RACV Deep Cycle Battery / CCA

Hi Neilo,
I got stranded with a dead battery one sunday afternoon in my VW Transporter.RACV came out and fitted a 13 plate extra heavy duty battery for me.
It was good service but not real cheap.Anyway five months later i accidentally left the radio on over the week-end and was so dead on Monday morning it wouldn't start the van.It wouldnt jump start so put the charger on for five hours and still dead.Called RACV back and they tested the battery to find it no good.They installed a new battery and instead of another 12 months warranty said the warranty would carry on from the term of the first battery and gave me only 7 months.Spoke to my auto elec who says RACV batteries are from China and not the highest quality on the market.I think i will try another brand next time.
Cheers Mark

Neilo,
These batteries would be made by someone like Exide, so the battery might be an Exide Endurance with a different sticker on the case (I'm guessing). So I'd expect them to be as good as anything else out there.

Battery ratings:
CCA tells you how good the battery is at starting the car, or powering a winch, so the more the merrier.
Ah gives a guide to how long the battery will run your fridge.

So for a wet cell deep cycle battery the CCA doesn't matter. The 75Ah is a guide to capacity (about normal for this size battery).

If you buy a wet cell deep cycle battery, you only get a 6 month warranty. Thats because they are easily stuffed up by the average user. They need more volts to charge them than most vehicle alternators can deliver, so they can die an early death from sulphation.

If you buy a cranking battery, like the Exide Extreme, you'll pay the same money, get a battery with more CCA (so it starts the car easily), and it has 80Ah capacity and a 24 month replacement warranty.

Why would you buy a wet cell deep cycle battery??? I think they are a waste of money, but others don't and happily replace them regularly. I run a pair of Exide Extremes.

Cheers
phil

I do not know what happens in the retail car battery market theses days but a few years ago I was reliable informed that one of the big maufacturers put different labels on the same batteries. The only difference was the cost and warranty period. The more you paid the bigger the label and the longer the warranty !

hi,
Buy a AGM battery such as a Excide orbital Deep cycle, these provide similar cca to a starting battery with deep cycle properties. They are able to take a very quick charge, will double as a starting battery too. Wet deep cycle batteries take forever to charge and are really a joke these days.