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

Went to Battery Centre over the weekend and they wanted R1200 for a Raylite. Decided to buy Willard from Midas for R670
 
Was it the same size? I somehow doubt it.
You do realise you risk damaging your vehicle if you put an underspec battery in it? Besides voiding the guarantee on the battery?
 
Madman88 said:
Was it the same size? I somehow doubt it.
You do realise you risk damaging your vehicle if you put an underspec battery in it? Besides voiding the guarantee on the battery?
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It is the same size. I wanted a bigger one for my sound.
 
I can get a Raylite for just over R1500 or a Willard for just under R1200. They both have a 24 month warranty (actually the Willard is 25 months), and that seems to be quite a large difference in price. Is the Raylite worth over R300 more than the Willard?
 
Colin62 said:
I can get a Raylite for just over R1500 or a Willard for just under R1200. They both have a 24 month warranty (actually the Willard is 25 months), and that seems to be quite a large difference in price. Is the Raylite worth over R300 more than the Willard?
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Go with the Willard
 
Willard? Never ever in my life! Raylite - same refurbished cr@p.

Buy Exide and forget about battery for 6 years.
 
I went in to get the Raylite yesterday afternoon, thinking that it will likely last a little longer. I also realised that the Willard at that price was without fitting, which would mean swapping it myself in the street, and that by going into a Battery Centre they would do a check on the old battery. When I got there, it turns out to be a 66ah battery instead of 74ah which the original was, so I'm back to the drawing board.


Vincent_Thorn said:
Willard? Never ever in my life! Raylite - same refurbished cr@p.

Buy Exide and forget about battery for 6 years.
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I appreciate you making the effort to reply, but just need to mention that Raylite and Exide are made in the same factory. :)
 
Colin62 said:
...
I appreciate you making the effort to reply, but just need to mention that Raylite and Exide are made in the same factory. :)
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So is most things in life but its not the same. Its like saying that because an A class Merc is made by the company as the S class it is therefore the same product.

Wrong!

Its all about the components and the quality control. If Ratlite was so good then I would not have needed to toss away my 2yr old Raylite battery last month.
 
I agree that they are not the same product, but they are manufactured under similar conditions. And if the factory sees Raylite as their premium brand, then on average, it should be at least as good as an Exide.

Obviously there will be instances where a Raylite will die under warranty and an Exide will last a decade, but we can't predict that, all we can do is buy the product with the best chance of lasting, look after it as well as we can, and hope we got one of the ones that is above the average.

Sometimes I think it's easiest just to buy the cheapest you can find and hope it lasts. And then other times I get all anal and spend extra money buying the best I can afford. I suspect that, quite often, I screw up and do them the wrong way around.
 
just need to mention that Raylite and Exide are made in the same factory
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I can tell you even more: same factory that makes iPhone at night can produce Nokia too! The difference is quality of parts and strictness of QA. Same with battery: one can be the best, while other is made from old batteries + fresh acid (see my adventure with 'Probe' above).
My previous Exide battery worked about 6 years (but I didn't know that) and I was shocked when master explained me digits on the body. So my vote for Exide despite where it's assembled. And BTW... I don't sell batteries :)
 
I didn't mention earlier that when I went to get a battery fitted yesterday, it's an hours drive to get to town, and back again, so when I realised that the battery wasn't the spec I wanted, I was a little annoyed, and called the customer contact centre, as the salesman I spoke to on the phone told me that the battery was the original spec for my car.

I just had a call from the First National Battery area manager, and they've offered me a free battery to compensate for me having driven out of my way for nothing. I'd be an idiot not to gracefully accept, so I'll be getting a Raylite EFB battery. To say that I'm impressed with their service level would be an understatement.

And Vincent, I appreciate your view, and I promise I'll necro this thread (again) should it die prematurely. :)

It is very new technology - they've only been making their Enhanced Flooded Battery for a few months, so I'm pretty sure it's not the same technology that let you down.
 
I am not happy with raylite as I have had it for just over 2 years (feels a lot less, but battery says 2012 - so not sure), but its already giving problems with starting and the guy that checked it says its got maybe 70% live as the cells are dying.
I miss the days when batteries last 5 years :(
Anyone got any other recommendations for a battery??

btw, this was the maintenance free type battery , if that matters
 
Last Willard I bought lasted 18 months, won't buy them any more.

