I wish I had known this, I'd probably still have the Odyssey in my Jeep today. I was not able to test this since I had already returned the Odyssey, so if I'm mistaken I'm sure someone will reply with the correct information.

I do agree that Costco has a great return/replacement policy, it's a shame they no longer carry the Odyssey line.

From an Odyssey document: "For safety reasons many 6V/12V automotive/commercial type chargers will not turn on when an attempt is made to charge any style 12V battery that has a very low open circuit voltage (OCV). For example, a charger set for 12V charging connected to a 12V battery that has an OCV less than 4-5V, the charger senses it is connected to a 6V battery (which it is not) and therefore will not initiate a charge because it is set for 12V charging. "

http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ProceduretorecoverdeeplydischargedODYSSEY.pdf
Click to expand...

Great to know, thanks.
 
Boinked said:
ALL batteries die. . . . But in the past 25+ years that i have been driving all i ever needed was a jump start to get my vehicle the local automotive store and grab a new one. . . .

Slightly off topic but I am amazed that so many people don't have jumper cables in the vehicle.
Click to expand...

I can't tell you how many occasions when I've needed a battery that I got a jump start to drive to the store and then changed the battery in the parking lot. It saves a second trip to return the core and retrieve the core charge.

I used to carry jumper cables in every vehicle I owned, but now I carry one of these (plus jumper cables in the jeep in case I need to cobble together a trail welder with them.)

91QeQxZB5hL._SL1500_.jpg
 
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RubiconMike said:
FYI, I bought an Odyssey red top from Costco and agree it is the best battery for the TJ. Mine went flat and would not recharge so I returned it to Costco for a replacement, but they no longer carried them, so I had to get one Mr Bills mentioned in his post above. I think the reason they stopped carrying them is because they were getting a lot back that would not take a charge.

I later found out that a flat Odyssey battery will not trigger the charging cycle on some battery chargers - you need to hook another battery with 12v in parallel in order to trigger the battery charger. Once you have the Odyssey partially charged, you can disconnect the other battery. I wish I had known this, I'd probably still have the Odyssey in my Jeep today. I was not able to test this since I had already returned the Odyssey, so if I'm mistaken I'm sure someone will reply with the correct information.

I do agree that Costco has a great return/replacement policy, it's a shame they no longer carry the Odyssey line.

From an Odyssey document: "For safety reasons many 6V/12V automotive/commercial type chargers will not turn on when an attempt is made to charge any style 12V battery that has a very low open circuit voltage (OCV). For example, a charger set for 12V charging connected to a 12V battery that has an OCV less than 4-5V, the charger senses it is connected to a 6V battery (which it is not) and therefore will not initiate a charge because it is set for 12V charging. "

http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ProceduretorecoverdeeplydischargedODYSSEY.pdf
Click to expand...
I think you're confusing Odyssey with Optima who makes the Redtop battery. Costco doesn't carry Odyssey but they did carry Optima.

shopping.jpeg
 
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jtf440 said:
I'm looking for a new battery as I'm starting to have a slow crank. I have done the "big 3" and the jeep barely cranks over in the mornings, even though it really isnt that cold (~38°) compared to other places. I have looked at the Odyssey 34/78-PC1500DT on Amazon and it looks to be my best option. Any suggestions?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TCTD3Y/?tag=wranglerorg-20
Click to expand...
Optima Red mines 14 years old......More Power
op red.jpg
 
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Paul Land said:
Optima Red mines 14 years old......More Power
View attachment 68068
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Optima's batteries were well made then and had earned a great reputation. Then they were purchased by Johnson Controls who moved Optima's entire manufacturing line to Mexico which pretty well killed their quality, they no longer hold up like they did. I bought two of Optima's newer Yellow Tops and one Optima Blue Top and all three died prematurely. That's why Costco no longer carries Optima batteries, they started having too many returns after the manufacturing move to Mexico.
 
Jerry Bransford said:
Optima's batteries were well made then and had earned a great reputation. Then they were purchased by Johnson Controls who moved Optima's entire manufacturing line to Mexico which pretty well killed their quality, they no longer hold up like they did. I bought two of Optima's newer Yellow Tops and one Optima Blue Top and all three died prematurely. That's why Costco no longer carries Optima batteries, they started having too many returns after the manufacturing move to Mexico.
Click to expand...

How did you get this insider info on Costco dropping optima due to quality?
 
MallCrawlOnTons said:
How did you get this insider info on Costco dropping optima due to quality?
Click to expand...
From my wholesale battery distributor my company was buying batteries from at the time. He shared that his warehouse was full of Optima returns from Costco. Costco made the switch from Optima to Interstate.
 
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