Two Bad Northstar Batteries!

[sab]

I posted in the "What did you do to you other vehicle today" thread a couple weeks ago that the Northstar (Batteries Plus' X2 version) battery in my Expedition falled at 11 months. Fortunately, Batteries Plus replaced it without question (after testing it, of course). That got me wondering about the genuine Northstar in my LJ. I bought it during the height of COVID, but they were crazy hard to find, so I took a chance and bought it on eBay, knowing full-well that warranty claims would be difficult.

This battery was installed in August 2021. I put 4800 miles on the LJ since then, but almost all of those miles occurred before December 2021. Since then, I've been working on it, little-by-little, and haven't driven it much. However, I've always had a CTEK maintenance charger on it. It turns out that I lost my eBay bet. Here's the result of the test I ran on it tonight:

I had run a traditional load test on it over the weekend which showed it was weak, so I used my better analyzer tonight to confirm. I emailed Odyssey (they bought Northstar) over the weekend to ask how they deal with warranty claims on eBay batteries. "Our warranty statement excludes batteries from 3rd party auction sites since we have no way of knowing the history / treatment of those batteries." So, I get to replace a $400 battery after 4800 miles. Fun!

I bought the marine version with two top posts, and all my rewiring uses those extra posts, so I'll likely get another, but this time it will be an X2 from Batteries Plus, and I'll be waiting to buy it until the LJ is back in action, since that's likely to be awhile.

I'm very disappointed in Northstar/Odyssey. It's possible that the battery I bought was old (I have not checked for a date of mfr on it, and should have done so when it was delivered), but the X2 that failed wasn't, so I think it speaks to the quality problems that seem to be plaguing the world these days...

Good thing I'm made of money. Oh, wait. I'm not.

 

[mrblaine]

I posted in the "What did you do to you other vehicle today" thread a couple weeks ago that the Northstar (Batteries Plus' X2 version) battery in my Expedition falled at 11 months. Fortunately, Batteries Plus replaced it without question (after testing it, of course). That got me wondering about the genuine Northstar in my LJ. I bought it during the height of COVID, but they were crazy hard to find, so I took a chance and bought it on eBay, knowing full-well that warranty claims would be difficult.

This battery was installed in August 2021. I put 4800 miles on the LJ since then, but almost all of those miles occurred before December 2021. Since then, I've been working on it, little-by-little, and haven't driven it much. However, I've always had a CTEK maintenance charger on it. It turns out that I lost my eBay bet. Here's the result of the test I ran on it tonight:

View attachment 478518

I had run a traditional load test on it over the weekend which showed it was weak, so I used my better analyzer tonight to confirm. I emailed Odyssey (they bought Northstar) over the weekend to ask how they deal with warranty claims on eBay batteries. "Our warranty statement excludes batteries from 3rd party auction sites since we have no way of knowing the history / treatment of those batteries." So, I get to replace a $400 battery after 4800 miles. Fun!

I bought the marine version with two top posts, and all my rewiring uses those extra posts, so I'll likely get another, but this time it will be an X2 from Batteries Plus, and I'll be waiting to buy it until the LJ is back in action, since that's likely to be awhile.

I'm very disappointed in Northstar/Odyssey. It's possible that the battery I bought was old (I have not checked for a date of mfr on it, and should have done so when it was delivered), but the X2 that failed wasn't, so I think it speaks to the quality problems that seem to be plaguing the world these days...

Good thing I'm made of money. Oh, wait. I'm not.

I had a near identical experience with 3rd party sellers and denial of warranty.

 

[sab]

I had a near identical experience with 3rd party sellers and denial of warranty.

Yeah, I can't claim ignorance in this case. I knew when I purchased it that if it failed in the warranty period, I'd be out of luck. Impatience (and COVID shortages) got me.

 

[mrblaine]

Yeah, I can't claim ignorance in this case. I knew when I purchased it that if it failed in the warranty period, I'd be out of luck. Impatience (and COVID shortages) got me.

I ordered my 2 from Batteries Plus online. What they didn't tell me is they had some oddity where neither they or Northstar would cover them. Northstar because they were a BP house brand even though they said Northstar on the case, BP because they were purchased online and some other detail I forget. BP told me to pound sand, a few miles down the road, the Northstar place finally gave me a decent enough credit towards the purchase of 2 new ones that I bought them. I was less than impressed with the whole experience.

 

[sab]

Well that sucks. Hopefully it was a short-term SNAFU between BP and NS. The X2 that failed in my Expedition was exchanged with no issues once he tested it and saw that it was charged, but had no capacity. I'll be sure to buy the BP-branded X2, but I'm sure they'll find new excuses to deny coverage.

 

[mrblaine]

Well that sucks. Hopefully it was a short-term SNAFU between BP and NS. The X2 that failed in my Expedition was exchanged with no issues once he tested it and saw that it was charged, but had no capacity. I'll be sure to buy the BP-branded X2, but I'm sure they'll find new excuses to deny coverage.

I don't know that it matters but instead reinforces my continued assertion that it really doesn't matter which AGM you get and being a brand whore is a fool's errand. We have had issues with and killed so many of them that we've learned you can't count on any of them to be as great as the best reported results that a few may enjoy. The only exception to that is Optima, they never don't suck. The other thing that is really terrible about AGM is I've carried many in that we couldn't get to take a charge and after they put them on their fancy in-store charger, they work again. We shouldn't need a high dollar charger to duplicate that.

For reference, I counted one time and we had 11 Platinum Diehards in vehicles and what not around here so I have a bit of experience with AGM. I will say that battery was the best we ever used and it is a sad day that they are no longer around in that iteration.

