Battery life

[Buick35]

I just had to replace my seven year old battery (six volt) in my 35 Buick which I thought was pretty good.That got me wondering, who has the record for the longest lasting one. I heard there's an Edison light bulb that's been constantly burning for over a hundred years.My wife inherited her dad's 2000 Oldsmobile which had the original 12 year old battery,the parts store was amazed.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Buick35
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[Tom99]

I got 10 years, 10 months out of a Delco battery in my 85 Oldsmobile. The replacement battery didn't last half that long.

[TAKerry]

No idea, but is battery life shorter now with modern cars and all of the 'phantom draw' they are subject to or does that not matter. If I dont start my wifes mustang ('14) at least once a month the battery will be dead. My trans am sat from Nov until 2 weeks ago and fired right up.

[Brass is Best]

Had a 6-volt battery last for 10 years once. Never had an issue until it just died one day. Some years ago I read a story about a battery salvaged from a B-17. It had been underwater for decades and tested and worked just fine.

[jp1gt]

I had an ultima battery last 15 years but I believe the new batteries are of much less quality. Used to be that an expensive battery lasted longer. In my experience not the case anymore. I go to autozone and get the cheapest battery now. Of course you have to leave all of them on battery maintainers. 

[R Walling]

The town next to me has a pumping station that had a gas engine powering the plant.

 When it was replaced with a diesel, the battery was also replaced... it was over 50 years old!

[Barney Eaton]

Remember the battery get recharged by the alternator/generator and there is the regulator ........all of these have improved over the years and 

if they are not performing correctly the battery takes the blame

[Oldsoul58]

I had an Interstate 12 volt battery in my 1998 Chevy truck. It finally died after 12 years 3 months.

[EmTee]

Still have the original battery in my wife's '13 Equinox.  I almost replaced it last fall, just because, and then decided to wait.  I did replace the original in the Kia she had before that after 8 years, but only because my daughter needed a battery for her car (that she was about to sell) so I gave her the Kia battery.

[dalef62]

Was driving my dad's 2001 Ford F150 to Wauseon Ohio for the Crosley meet and at 2am in the morning at a rest stop the battery decided to call it quits.  A trucker walked out from the rest stop and offered to jump it.  I ask him where the nearest Walmart was, which was the next exit 3 miles down the road.  Drove down there, left it running and went and bought a new battery and changed it out in the Walmart lot.

When I got home I complained to the Ford Dealership that the battery went bad in dads truck and he was mad!  He asked how old the battery was and I told him it was only 13 years old.  We both had a good laugh!!!

This truck was a low mileage truck and never driven in the winter and never had a tender on it.  When he would come home from Florida he would have to charge it up and it would be good to go for the summer. 

Edited April 7, 2023 by dalef62 (see edit history)

[3macboys]

What I can say about battery life is that they will give up the ghost at the most inopportune time when you absolutely have to be somewhere and it's -20 C outside.   Ever swapped out a battery in the lane that's under the passenger seat that you can't move forward because said battery is dead, it's freezing cold and you have to take your gloves off to grip the wrench and get hold of the battery to lift it out while trying not to curse while the neighbours young kids are loading up to go to school?  And yah that one was only about 4 years old.  

[Jubilee]

The battery in my 1985 F250 service truck has 09 sticker on it. Truck has zero parasitic draw. Battery to start welder and air compressor on truck has 03 sticker on it.

Both work fine. Truck is used very little. Batteries are charged up on a smart charger once a year.

Both batteries are group 31 1000 cca.

 

[28 Chrysler]

I got 10 years out of a battery in my 1941 Dodge in the upper mid west but here in Nevada 5 years is pushing it.

The Edison bulb was running on about 1/2 the voltage it was designed for above a set of stairs.

[60FlatTop]

The original DELCO battery in my 2005 Silverado lasted 15 years.

 

On the old cars I really don't know. So that must mean I get a good lifespan from them. If I was unhappy with the performance I could tell you their life to the day and price to the penny.

