Best lawn mower battery

[Rivets]

Just read through the description of this unit and it is just a small load tester, used in the automotive industry for years. One correction, it cannot measure resistance, as resistance is measured through a solid object. Any sort of voltage flowing through an object while testing for resistance will ruin a meter. In a battery there is no solid connection, if there where the battery would have what is called a dead short. Mechanics normally call it a bad cell.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

I am not going to argue on the internet. It is as productive as pushing a chain. The tester is not a load tester. Folks can believe what they will according to their research. I would challenge folks to research battery capacity testing via the internal resistance method.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Actually both of them, and a dozen more are done to every battery as it comes off the production line.
No factory deliberately makes low quality batteries.
All of the battery lines are designed to make premium batteries but like all production line processes not every battery will be perfect.
The ones that are not perfect will end up in Walmart, , HF and other discount retailers.
When I first started battery grids were 2.5mm thick
By the time I left they were 0.5mm thick but made from a slightly stronger alloy
However drop one from waist height onto the floor and 3/4 of the plates will have broken free of the single busbar that holds them in place.
This is why I told you that ab AGM battery is far far stronger because the mat provides a lot of support for the plates.
Pressure Valve regulating prevents the battery self discharging by preventing the evolution of hydrogen gas.

The down side is mower owners are cheap bastards who point blank refuse to pay what anything is worth so there is no way any one will pay $ 250 for a battery when they can get one for $ 75 ( $ Aus) .
It is as simple as that.
Car makers demanded we make cheaper & lighter batteries and will accept anything that had a mean time between failure of 18 months ( warranty is 12 months )
OTOH the car makers branded batteries sold through parts shops were premium batteries with a service life of 10 years.
Hawker-Cyclon developed a battery for aircraft use that could take a massive amount of abuse , provide massive CCA , recharge very rapidly and have no self discharge.
These were spiral cell batteries and are available to Joe Public under the Optima brand.
These are head & shoulders the absolute best battery money can buy but no one would ever fit one to a lawn mower because they are too much of a cheapskate.
I run Cyclons in all my motorcycles in many cases upside down they will last better than 10 years (one is now 18 years old ) but they cost me $ 120 .
We ran Optimas in our entire fleet of courier vans and in 20 years never had a battery or alternator problem with the entire fleet
But again these were $ 350 as comparred to $ 65 from a cheap car parts retailer.
I blew a truck drivers brain when we jumped his Kenworth / Cummings with the battery from my L 300 & a standard battery from one of the forks to make 24V
The yard manager was so impressed he bought 40 of them for all of the fork lifts which were forever suffering from flat batteries

Everything else is just Ford vs GM brand bull dust

 

[slomo]

Just read through the description of this unit and it is just a small load tester, used in the automotive industry for years. One correction, it cannot measure resistance, as resistance is measured through a solid object. Any sort of voltage flowing through an object while testing for resistance will ruin a meter. In a battery there is no solid connection, if there where the battery would have what is called a dead short. Mechanics normally call it a bad cell.

Batteries over time can and do short cells to one another. They have a sediment tray in the bottom of the case. When a car or mower hits a bump, over time, small bits of lead fall off the plates and land in the tray. Again over time, this tray fills up with lead. And now thanks to salesmen and corporate giant companies squeeking every penny, the trays are SMALLER and offer the ultimate sales gimmick, more CCA's. So now, they offer thinner plates to stack more plates in the case = more cca's. So we think wow, this battery has 1000 cca's and it's wonderful. Now, with construction paper thick plates LOL, no wonder these new batteries don't last for 4 sneezes.

Moral of this novel is get your proper case size. Get the LOWEST rated CCA you can possibly find. That's right the LOWEST. Why, the plates inside are thicker and last longer. Back to tractor/farm batteries. They have a deeper sediment tray and thicker plates. How many tractors sit outside in the weather and will crank over a year after it was ran? Try that with your new 1000cca walmart job LOL.

P.S.
Do we need 1000 cca's? Most of today's cars and trucks offer gear reduction starters. They are smaller and lighter blah blah. Most draw like 100 amps. Do the second grade math on that one. Finally the starter is the highest drain in the vehicle. I need a nap...... LOL

slomo

 

[slomo]

Actually both of them, and a dozen more are done to every battery as it comes off the production line.
No factory deliberately makes low quality batteries.
All of the battery lines are designed to make premium batteries but like all production line processes not every battery will be perfect.
The ones that are not perfect will end up in Walmart, , HF and other discount retailers.
When I first started battery grids were 2.5mm thick
By the time I left they were 0.5mm thick but made from a slightly stronger alloy
However drop one from waist height onto the floor and 3/4 of the plates will have broken free of the single busbar that holds them in place.
This is why I told you that ab AGM battery is far far stronger because the mat provides a lot of support for the plates.
Pressure Valve regulating prevents the battery self discharging by preventing the evolution of hydrogen gas.

