They have this battery on Amazon for $138.xx. It gets good reviews. Specifically for Prius. Has anybody used this? Way cheaper than others. Input?
As a general rule of thumb, you usually get what you pay for. The battery is a 24 month limited warrant, minimal vehicle requirement battery. It’s a cheap price but it’s a cheap battery. Let’s put it this way: if I had no other choice, I might buy one in an emergency.
I recently bought this battery...too soon to recommend it but so far so good after about a month. Beware that if you have a problem you will get the runaround. Mine arrived factory box inside an Amazon box. The Amazon person dropped it into the second box upside down, this end up arrows pointing downward. So every time UPS threw it (and they really do throw them), it took a blow upside down. The factory box was well packaged and looked perfect but the weight of the battery was too much not to become damaged upside down The negative post was slightly bent and that made a very small crack in the case part way around the post. I went online to return it and lo and behold it said this item is NON RETURNABLE. What? This is Amazon who we've never had a problem with at all. Amazon website led me through a series of maneuvers that gave me the customer service email and phone number for AC Delco. I contacted them and they nicely got back to me and said they didn't sell me the battery (and don't sell to the public at all) and gave me an 888 number to Amazon and told me to ask for a supervisor. WOW! So I called the number and the person who answered asked me to let him try to resolve my issue before getting a supervisor on it...so after getting the story, the description of the damage, etc....he puts me on hold for a bit, then comes back and here were my options. I wanted a refund and he said that was an option, but minus a 30% fee for which I could never get an explanation. So I said no, I don't accept that. Puts me on hold again, comes back and says they will ship a replacement...and also that they did NOT want me to send the damaged battery back because it was "hazardous material". I really would have preferred a refund but I allowed them to send a replacement. It arrived undamaged. Meanwhile, I straightened the neg post on the first battery, epoxied the small crack (no liquid had leaked out at all), and it's now installed in the car. So I have a new AC Delco battery nor for sale on craigslist for $75....I paid $159 and as the op mentioned, now they have dropped it to about $130. I wish it would keep for a few years but I understand they deteriorate over time while having never been used. Bottom line, I don't recommend it but I'm hoping mine will last at least 2-3 years.
Would that keep the battery "new" for a couple of years? It's only a 2 year battery anyway, so if I can get it, I'd rather have the $75, cutting the price of the one I have to about $100.
From what I've seen on Prius Chat, the "average" price for a Prius battery is $200.00. That lasts 5-7 years. That's $40-28.00 per year. Pretty cheap. And you install it, and pretty much forget about it. Buying anything "cheap" is a huge risk. That cheap battery will cost you $70 a year. Plus the time and labor to change it. And the risk of getting stranded. And if(when) it fails, you'll be stranded and out of your money. With a better battery, you'll usually get a 2 year replacement, then pro-rated afterward. So at least you'll get something back if it fails within the warranty period. There are somethings that you can get away with getting cheap. I don't feel the car battery is on of them. It will also depend on your financial situation. If you only have $140, you can't buy the $200 battery. So you get what you can afford, then start saving for a better battery in 2 years.
Maybe better to buy batteries locally. I should talk: I got my Optima shipped from SaskBattery (Saskatchewan), but yeah: next time for me it'll likely be a MotoMaster, the house brand at Canadian Tire. Behind the scenes they're likely Yuasa or very similar. In my experience buying CT batteries for other vehicles, apart from the badges the Motomasters are dead-ringers for OEM batteries. In the States there's Pep Boys and others, local retailers, doing the same thing?
You're probably right on the cheap battery.....but when it failed I wasn't stranded. Or maybe it wasn't a fail yet, just a warning...but I did get a warning. The car wouldn't go into gear after pushing the start button......so after a few seconds I attempted to turn it off by pressing the start button again. It then put up on the screen a "accessory battery weak" message and allowed me to put it in gear. I drove it like that for 4 days while the above mentioned fiasco was going on. However I am "Mr Cheap". This is why I drive a salvage titled Prius that everyone is afraid of, actually run used tires at $40 each that I get at least 40k miles out of. It's why I repaired the damaged battery and used it instead if just throwing it away and using the replacement. It's also why everything I own is paid for, house cars, no debt whatsoever and has been that way since I was 45 when I paid off my house 7 years after buying it. Long story, I know, but in the long runs, overall, cheap can be a good thing,
I'd second getting a decent charger, say a smart charger, 3~4 amp range. And at the least a digital volt meter, but an electronic battery tester would better. And a jump pack lol. And read up on automotive batteries, here and wherever. And thusly armed to the teeth, you'll never have problems.
"And thusly armed to the teeth, you'll never have problems. " And, after buying all that ancillary stuff, could've just bought a better battery up front. Cheap MAY sometimes work, but it's usually the long way around... [Must add, however: I do love my Ctek 3300...]
There was a reason I bought this one....no one local had one in stock and I THOUGHT I'd have one in 2 days or less through Amazon...turned out to be 5-6 days counting through a weekend. So at the end I do remember saying I don't recommend this one? So now we'll see just how long this one lasts..... We just sold my wife's 2012 Rogue and the buyer took it to be checked out. The mechanic commented it appears to still have the original battery (it did) but it checks out just fine. So that's 7-8 years....maybe I'll get 3-4 on this 2 year one....
Nothing wrong with what you are doing. Getting the most of what you use. It's just smart. For me, there are just some things I don't skimp on. I always shop around for the best price. I spend my money wisely. And so do you. You had warning signs for the battery, and were lucky you didn't get stranded somewhere.
No two year battery, here. I got this one with a non-prorated four year warranty. It's worth the extra that I paid for it. Duracell Ultra Platinum AGM Battery for 2012 Toyota Prius L4 1.8L 325CCA Hybrid Car and Truck - SLI51PAGM at Batteries Plus Bulbs
there is usually no relationship between warranty and life expectancy. my guess is that every 12v battery (and most come from the same factory line) under the same conditions would perform similarly, except in the case of factory defects. the warranty is nice because a small number of any manufacturer will go bad before it is up, however long it is for. people sometimes complain that a new oem hybrid battery only gets one year warranty, (3 if dealer installed) but it is the same battery that gets a 10 year warranty in a new prius.
