Picking a fight?

General conversations about BMW E28s and the people who own them.
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Grande Royal
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Joined: Feb 22, 2008 7:36 AM
Location: Riverton, New Jersey

Picking a fight?

Post by Grande Royal »

Well it’s that time of year and my faithful Bosch battery of 12 years has finally refused a charge and died. The battery lasted through 2 e28’s and numerous recovery jobs! Always maintained on a battery tender. Anyway been looking and wow, battery prices have gone crazy! Or maybe it’s just that I haven’t been in the market for one for years. Well I know battery brands are like motor oil, manual transmission fluid,ect, ect….. I guess I am going to launch myself out of the frying pan and into the fire by asking opinions on which battery would be best for my 1985 m535i? No non factory electronics or crazy stereo. Please keep in mind it will be on a battery tender (c-tek ). Conventional, glass mat, spiral gel? Seems a lot of hype and money. Never had a gel optima 34r or 35 (old units good, new units not so much) or AGM battery (have heard these can damage an alternator if it’s not rated high enough to charge the battery back up). Any help or advice greatly appreciated in advance! Thanks, Joel
stuartinmn
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Location: Minneapolis

Re: Picking a fight?

Post by stuartinmn »

I add to replace mine this spring after six years and I thought that was pretty good - if you were able to make yours last 12 years, I don't see any need to change to some other kind.
Mike W.
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by Mike W. »

Yeah, battery prices have gone nuts.

I don't think your alternator is in any danger from a non traditional battery, 80-90 amps is a lot. IMO the best value is from Walmart, Johnson Controls makes them, who are the same people who make Interstate batteries. And Interstate, while not necessarily exactly the same as the ones from Walmart do have an excellent reputation, probably the best at least in conventional batteries. I got 9 or 10 years out of the last one I put in the E12 and it got run down to zero more than once, which shortens the life and would often go a month or 6 weeks between starts. That was their mid grade line, not the Maxx line.

But you're right, batteries are probably going to be like oil threads, everyone has a different opinion.
austin8753
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by austin8753 »

i like Bosch or Interstate.
Grande Royal
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Location: Riverton, New Jersey

Re: Picking a fight?

Post by Grande Royal »

Exactly, that was my plan. But here in NJ, PepBoys used to carry them, now Champion? Asked why no more Bosch, they said they were discontinued due to customer complaining the battery would not take a charge after being completely discharged. I have been looking and only have seen Bosch AGM’s on Amazon, but no brick and mortar retailers.
Grande Royal
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Location: Riverton, New Jersey

Re: Picking a fight?

Post by Grande Royal »

I like the Interstate also, just hard to find a retailer in area. I guess the internet is king.
wkohler
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by wkohler »

My view on batteries is buy whichever one has the best combination of warranty, price, ease of warranty replacement (e.g. location, how much they jerk you around or do you have to go to customer service at wal-mart) and whichever one is not an Exide.

I used to run Optimas all the time, 35s specifically and then I had three bad ones in a row after they moved production to Mexico. The price went way up, too. I've had good luck with the Interstates. The Duracell batteries at Batteries+Bulbs are pretty fairly priced and I even have a walmart battery or two, but one is dead and I can't get to it to ask it why it died. They're all Johnson Controls batteries and the cool thing is the big ones are made in Germany. Doesn't really apply to us unless you have an M5.

Costco carries "Interstate" batteries. They have the Interstate name on them and they're not in-your-face enough with the green for me to believe they're the same ones you get at the Interstate All Battery Center or from your friendly independent repair shop. The good news is they have both the H5 and H6 sizes (Groups 47 and 48). I like the 47, myself as it's much easier to move between cars (a crazy trick I learned when 4 batteries died in the same month and I discovered I have a bunch of the same cars).

Funny thing on the battery tenders is that I've been having some rough luck lately with batteries that are on tenders. I lost several pretty quickly one month and I've had two die in the E28 M5 in what I feel is a short period of time for a battery that lives a privileged life in the trunk and costs as much as it does. I'm tempted to try the just disconnect the battery method and see where that gets me. I was reading an article in the BMWCCCA magazine (The Ultimate Classic) about a Euro M5 owner that does just that and every time he goes to get into the car, he connects the battery and it fires right up event after sitting for months. I'm over here with an elaborate system of running cords everywhere and running 25' of charging cords all around from a 4-bank battery tender and I've got 1/3 as many batteries suriving as I have cars. Someone must be doing the right thing.
gadget73
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by gadget73 »

Prices are dumb. Luckily I have a friend that works at Pep Boys and he was able to get me his pricing on a battery. Ended up at $95 on what is normally a $180 AGM PepBoys branded battery. That was the best price / warranty combo I was going to find so I went with it.
vinceg101
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by vinceg101 »

Grande Royal wrote: Sep 22, 2021 9:44 PM Exactly, that was my plan. But here in NJ, PepBoys used to carry them, now Champion? Asked why no more Bosch, they said they were discontinued due to customer complaining the battery would not take a charge after being completely discharged. I have been looking and only have seen Bosch AGM’s on Amazon, but no brick and mortar retailers.
This was my experience in my recent battery I just put in the M535i. Here too in CA, Pep Boy's was the only retailer that carried Bosch batteries and about 4 years ago they stopped. I really wanted another Bosch and specifically an AGM unit when the Bosch died (combo of a severe vampire drain, being drained to 0 too many times and just age), but could only find Bosch AGM's online (RockAuto actually had the best price).
I heeded Kohler's advice about picking one that could be returned easily and locally. I realized I only wanted the Bosch for the name more than any other reason, but I do have a Bosch AGM in the E39 for quite a while now (over 5 years?) and it's been fantastic. Well, it's never given me any issues, which is exactly what you want out of your battery. So I settled for the Champion unit from PB for the M535i. It was on sale so the price wasn't horrid but it still waaaay more than they probably should be (+/-$160).

