Battery...which one to get...?

Madman88 said:
And yet this guy expects to be employed and make a living in this country :rolleyes:
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Well at the rate the ANC are plundering the economy why should I suffer. A decent battery at a decent price is all I ask. Saving me R250.00 I can spend on my kids made me all the happier. ;)
 
Madman88 said:
Me. I'm the source. I have been in the battery industry for 6 years myself and my family over 25. They put 'deep cycle' on the labels of their batteries even tho they should know what a deep cycle battery constitutes. They will say anything to sell you a battery.
Trust me. If you need a cheap battery then fine, but if you need anything else stay away from Probe.
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Wow.......for someone who has apparently been in the industry this long you sure talk a lot of nonsense. I have a probe. Two in fact (one in each of my cars). Granted I havent "been in the industry" for years, I do my research when it comes to stuff I put into my car. Nowhere on the Probe website is it mentioned that Probe is deep cycle. To be sure I removed one of my batteries from my car, and again nowhere does it mention being deep cycle.
Both my Probe batteries are performing faultlessy. In fact, much better than more expensive batteries I had in previously.
 
ambroseg1 said:
Wow.......for someone who has apparently been in the industry this long you sure talk a lot of nonsense. I have a probe. Two in fact (one in each of my cars). Granted I havent "been in the industry" for years, I do my research when it comes to stuff I put into my car. Nowhere on the Probe website is it mentioned that Probe is deep cycle. To be sure I removed one of my batteries from my car, and again nowhere does it mention being deep cycle.
Both my Probe batteries are performing faultlessy. In fact, much better than more expensive batteries I had in previously.
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Well that's great, I'm basing my opinion on dealing with many, many people who have had bad experiences with probe. More so than any local battery. I also take in a scrap battery for every new one I sell and I cannot tell you how often we get probe batteries in the scrap pile that is still within its warranty period. Again more so than any local battery. But if your two batteries are performing fine then great. But then again a battery works until it doesn't huh? It's not like a slow pc or a cheap cell phone that kinda half works. But if your cars are starting in the morning then it must mean that the batteries are awesome.
 
Madman88 said:
Well that's great, I'm basing my opinion on dealing with many, many people who have had bad experiences with probe. More so than any local battery. I also take in a scrap battery for every new one I sell and I cannot tell you how often we get probe batteries in the scrap pile that is still within its warranty period. Again more so than any local battery. But if your two batteries are performing fine then great. But then again a battery works until it doesn't huh? It's not like a slow pc or a cheap cell phone that kinda half works. But if your cars are starting in the morning then it must mean that the batteries are awesome.
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You didnt ONLY give your opinion. You made a statement, and a false one at that. Nowhere on the Probe website or on their batteries does it say they are deep cycle. Seems like you should focus more on your business practices than those of your competitors :whistle:
 
ambroseg1 said:
You didnt ONLY give your opinion. You made a statement, and a false one at that. Nowhere on the Probe website or on their batteries does it say they are deep cycle. Seems like you should focus more on your business practices than those of your competitors :whistle:
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It's your two times probe battery experience as a consumer against hundreds of different batteries of various brands as a retailer? Who should I believe.... :whistle: :whistle: :whistle: :whistle: all you want ;)
 
Madman88 said:
Dixon, Sabat, Willard, Raylite, Exide. Local means that if the seller gives you crap about the warranty you can always go directly to the manufacturer. All of them have customer care lines and all of them care what you think.
Thats all besides the obvious advantages in supporting our local economy.
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Sabat batteries are absolute crap. Didn't last more than 6 months.(both of them)

I prefer Varta, Raylight, Exide. :p

edit: oh, on another note, Lead Acid batteries last a lot longer if you never drain them below 80%. (or so I heard :p)
 
wily me said:
It's your two times probe battery experience as a consumer against hundreds of different batteries of various brands as a retailer? Who should I believe.... :whistle: :whistle: :whistle: :whistle: all you want ;)
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well done for completely missing the point.
And yes....believe a retailer who clearly has bias instead of me a client who buys what works best becuase I dont work for any of these companies and pay for my batteries.
 
ambroseg1 said:
well done for completely missing the point.
And yes....believe a retailer who clearly has bias instead of me a client who buys what works best becuase I dont work for any of these companies and pay for my batteries.
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Missing what point exactly, Your experience? Please educate me why the probe battery works best, if you can please confirm your statements with links to the claims you are making.
 
wily me said:
Missing what point exactly, Your experience? Please educate me why the probe battery works best, if you can please confirm your statements with links to the claims you are making.
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obviously you are a student of the new education system. Please point out to me where I stated it works best? And the point I was making is that Probe do not claim their batteries are deep cycle thus the person that said that is talking crap but claims to have all them years of experience.
 
ambroseg1 said:
obviously you are a student of the new education system. Please point out to me where I stated it works best? And the point I was making is that Probe do not claim their batteries are deep cycle thus the person that said that is talking crap but claims to have all them years of experience.
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obviously you were a student from the old "special" education system.

ambroseg1 said:
Wow.......for someone who has apparently been in the industry this long you sure talk a lot of nonsense. I have a probe. Two in fact (one in each of my cars). Granted I havent "been in the industry" for years, I do my research when it comes to stuff I put into my car. Nowhere on the Probe website is it mentioned that Probe is deep cycle. To be sure I removed one of my batteries from my car, and again nowhere does it mention being deep cycle.
Both my Probe batteries are performing faultlessy. In fact, much better than more expensive batteries I had in previously.
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Please link us to that "researched" sources so we can do the same and verify your claims, unless of course a Makro salesman was your expert source. ;)
 
wily me said:
obviously you were a student from the old "special" education system.



