Not at all surprising. My friendly neighbourhood appliance repair man
always recommends buying "house brand" from the major retailers. His
experience is that , although they are built in the same plant by the
same people, they are built to a higher spec as the major retailer has
the reputation of the whole store on the line here. So a Kenmore washer
/ fridge was of a higher build quality than a Westinghouse who actually
built the Kenmore.
Anyway that was his experience.
As far as batteries go, it's what's inside that counts, not the name on
the outside. I buy mine from Rocky's Battery rebuild shop. Tell him
what you want and you'll get first quality. The used box may say Delco
or exide but the guts are new and to your spec.
Check the yellow pages and go shop visiting.
On Sunday, October 16, 2005, at 05:14 PM, Triumphs@Autox.team.net
daily digest wrote:
> Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2005 18:39:46 EDT
> From: ZinkZ10C@aol.com
> Subject: Re: Battery Testing - Consumer Reports
>
> In a message dated 10/16/05 9:10:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> 75TR6@tr6.danielsonfamily.org writes:
>
> << Consumer Reports just completed their battery tests and the top
> rated
> batteries in every category are the "no names" >>
>
> There are only a few name battery manufacturers but you can find their
> name
> on many private label brands.
>
> Johnson Controls, Exide, GNB and a few others have been buying up
> smaller
> battery makers and by now have probably bought each other up. I
> suspect this is
> done to buy market share rather than to acquire assets because many
> batteries
> are made in Mexico rather than deal with restrictive USA environmental
> laws.
>
> I'd find it strange a private label would out perform the branded when
> they
> are made by the same company. Were there the tests done to battery
> industry
> standards?
>
> In any event, lead acid batteries don't perform to full capacity until
> they
> have been run through a few discharge / charge cycles. ( electric car
> people
> are familiar with the break in period ) Who knows what the results
> would be in
> the long term.
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