Batteries... and warranty replacement

OK, I'll put this up to discussion and see what happens...


Several years ago (I do mean several) we were travelling in FL (home is NY) when the coach battery coughed it's last bit and refused to provide the power required to start the generator, so we stopped into a Walmart, and bought a group size 29 deep cycle battery. The rest of the trip went great and we got home with no more troubles. Just short of a year later, the battery (12 month free replacement) was failing. Took it to our local WM and they replaced it, honoring the warranty without question (note: this was before the "test it first" policy they now have...). Traveled without care, and low and behold, just short of a year later, same thing. We took it in, they replaced it, and we went on our merry way. I installed a trickle charger for storage maintenance, and we're good. Right? No.
Just short of a year later, we were back to WM with a flat battery. The guy behinds the counter said that RV's by nature are extremely hard on batteries because of the chargers they have. I argued with him that some chargers are multiple stage, and extremely nice to the batteries by only providing the power needed to maintain the voltage even by only supplying a couple hundred MW. Argue, argue.... Just tell me what you're doing with my battery. He put in on their brand new tester, and sure enough..shorted cell.
They replaced it. Following year... same thing. Shorted cell, replaced it. Last year, same thing. This year, once again, replaced it.


If they offer a free replacement warranty, how long should this ride go on?


I did buy a new battery minder this year since there is apparently something strange going on with the old one. I have shorted cells annually but with  a max of 500MW and never seeing more than 13.2V (with the minder on) I wouldn't think that would be enough to cause a cell to go bad. So is it just poor design/manufacturing and is it right to just keep on keeping on as we've been?


NOTE
I do not store the battery on cement or even near a cement wall. I've even gone as far as to install a timer to cycle the power on and off (only 4 hours/night) to try to get more than a year from the WM battery to no avail.

I'm surprised you've gotten as many free replacements as you have.  I'm pretty sure if you read the fine print, the warranty applies only to the warranty period of your initial purchase.  I'd say Walmart has been bending over backwards for you by not requesting your receipt or other proof of purchase.  However, it may be easier for Walmart to bite the bullet on a few rather than get strict on showing a receipt.

I think your ride is over. Go to Sams club and buy a new one, great batteries!

Dan

Since Sam's Club is owned by Walmart, I would expect them to carry the same batteries.

I am not surprised at Walmart replacing your batteries, they have awesome return policy there. What I am surprised is that you haven't figured out something is drastically wrong with your system. You could not have gotten that many defective batteries in a row. I doubt you could get three in a row.

Since Sam's Club is owned by Walmart, I would expect them to carry the same batteries.

Click to expand...

I have found very little in common between Walmart stores and Sam's Club. Gas prices differ at the two in the same city. Different cuts of meat and different prices for them. Different brands and prices for electronics.  And here's a cute one: Walmart sells Sam's Club soda, but Sam's Club does not. Hello?

And yes, they offer different [private label] brands of batteries, with Sam's having a wider selection of types as well.

Gary is correct. Sam's Club carries a whole line of AGM batteries that Walmart doesn't sell.

Undoubtedly all made by the same lowest bidder and private branded.

I was already expecting to be buying one and my Sam's club membership would have gotten some exercise.


They just go by the manufactured date and replace it.


I guess we'll see what happens next year. Like I mentioned, I did pick up a new battery minder since there seems to be something awry with my charging system.

The Duracell label that Sam's is now carrying  for deep cycles and AGMs are said to be made by East Penn Manufacturing. Supposedly the Duracell AGMs are the same specs as the Deka brand, which is at Penn's own in-house label. I haven't verified any of that, though.

I've had 3 bad walmart batteries  in a year before. And I'll never buy another from them. I know a lot of people say they have good luck with them, not I.  I was purchasing a large series starting battery for our race cars, we had 2 cars at one time. Seems I was always at walmart trying to get a battery replaced. My son forgot and left on a cooling fan on his car, battery was 1 week old. Granted the battery was run completely down over night, but it wouldn't take a charge the next day. We had to pull a battery out of the MH to race that day.  I just got my money back and went to one of our local battery shops and bought one for each car. Marine/deep cycle as we are using it for starting the race cars. Those batteries are now 4 years old. No more walmart batteries for me.

[quote author=92GA]
My son forgot and left on a cooling fan on his car, battery was 1 week old. Granted the battery was run completely down over night, but it wouldn't take a charge the next day. We had to pull a battery out of the MH to race that day.  I just got my money back and went to one of our local battery shops and bought one for each car. Marine/deep cycle as we are using it for starting the race cars. Those batteries are now 4 years old. No more walmart batteries for me.
[/quote]

Many battery chargers will not even attempt to charge a completely dead battery.  An alternate source to get the process started can sometimes be a jump start unit.

So, your son ruined a week old battery, by effectively shortig it out over night, you got your money back, so now it's time to declare Wal-Mart batteries  NO GOOD. ???