[Max4Me]

I had a 2005 RAM truck I bought used in ‘06. It was a second vehicle and only used occasionally so once in a while I had to charge it. Traded it in two months ago but had to put in a new (cheap) battery because the battery wouldn’t take a charge when I went to take it to the dealership.

[Str8-8-Dave]

In June of 1971 my mother and sister took off for an 8 week driving trip to Alaska, up the then gravel Alcan Highway in a medium blue 1970 Ford Falcon station wagon equipped with rubber floor mats, cloth/vinyl seats, standard heater (no A/C), AM radio, nary a piece of stainless trim on the exterior, with a 351 Cleveland 2V engine, power steering and power disc brakes, C6 heavy duty automatic trans, and a Ford Sterling 2.79-1 limited slip rear axle.  Oh-, yes, and a HEAVY DUTY MOTORCRAFT NON-SEALED BATTERY.   My mother, a first grade teacher who probably weighed  105lbs dripping wet had to hand off driving to my 16yr old sister because the steering wheel was raising blisters on her hands driving up 1300 miles of Alcan perma-frost riddled highway.  Car and occupants survived the trip nicely, car needed a new windshield when it came home and stunk of limburger cheese some teenagers installed on the intake manifold of the engine at a late night gas stop in North Dakota under the guise of checking the oil.  the original battery was still in the car.  In 1983, after I owned the car for many years, I sold the car to Mike, a fellow employee of the Ford Climate Control Laboratory in Dearborn where I worked.  He drove the car until about summer of 1987, then sold it to another lab employee, Bob, a senior technician who was building a 4000 square foot house on the Michigan community of Grosse Ile.  Bob wanted the car to haul lumber and material to the job site and started off by getting a helper to hold 2x4's on edge running the of the roof while he lay on his back and nailed them to the roof of the car, right through the roof sheet metal. the original Motorcraft battery was still on duty.  Bob still lived in Dearborn while building the house on Grosse Ile and one night, came back from Grosse Ile, quite well lubricated, so to speak, and decided to spend the night in the upper flat of a Herman Gardens cleaner's building he owned, an arrangement he and his wife agreed to implement if he was particularly under the weather.   Now, understand, Herman Gardens is not a particularly nice neighborhood.  Next morning Bob headed out the door to go to work, jumped in the car, turned the key, and nothing happened.  He finally raised the hood and found the battery cables had been cut, plastic battery hold-down had been snapped off and the now, almost 20year old Motorcraft heavy duty battery was gone!  Whoever stole that battery got a really good one but I suspect its best years were behind it.  A local garage agent for AAA of Michigan was summoned to Herman gardens, installed new battery cables and battery in the car.   Bob was a little late getting to work that day...

[zepher]

Longest lasting 6v battery I have owned is an Optima battery that I purchased in 2005.

I removed it from service around 2015 just because I did not want it to die at an inopportune time.

The battery is still in my garage, is kept charged and has been used to jump or rescue 6v cars belonging to friends.

We will see how long the newer Optimas last compared to the older ones.

[dodge28]

Chemicals used to make battery plates today are superior than 50 years ago. Delco is one of the leaders. Batteries come dry and stored for months on dealers shelves. Sometime a dealer may have a battery for too long sitting and it will loose its potential. He may sell that one to you and you me be the unlucky one . How old the battery, is irrelevant it will naturally deteriorate.

[Buffalowed Bill]

I've told my story before, but people keep asking. The story doesn't change so...

In 1996 when the 46lb. Interstate bat. In my 1931 Studebaker failed when I was taking it to a show. Out of desperation I replace it with a 16lb. Optima that I had just purchased. It did a better job then the Interstate have ever done starting and holding a charge. Fast forward I was readying the car for an indefinite stay at the America's Car Museum. The 22yo. bat. was a little logy so I swapped in another Optima which worked just fine. I then realize that I had just swapped in a 16yo bat. for a 22yo bat. But the older bat. was still not dead, I used it in one of my Champions for another 2 years. So I'll go with 24yrs. I'm sure some will have even better outcome then I had.   