Warranty was 12 months.
 
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I see that tiger wheel has duracell batteries with 30 month warranties.... may go for this next.
hopefully they not too much more expensive

are there any batteries with 5 year warranties??
 
Colin62 said:
I didn't mention earlier that when I went to get a battery fitted yesterday, it's an hours drive to get to town, and back again, so when I realised that the battery wasn't the spec I wanted, I was a little annoyed, and called the customer contact centre, as the salesman I spoke to on the phone told me that the battery was the original spec for my car.

I just had a call from the First National Battery area manager, and they've offered me a free battery to compensate for me having driven out of my way for nothing. I'd be an idiot not to gracefully accept, so I'll be getting a Raylite EFB battery. To say that I'm impressed with their service level would be an understatement.

And Vincent, I appreciate your view, and I promise I'll necro this thread (again) should it die prematurely. :)

It is very new technology - they've only been making their Enhanced Flooded Battery for a few months, so I'm pretty sure it's not the same technology that let you down.
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Gives a hoot about the tech or the name ..... The price was right - gratis, R0,00 for naaathing, mahala, Nkandla

And I am glad you came right
 
lucifir said:
I see that tiger wheel has duracell batteries with 30 month warranties.... may go for this next.
hopefully they not too much more expensive

are there any batteries with 5 year warranties??
Click to expand...

There are a few car batteries on the market with 3 year warranties, but they are expensive and really only used in special applications.

I would be careful of these no name brands that seem to be popping up every where. Every time I turn around there is a new battery with some funky name and a two year guarantee. None of them are SABS tested and none of them adhere to any local standards.
Since these things are all made overseas you as a consumer have no real idea what's inside it.

What happened with Battery Max was that for a long while they brought in fair batteries, not great but for the cheap price they where ok. Next thing the rand goes south, lead goes up and suddenly their cheap batteries are costing them the same price as local good quality batteries. What's worse is that they now have to honour the guarantees of the batteries they have already sold. This is done out of their own pocket since they cannot send the batteries back to China, Turkey or Brasil or wherever they're made.
So they are in a position where the batteries they are giving away for warranties are costing them more than what they sold the original battery for and sales are dipping because they are suddenly not so cheap.

So they sourced another supplier, bought crap batteries for cheap and sold them and used them for the warranties instead. They made a bit of money and then closed up shop before all those crap warranties could come flooding in.
I was replacing 3 to 4 month old BatteryMax batteries at a rate of a couple a day for months and months.

So my personal opinion is to stay away from the fly by nights, like Maxim, Mutlu, Tiger and all those dodgy brands. They could all change suppliers and quality over night.

Stick to the well known brands and their derivatives:
Local is better, so go for Raylite, Exide, Wilard and Sabat. I would like to say Dixon too, but they're also importing their calcium batteries from who knows where because their production line so so old.
If you want imported then go for Deltec (Energiser is the same thing), Optima or AC Delco.

I'm not sure of the quality of Probe. They used to be crap, but they seem to have some big companies behind them in South Africa so we will have to see.

As for Duracell car batteries. I sceptical. Its something else that's been re branded as Duracell. Could be a Deltec, but I don't know for sure. I would be careful about laying out that kind of cash for what's actually an unknown battery.
 
The OEM battery in my golf was a varta, I left the lights on one night and the car wouldn't start the next day. After a jump with those booster packs it started and has been working fine ever since. It is about 4,5 years old.
 
rodga said:
The OEM battery in my golf was a varta, I left the lights on one night and the car wouldn't start the next day. After a jump with those booster packs it started and has been working fine ever since. It is about 4,5 years old.
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Varta is good too, although I would beware of their cheaper ranges.
 
lucifir said:
I am not happy with raylite as I have had it for just over 2 years (feels a lot less, but battery says 2012 - so not sure), but its already giving problems with starting and the guy that checked it says its got maybe 70% live as the cells are dying.
I miss the days when batteries last 5 years :(
Anyone got any other recommendations for a battery??

btw, this was the maintenance free type battery , if that matters
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It is never maintenance free!

Open it up, pour water in and it will be good for another year. Did that with mine
 
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