The down side is mower owners are cheap bastards who point blank refuse to pay what anything is worth so there is no way any one will pay $ 250 for a battery when they can get one for $ 75 ( $ Aus) .
It is as simple as that.
Car makers demanded we make cheaper & lighter batteries and will accept anything that had a mean time between failure of 18 months ( warranty is 12 months )
OTOH the car makers branded batteries sold through parts shops were premium batteries with a service life of 10 years.
Hawker-Cyclon developed a battery for aircraft use that could take a massive amount of abuse , provide massive CCA , recharge very rapidly and have no self discharge.
These were spiral cell batteries and are available to Joe Public under the Optima brand.
These are head & shoulders the absolute best battery money can buy but no one would ever fit one to a lawn mower because they are too much of a cheapskate.
I run Cyclons in all my motorcycles in many cases upside down they will last better than 10 years (one is now 18 years old ) but they cost me $ 120 .
We ran Optimas in our entire fleet of courier vans and in 20 years never had a battery or alternator problem with the entire fleet
But again these were $ 350 as comparred to $ 65 from a cheap car parts retailer.
I blew a truck drivers brain when we jumped his Kenworth / Cummings with the battery from my L 300 & a standard battery from one of the forks to make 24V
The yard manager was so impressed he bought 40 of them for all of the fork lifts which were forever suffering from flat batteries

Everything else is just Ford vs GM brand bull dust

In the US Army, we had pallets of dead Optima red tops. Years, I mean decades ago, when Optima came out on the market, they were good batteries. Like Bert said, lasted a long time. Today I think they are made in Mexico??. Nothing against that but they are sh_t now. Corporate America got a hold of them. Drove a good company into the ground. Only thing I like about them is they do not leak and corrode terminals. Every base overseas I went to, the motor pool had shoulder high pallet loads of dead red tops and yellow tops. Some reason they kept ordering them new?? Must of had a contract of course.

slomo

 

[Ariens A19A42]

Car batteries are not mechanically strong enough to be used in a mower unless it has suspension.
Motorcycle batteries and in particular AGM PVR motorcycle batteries are by far the most robust aside from spiral cell batteries which are even stronger.

As for Walmart, every battery that comes off the production line is tested.
The good ones get the top line brand stickers put on it.
The ones that just barely pass go to Walmart
I made batteries for a long while and that is exactly what happens
On our lines the batteries came off then line , got a serial number fused into the top then wend down the paint line to be painted what ever company the quality of the battery dictated.
Having said that if we had to fill a 10,000 unit supermarket brand battery & did not have enough dud ones in hand then we would add some good ones to the garbage pile.

Does that apply to the Wal-Mart Ever Start car batteries? Also then what brand got the good ones that might not hike the price real high for lawn tractors?

 

[bertsmobile1]

IT applies to all batteries.
It is a volume thing
It takes a full shift to set up for a new size battery so the most popular size will always be the cheapest .
As for the best , that will be the Optima Spiral cell batteries
I think Toro fitted them standard to some commercial mowers but Joe Average will no pay$ 150 US for a battery
We used them excuseivly in the fleet of wedding cars & all the delivery vans.

 

[Ariens A19A42]

Any mower batteries in the $40-$65 range that are any good in the 320 cca range?

I'll be pulling mine when its cold out and lawn doesn't need mowed often and give it a good charge then leave it on a battery tender.

 

[slomo]

As for the best , that will be the Optima Spiral cell batteries

I beg to differ on that statement.

Way back in the day when Optima first came out, YES, they were GREAT batteries THEN. Now, look elsewhere.

The US military has a contract to use Optimas. At every base I've been to, there are several pallets full of dead Optima red tops. They keep flying them in and flying them out. Every generator, Hmmwv and so on uses them. Army trucks have very low miles on them. Still have a ridiculous failure rate.

Last I heard they were made in Mexico. They've gone all corporate and chiseled down the quality like everything else. Only thing I like about them is they don't leak, that's it.

 

[7394]

My Toro battery that came w/it in 2014, lasted almost 5 years. And it was way under-rated CCA's for what the manual called for. That was a fine old machine.