[Huskymaniac]

Originally Posted by 92snowmachine

advance probably doesn't want to warranty the cheapo battery. i see this a lot at the shop when people come to us for a second opinion. we test the battery after charging it and tell them it's weak, tell them how much our interstate costs, they decide to try and get it warrantied, they are denied. the only proper way to test a battery is out of the car with a carbon pile tester. those little battery testers aren't accurate and that's what the company wants. i would just buy a better battery and chalk it up as a learning experience. it's not just the brand of battery you are buying (only 4 companies actually produce batteries and thousands of brands sell them) but you are also buying the brand of service from whoever is selling it. the new subaru batteries say they are from johnson industries who makes interstate and optima batteries. i put a yellow top optima in my svx and left it in the garage with the dome light on for a week (not on purpose) and it fired right up.

I have an unrelated question for you. I have a battery backup sump pump. It was installed in January 2006. The batteries are deep cycle batteries from Interstate. They have been on a battery monitor/charger for these 5+ years. Any idea how long I should keep them before replacing them? I am starting to get some stuff seeping out of the caps so I suspect they are at the end of their useful life.