[46 woodie]

Buick35, the light bulb that you refer to is called the "Centennial Light Bulb" and is located in a Pleasanton CA fire house. It has been burning continuously since 1901 and is in the Guinness Book of World Records. I guess they got their money's worth!

[John_S_in_Penna]

7 minutes ago, 46 woodie said:

Buick35, the light bulb that you refer to is called the "Centennial Light Bulb" and is located in a Pleasanton CA fire house. It has been burning continuously since 1901 and is in the Guinness Book of World Records. I guess they got their money's worth!

I have a light bulb of that age that still works, too.

It is in an old box-shaped post-card viewer, where

in the Victorian era one could slide in a post card

and project the enlarged image onto the wall.  The viewer

and the bulb are all original:  The bulb has a filament that

is draped differently from today's, and it even has a

paper sticker on it from the manufacturer of the viewer.

 

However, my bulb has probably sat inactive for decades,

and I may use the viewer only once every few years.

[JACK M]

I think a daily driver battery will outlast most of the collectable toys that are discussed here often.

[Soupiov]

I'm on the second battery in my 1978 F-150.   I attribute it to keeping the battery at a constant charge level with no significant cycling.  Who know? 

[Rusty_OToole]

I heard of a collector in Australia who tracked down a 1911 Rolls Royce that had been abandoned in the outback decades before. He hauled it home and restored it. It still has an Edison Nickel Iron battery installed at the factory in 1911.

 

I read about this some years back I don't recall where. Wish I could find the story again. But, this would not be unusual life for a nickel iron battery and they were made for cars, just very few were sold because of the expense.

[charlier]

Back in May of 2003 I purchased a Sears DieHard Weather Beater 12V battery for my water cooled 1985 Volkswagen Golf.  When this battery is not in use in my VW it spends the winter connected to a Battery Tender charger in my garage along with other batteries from my old vehicles. This battery might not be the longest running battery in this discussion but it has definitely lived up to it's DieHard name. Prior to this battery the longest lasting battery I had last 16 years and was another DieHard. After this era of DieHard Batteries, Sears must have started buying batteries from the lowest cost supplier. Those batteries did not last very long and definitely did not deserve to use the same DieHard name.

[gossp]

We had an Edison battery box with several glass jar sections in it that took and held charge (I was testing horns with it at Hershey last year)… so… 100 years or so!  

[EmTee]

The battery in my '67 Riviera has "08" scribbled on it in tire chalk.  It was in the car when I bought it in 2016.  Went for a drive yesterday for the first time in 3 months.  Fired right up after intermittently cranking for about 30 seconds to get fuel to the carburetor.  I leave it disconnected when not in use and put my dumb charger on it for a couple of hours about once a month during the winter.

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by EmTee (see edit history)

[leomara]

Batteries are like razor blades, you get 5 in a pack and maybe one will last for many shaves and the other 4 will not.  It's a crap shoot why two batteries from the same batch and manufacturer will have different life spans.  And then of course is the owner care factor.....

[Rusty_OToole]

I have noticed that in recent years batteries last much longer than they did forty or fifty years ago. Why, I don't know. Maybe a combination of things. Better battery technology, better charging and management systems on cars, cars start way easier which must be easier on the battery. And not leaving them on a cement floor.

[Pfeil]

I had a six-volt Delco last 12 years in one of my VW beetles. Its replacements have gone to about three years and one only lasted a year.

[EmTee]

9 hours ago, Rusty_OToole said:

And not leaving them on a cement floor.

Maybe it's has something to do with popularity of that do-it-yourself flecked epoxy garage floor paint... 

 

[Rusty_OToole]

6 hours ago, Pfeil said:

I had a six-volt Delco last 12 years in one of my VW beetles. Its replacements have gone to about three years and one only lasted a year.

I've noticed that Delco batteries have a lot of staying power. Have taken old Delco batteries off the scrap pile, charged them up and used them for years.

[Dave39MD]

When Delco-Remy made Delco batteries they were great. I still buy them when available and have had good service.

 

Dave