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Maybe the longest battery life ever..

S

scottm

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Location
the oven, Scottsdale AZ
This NAPA battery was made in Nov 2004, and I put it in my RV in jan 05. It failed to start my 454 chevy rv yesterday for the first time in 9 1/2 years! Also I live in Scottsdale, where it is over 100° for 5 months every year. This is the longest battery life I have ever had; can anyone top it?
 

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Call the Guinness Book of World Records for battery life in our climate! :eek:

A little more details like how it was trickle charged and number of miles/trips in hot weather it took.

After all it's no fair if this was Snowbird RV and it was gone during some 5 hot months every year... :hihi:
 
Wow. That is sweet. Single battery, or part of a multi battery set up for powering rv stuff? Any more details of the long life?

I had a set of red optimas when they were US made make it just shy of 11 years in Vegas, but of coarse they have moved the mfr. location a little south across a border. The yellow tops in my hummer currently went in Jan of '08, so a ways to go still.

One thing that I learned in fleets full of semi's- the batteries next to each other with huge, short connecting cables makes a big difference, as well as being separate from engine heat.

People should also watch for the moisture or dirt going across the posts, or from cell to cell. Put a meter on it and you'll see you're consuming power across the wetness or dirt.
 
It's a year-round resident of Scottsdale. I have an electronic thermometer in the coach, and it has hit 136 degrees in there this summer. It only goes on camping trips about 3-4 times a year. In the meantime, I drive it in a 4 mile loop around my house once a month to keep everything limber. Also it is an 82 with a carbureted non-catalytic 454. I put in 10 gallons of av-gas every spring because it doesn't go bad like the oxygenated crap we have here in phx. Thanks to the avgas, it has gone 18 years without a single carb problem.

I enlarged the battery box in '96 to hold 1 engine batt and 2 deep cycle coach batts. I put in a 200 amp relay that I activate with a switch on the dash to connect the engine and coach batts , so I can charge the coach with the alternator or charge the engine batt with the generator/12v coach power supply. Plus I can bring in the coach batts to start the engine if needed. I have a separate trickle charger for the engine and coach batts.

I went through a lot of batteries til I got things figured out. The secret for me was to NOT leave it on the trickle chargers past April. Battery chemistry changes with temp - if it is 30° you need 14.5 volts to charge. At 120° 13.2 volts will charge. Cheap maintenance chargers (even Battery Tenders) go into a float mode of 13.6-13.9 volts, which is too high in the AZ summer. I kept cooking batteries dry and ruining them.

Expensive inverters have the most sophisticated chargers built in, and the best ones track temperature for a proper charge and float. I bought a 1500 watt Trace inverter probably 8 years ago and never put it in. Dang it - I curse my laziness.. So what worked for the 9 year battery was to manually plug in an extension cord to the rv once a week for a full day to let the maintenance chargers do their thing. Sometimes I forget and let it go 2 weeks, other times I leave it plugged in for a full week. Somehow it all worked out.

Ideally I will put in the Trace inverter and have all the advantages of a real inverter, including proper charging. Next best would be to put the extension cord on a 1 week wall timer, and set it to come on one day a week. Or likely I will just try to remember to keep plugging it in every week.
 
Original AC Delco batteries in my 1982 MF combine lasted 12 and 18 years, they would have about 11 months of the year unused.
 
Have one of the old duralast gold cells with the bright yellow top in the Camaro going on 12 years now. Never garaged with the obnoxious temp swings in Ohio. We'll see just how long she'll go!

Original Delco positive terminal FELL OUT in '02. Made it a whole 2 years.
 
We just had our batteries changed in the Dodge work truck. Original batteries from the dealership in 04.

They don't make them like they used to.
 
3500GMC said:
Have one of the old duralast gold cells with the bright yellow top in the Camaro going on 12 years now. Never garaged with the obnoxious temp swings in Ohio. We'll see just how long she'll go!

Original Delco positive terminal FELL OUT in '02. Made it a whole 2 years.
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I ran those in my 95. The connection between the top and side posts gave out. I got 2 replacement batteries and it took 2 weeks shipping. They told me it was the last battery of that size and vintage in America. I put them both in gassers and replaced w/ interstate dual post.

They were 3yrs old when they had the issue. Honestly they charged fine but I used the top posts for aux power and lost power to my air bag compressor, hyd pump, and light bar. Other wise I'd have never known.
 
I had to give up on NAPA batteries around here, I think they're using cheaper plate techknowledgy in their batteries of late I had a Johnson's Controls battery in my old van that lasted over 12 years. Nowadays I go with Interstates from Costco.
 
Leo Gustafsson said:
I had to give up on NAPA batteries around here, I think they're using cheaper plate techknowledgy in their batteries of late I had a Johnson's Controls battery in my old van that lasted over 12 years. Nowadays I go with Interstates from Costco.
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NAPA batteries used to be about as good as a battery could ever get, it seems of late that they dont last very long at all.
I like the carQuest batteries, they are good, but, CarQuest over here dropped their store, it was privately owned. The owner is still CQ brand but the prices are double to what the other two parts stores are.
My truck has Two twin post Interstate batteries in it, they seem to be a good battery too.
If I can buy the just side post only batteries, for My GM wehicles, that is the ones I go for. It seems that the terminals between the twin post units looses connectivity and builds corrosion between the side and the top post.
And @Will L. You are correct on that info about keeping the tops and even the sides of batteries clean as the dirt and moisture will draw down a battery.
 
Our last Delco Blem (thats right, a blem!) gave up the ghost last year. We had about 5 or 6 of them, and they were all dated from 01-02. They spent all their life on farm equipment, and most of the time were in Idaho, so the cool weather helped.
 
Here's a better shot of the dedicated ground I've been running everything from the frame and body to from the top post battery I converted to..
23152d1510259825-motor-timing-180-out-p1060875.jpg
 
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