 

[Longwhitejeep]

Because of this type of situation occurring more regularly I stopped buying the higher end batteries too. I like East Penn batteries though and they are usually store branded or Duracell branded agm batteries.

I just ordered the 34m agm from O'Reilly today for $135 after a code and Core refund.

 

[tworley]

That is unfortunate to hear. I bought my Northstar X2 from Batteries Plus in October of 2020. So far its held up though its on a battery maintainer. My previous agm was an everstart (or superstart?) from Orielly's. Lasted 5 years almost to the date.

 

[erokj]

Because of this type of situation occurring more regularly I stopped buying the higher end batteries too. I like East Penn batteries though and they are usually store branded or Duracell branded agm batteries.

I just ordered the 34m agm from O'Reilly today for $135 after a code and Core refund.

My O’Reilly battery lasted 6 months.

 

[Longwhitejeep]

My O’Reilly battery lasted 6 months.

Was it an agm? It seems to be spread among high end batteries too where the failure rate is all over the place. So pay upwards of $300 for a battery when it's a crap shoot if it will last.

Sorry you had bad luck. My last few east Penn batteries, Duracell and O'Reilly super start agm batteries have lasted a while.

 

[sab]

AGMs seem to have proliferated with the auto-stop-start functions on late model vehicles. My theory is that production ramped up faster than QC capabilities, and they're producing a lot of poor-quality products to meet the increased demand. Pure speculation on my part, though.

 

[Mitchrb1]

Everyone rags on Optima but, i have a 6 year old yellow top still going strong. I can say i have only used the winch a few times in that period for short pulls. So maybe that's why mine is still working? That said, after reading all the other threads I'll go for something else next time I need a new one.

 

[Mike_H]

Interesting that you post this today. I'm starting to suspect my Odyssey (actual Odessey from Batteries Plus) battery too. Been having some weird idle issues with RPM surging. Its gotten worse lately until finally I got the click of a low voltage battery. Charged it up and the jeep ran great! Over night, it sat out in the cold and it failed to start the jeep again. I got that battery in Oct 21. My voltage meter is reading 14, so I'm fairly certain the alternator is producing what it needs. Time to do some testing.

 

[williambmac]

I don't know that it matters but instead reinforces my continued assertion that it really doesn't matter which AGM you get and being a brand whore is a fool's errand. We have had issues with and killed so many of them that we've learned you can't count on any of them to be as great as the best reported results that a few may enjoy. The only exception to that is Optima, they never don't suck. The other thing that is really terrible about AGM is I've carried many in that we couldn't get to take a charge and after they put them on their fancy in-store charger, they work again. We shouldn't need a high dollar charger to duplicate that.

For reference, I counted one time and we had 11 Platinum Diehards in vehicles and what not around here so I have a bit of experience with AGM. I will say that battery was the best we ever used and it is a sad day that they are no longer around in that iteration.

Diehards Platinum AGM are still available. They still get pretty decent reviews compared to others.

 

[mrblaine]

Diehards Platinum AGM are still available. They still get pretty decent reviews compared to others.

Do we believe they are the same battery as previous?

 

[mrblaine]

Everyone rags on Optima but, i have a 6 year old yellow top still going strong. I can say i have only used the winch a few times in that period for short pulls. So maybe that's why mine is still working? That said, after reading all the other threads I'll go for something else next time I need a new one.

I rag on them for two reasons. If I work on a rig that has an Optima in it, I'm guaranteed at least one episode of no crank. Generally the owner will have to bring me a new one at some point.

The second reason is Optima Jim and his bullshit assertions that you can't use a red top to winch, it has to be a yellow top. That means their red top is a pile of crap given that 1000's of TJ owners winched all the time with the OEM SLI non deep cycle flooded cell batteries with no ill effect. In short he is saying their high falutin premium AGM SLI battery isn't as good as an OEM piece of shit.

 

[erokj]

Was it an agm? It seems to be spread among high end batteries too where the failure rate is all over the place. So pay upwards of $300 for a battery when it's a crap shoot if it will last.

Sorry you had bad luck. My last few east Penn batteries, Duracell and O'Reilly super start agm batteries have lasted a while.

It was. I bought it after seeing some reviews on this forum. Now I’m in the market for a new battery. I was set on Odyssey, but now I’m having second thoughts??

 

[Longwhitejeep]

It was. I bought it after seeing some reviews on this forum. Now I’m in the market for a new battery. I was set on Odyssey, but now I’m having second thoughts??

I think batters just suck now. This is the only time I have had to replace every battery in every vehicle all in the same year. Timing just worked out that way I guess. FWIW I think there only 3 manufacturers now so it's not like O'Reilly made the bad battery. It just happened to have their sticker on it.

At 6 months I would hope that I would have been under warranty still but maybe not.

I have the marine 34M from O'Reilly being delivered today because my 5 year old interstate died this past weekend.

 

[mrblaine]

AGMs seem to have proliferated with the auto-stop-start functions on late model vehicles. My theory is that production ramped up faster than QC capabilities, and they're producing a lot of poor-quality products to meet the increased demand. Pure speculation on my part, though.

I've had issues with them since the days of Black Panther batteries which eventually became Odyssey.

 

[mrblaine]

It was. I bought it after seeing some reviews on this forum. Now I’m in the market for a new battery. I was set on Odyssey, but now I’m having second thoughts??

I wish I could give you a stellar recommendation for something I know would solve your problem and I've dealt with enough of the various brands that I should be able to. At this point, I'd snag a mid range from some place with enough locations for an easy warranty exchange and call it a day. Less disappointing than having a 400 dollar battery crap out on you and a nice surprise if it doesn't.