Please link us to that "researched" sources so we can do the same and verify your claims, unless of course a Makro salesman was your expert source. ;)
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you know what "BEST" means right? And you know what "better" means right? I never said best because obviously I have not used ALL the battery brands in the world.

And well done on sidestepping your friends blatant lies about the deep cycling claim to argue about semantics.
 
ambroseg1 said:
you know what "BEST" means right? And you know what "better" means right? I never said best because obviously I have not used ALL the battery brands in the world.

And well done on sidestepping your friends blatant lies about the deep cycling claim to argue about semantics.
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What friend? Read my prior posts about batteries. Talk about semantics? Who is the person who harpers on the deep cycle semantic?

FYI

Probe do supply deep cycle batteries. ;)


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More FYI.

http://rangeroverworld.blogspot.com/2010/01/batteries-more-better.html

Probe Batteries are utter rubbish...
Our Range Rovers require a good healthy strong battery, there are many electrical Ecu's etc in today's modern vehicles that demand alot of power to keep things going in harmony and Range Rovers are not shy to call out for a good battery.

The specified battery for the P38 is a sealed maintenance free type with a amp rating of 72amp/h.
The ideal and sensible battery is a 100~115amp/h with 800CCA (Cold cranking amps) these work well and is the same for diesel models which was not available in South Africa (Some diesel models have been privately imported).

The battery that we were supplying was the Probe, after many returns we consider this brand to be utter rubbish and regret ever selling them (Documented Proof). Apart from recently having a go at some knob head who I think owns the company about bad service I think my voice was heard by many when I complained, guess there approach was to start declining batteries I was returning for warranty purposes.

Known faults we had with Probe batteries:
Total failure (within a year) without warning (Flat) indicates a bad cell = crap manufacturing
Electrolyte leaks from posts and top cover, again bad manufacturing process.
Low electroylite level, means faulty cell plates shorting and battery overheats but they say over charging=crap

Incidentally if you buy a Delkor or a Deltec battery you are essentially buying the same rubbish, just different stickers.....I kid you not., Outdoor warehouse sell them, you have been warned.

On my very own vehicle the battery packed up with no hint of a warning and had to be replaced 11 months down the line, what the.....
It now seems to be the norm for them to say that the batteries I return have been over charged, they must think we have no idea on how to test alternators when they come in for a failing battery so good riddance to Probe.

It seems their batteries come in from where ever blank, yipe not branded and stickers are applied when bought so they could even come from ****ty North Korea for all we know.

If anyone from Probe ever reads this your batteries are utter crap, now with the new consumer law in place we can merely expose such junk matters of suppliers and they are welcome to challenge us.
Be warned however I will gather more proof than you think and will expose it publicly, the public have the right to know and it cannot be hidden, the dark days are gone hiding behind the law of defamation.
Also note that this blog is hosted overseas and will never be closed, back ups are performed weekly in case anyone wants to hack it.

Although I prefer local content I have yet to find a suitable brand that is ideal for the Range Rover but that may well change shortly after I visited the Automakanik show here in Johannesburg, SABAT urged me to try there new range so we'll see, alternatively I'm keen on VARTA and RAYLITE which I know are very good quality batteries
After all......
In South Africa's hot rugged climate if a battery last 3 years or more on a P38 you are doing well but one year is unacceptable which is what the Probe was doing, one bloody year.......come on

While I'm on about the power source it's worth noting three things:
1) Alternator charge rate.
2) Alternator cable upgrade on the GEMS engine (Bosch injected engines do not require this mod).
3) Battery box and cover present, this is important to keep extreme engine heat away from the battery.






Just so you know what a junk Probe battery looks like, sorry we ever sold these but no more as I had to apologise cap in hand to customers who we supplied these too.

I bought a ****ty Probe deep cycle battery awhile back, possibly two years now and its no longer usable, this battery was being used as a source in my van at the time and always questioned its ability to hold charge which I returned no less than 5 to 6 times for testing in the warranty time, each time they told me it was good but it wasn't so there you have it, buy a Midas battery for now as they are made by Exide
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Ok time for a new battery, mine is officially kaput after 5½yrs and it was a Dixon Premium. Not to shabby.

So my options now locally are Exide (Midas sticker) R607 or Spirex R580 (Autozone). I can get another Dixon but it's about 20km away.

Edit: Just phoned Autozone again to ask why don't they stock them any more only for the guy to tell me they still do, duh. So I can get the Dixon locally for R580 and I think I'll get the same one again unless someone can convince me the others are better options.

Ok new Dixon in car and all is good, let's hope for another 5+ yrs.
 
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Since people still need good batteries, my 2c to warn 'em (I drive light passenger car):
In Midas I've bought Willard. It become cr@p in 1.5 years. No warranty, so I throw it away. Funny point is manager of Midas said they never ever was selling Willard(!). On this week I received newspaper with their advert with Willard batteries. Stupid lie...
Second battery was Probe. Definitely they use wrong name - it should be "ProbLEM"! This battery didn't stay even year - died in 2 months - white indicator shows that liquid is gone.
For second car I use Excide - works perfect 2 years like a charm.
Make your conclusions!
 
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