More on Batteries

[Gene M.]

Re: More on Batteries

I too bought a JC Penny Forever battery in 1976. It lasted 6 years, and the one they replaced it with looked the same, except that it had no markings. By the time it died Penny had sold it's service centers to Firestone during one of their bankruptcies. I had moved but Firestone honored the warranty, and I brought the old one to the service center and they gave me a new one. I don't remember the brand but I think it had a Firestone label. The two after that were Interstate and the store made me bring the car in to test the charging system (at their expense). The last one they made me go to the Penny store and fill out a bunch of paperwork. It's now dead and I'm probably through since my car will be judged when I finish it and the Firestone grease monkeys are not going anywhere near it.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]44110[/ATTACH]

Also the same issue with JC Penny Forever battery when it died, and it was over 12 years old when JC Penny gave me my money back plus the tax. Was around 60+ bucks as I recall. They even had an old catalog to look up the price as I had no receipt.

[Terry M.]

Re: More on Batteries

I too got bought out of the Penny's forever battery. I think I got three replacements before Firestone refunded my money. It was still a good deal.

[Steven B.]

Re: More on Batteries

I have Interstate in two drivers now, the oldest is 8 years. Not bad for setting out in the Texas heat day after day. I never looked to see who makes them---Johnson???

[Paul J.]

Re: More on Batteries

I have Interstate in two drivers now, the oldest is 8 years. Not bad for setting out in the Texas heat day after day. I never looked to see who makes them---Johnson???

Yes, Post #8.

https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...-Battery-Drain

There are several recent threads on this.

[Terry M.]

Re: More on Batteries

Sit tight guys. A little bird told me there is a story on this in the next Restorer. Also one may want to read the news about the Boeing 787's battery issues. I was once told that the leading cause of blindness in the USA is battery explosions. Given that I was told this in a safety seminar about batteries and the presenter was trying to encourage us to wear eye protection when near batteries (and we have some large ones in the utility), I took it with a grain of salt. After the first cell blew up when I was in the room (fortunately on the other side of the room) I became a believer. It is not a matter of if, but when.

[Steven B.]

Re: More on Batteries

You are right Terry. Way back when in the telco industry we had a battery case crack and leak a few gallons of acid. After removal of that battery and replacement an adjacent battery exploded during the late night hours and blew the metal security door away and alot of other damage. Small batteries are lethal, large batteries are catastrophic. They are to be highly respected.

[Terry M.]

Re: More on Batteries

Maybe it is just me, or I have been hanging around batteries more than most folks -- my 2001 Camaro B4C has evidence of a battery explosion while it was in service with the North Carolina Highway Patrol. A TSB was issued for North Carolina HP only to increase the ampacity of the alternator and use a different belt to drive that alternator. I am not sure that the TSB is related to my car, or if they had other charging system issues with the 100 B4Cs NC had -- but they did have 100 of the 188 B4Cs made that year.

I once had a 1967 GMC 3/4-ton pick up with a very interesting drive train (but that is another story). One winter Chicago day I had to jump start it. No big surprise when the temperature was -10*F. When I got it running and disconnected the jumper cables the battery acid froze to mush, with the engine running and the alternator working, and pushed up the cell caps up like toothpaste out of the tube. I have never seen or heard of that since. It was a very scary sight.

[Steven B.]

Re: More on Batteries

In the winter of 76-77 while living in IN there was a report on the evening news of a fellow who lived in an apartment in Chicago who brought his car battery inside to warm it. He put it in the oven. It destroyed a few apartments and resulted in deaths. IIRC it was on the south side.

[Ray G.]

Re: More on Batteries

There was a recent thread which got into a discussion of batteries. I forgot to mention there that there is another fairly new line of batteries out there that I discovered a few months ago. In addition to the Odyssey Batteries I mentioned in that thread, I believe these batteries are not manufactured by one of the major battery manufacturers that supply most of the other batteries on the market today. These batteries have a brand name of "Volt Edge" and are supplied by a company called FVP Parts (www.fvpparts.com). The interesting thing about these batteries is they have a "smooth top" with no recessed filler caps AND they have a "Delco Eye". I have not seen a "Delco Eye" in any battery since Delco and DELPHI ceased manufacturing batteries. I'm kind of expecting that FVP may have purchased one of the DELPHI battery manufacturing operations and that's why they have the old Delco features and configuration.

Joe;
Do you think this is new technology with an old Delco configuration ?

Following up on Terry's point about safety. I Always advise friends and relative not touch car/truck batteries and go to a professional. Most battery resellers test/charge/install. Just touching car batteries leads to

sulfuric

acid destroying clothing and the produced hydrogen gas explodes easily.

I know this sounds redundant to other battery subject posts and yes I'm trying to warn and make people aware of the DANGER.
my .02

[Joe L.]

Re: More on Batteries

Joe;
Do you think this is new technology with an old Delco configuration ?

Following up on Terry's point about safety. I Always advise friends and relative not touch car/truck batteries and go to a professional. Most battery resellers test/charge/install. Just touching car batteries leads to

sulfuric

acid destroying clothing and the produced hydrogen gas explodes easily.

I know this sounds redundant to other battery subject posts and yes I'm trying to warn and make people aware of the DANGER.
my .02

Ray------


I'm not sure. However, my guess is that it's more likely old technology and old configuration. The most likely scenario I can imagine is that these batteries are manufactured in an old Delco battery facility or, at least, using old Delco battery tooling and production methods.

Of course, old Delco battery technology was not all that bad----I had many very satisfactory Delco batteries. In fact, it sounds to me like the "new battery technology" has not yet produced a product as good as the old.

[Paul J.]

Re: More on Batteries

Ray------


I'm not sure. However, my guess is that it's more likely old technology and old configuration. The most likely scenario I can imagine is that these batteries are manufactured in an old Delco battery facility or, at least, using old Delco battery tooling and production methods.

Of course, old Delco battery technology was not all that bad----I had many very satisfactory Delco batteries. In fact, it sounds to me like the "new battery technology" has not yet produced a product as good as the old.

Most of the time, any new technology combined with old is just a little tweaking. I worked with a company two years ago who was just about to release their new membrane (separator) for lithium ion batteries. It supposedly made them more efficient. (I hope that these are not in 787 batteries.) This type of technology can be used in other applications, too.