With the car sitting idle for most of the last 18+ months since it went in, it still needs to be topped off once in while. I have a level monitor and right now it's at 85% after I've been doing work on the interior, but a quick start and idle for a short time will bring it back up to 100% in no time. I haven't had to plug it into the tender for some time (oh yeah, you need a special AGM tender also; something I wasn't aware of when I bought the battery). But otherwise the battery has been perfectly happy sitting there waiting to be used which is what they advertise is one of the benefits of an AGM battery.
Adam W in MN
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by Adam W in MN »

My Interstate died after only 3 years in the E12 because the Battery Tender seemed to overcharge it. It boiled over and wrecked the battery tray which I had to get repaired and repainted. Sucked.

I am going to unhook the batteries and leave them this winter without trickle charging. It is a heated garage which may have caused the boil over issue.
wkohler
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by wkohler »

What I do with the E12 now is disconnect the battery and turn the hazard switch on. Relieves the pressure on it so the switch doesn’t fail when it’s unattended.
stuartinmn
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by stuartinmn »

Adam W in MN wrote: Sep 23, 2021 9:34 PM My Interstate died after only 3 years in the E12 because the Battery Tender seemed to overcharge it. It boiled over and wrecked the battery tray which I had to get repaired and repainted. Sucked.

I am going to unhook the batteries and leave them this winter without trickle charging. It is a heated garage which may have caused the boil over issue.
My experience with a Battery Tender was similar- I've always just disconnected my batteries in the fall and let them sit over the winter, but I decided to try one once. It boiled the battery dry and I had to replace it, so I haven't used the Tender since. I know plenty of people use them without issues, but it soured me on the experience.
John in VA
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by John in VA »

stuartinmn wrote: Sep 24, 2021 9:09 AMMy experience with a Battery Tender was similar... It boiled the battery dry and I had to replace it, so I haven't used the Tender since. I know plenty of people use them without issues, but it soured me on the experience.
The new "smarter" CTEK & Noco battery maintainers don't do this.
EuroShark
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by EuroShark »

I've been using a couple of CTEK chargers for a while now and they have been great. As mentioned in this thread, these new smart chargers really are... smart. There's not a whole lot to worry about as long as you have an inline fuse somewhere between the battery and the charger. The smaller of the two even brought the 20 year old battery in my M5 back from the dead with it's desulfating "reconditioning" program.

As for batteries, I found a local Deka distributor and have been very happy with them. The last dozen or so batteries I've gotten from Deka have been less expensive than what NAPA was offering for essentially the same battery with a different sticker on it.
stuartinmn
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by stuartinmn »

An interesting thing about car batteries is there are only a few places that actually manufacture them, and then they get labeled with the name of whatever retail outlet that's selling them. In addition, the retail places will change their contracts periodically, so one year their batteries are manufactured by company A, and the next year they may be made by company B. So, shopping by brand name doesn't necessarily mean you'll be getting the exact same battery that you bought previously. I generally buy them from Batteries Plus, mainly because there's a store close by so they're convenient. I've had good luck with whatever it is they're selling.
topher800
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Re: Picking a fight?

Post by topher800 »

John in VA wrote: Sep 24, 2021 10:42 AM
stuartinmn wrote: Sep 24, 2021 9:09 AMMy experience with a Battery Tender was similar... It boiled the battery dry and I had to replace it, so I haven't used the Tender since. I know plenty of people use them without issues, but it soured me on the experience.
The new "smarter" CTEK & Noco battery maintainers don't do this.
I retired all my old chargers earlier this summer and replaced them with a Noco Genius 10. And a Noco 2x2 to trickle the moto's over the winter, which are LiFePO. I really like that the new chargers can handle multiple battery types and are smart. I think the Noco decides if it needs to run desulfate on its own. I just hooked it to each car battery over the course of a weekend.
Grande Royal
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Location: Riverton, New Jersey

Re: Picking a fight?

Post by Grande Royal »

Well like to say thanks for all the input on the different brands of batteries everyone is using. After obsessing for a week I finally pulled the trigger and bought a new AGM battery. Using the advice of a few of you, I realized warrantee and ease of returning or replacing at a local store rather then the internet was the best option for me. I wanted to try an AGM battery due to the fact my m535i not driven as much as I would like to and is on a battery tender. Hopefully it will fill my needs verses a conventional lead acid battery, although Walmart had the best warrantee 36 months free replacement/24 months prorated for $119 no core. I picked up a PepBoys Champion AGM R6 with 48 month free replacement battery for $180.56 (after core charge $18) out the door. Thankfully my CTEC tender has the AGM setting. Now it’s a wait and see game! Again, thanks for all the input, Joel.
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