Happy Birthday Dear Battery....

[JimAttrill]

One of my batteries in the Defender is now exactly 10 years old, bought in May 2001. It's the biggest sort that fits in there, officially a 90Ah with lifting handles which are necessary as it weighs a lot. Officially it is a size 674 but I don't think that means much in the UK. It's beginning to use a bit of water so may soon be dead. But I have never had a battery last much longer than 3 years before. It is used in a twin battery setup with another 674 which is 2 years old.

[Mo Murphy]

10 years ? Blimey, that is good going !

[mickeyw]

That sounds like a good old tractor/commercial battery size. I used to run type 643 which is pretty much the same size. That put up with some serious winching abuse and lasted many years, maybe not ten though.

Sounds like you have had good value for money

[Diff]

My last one lasted nearly 9 years. That was a big commercial tuck/tractor battery from the local agric suppliers.

The bitter icy weather the winter before last finally killed it. Not bad for £35.

Regards, Diff.

[Richy B]

We have a 51 pate csw with the original battery still, Has been running a fridge and occasional use of the 8274, no issues ------------------------ Yet

[JimAttrill]

Possibly helping is that I drive the Landy every day. Last year I fitted a Disco 100A alternator but I don't know if that makes a difference. And of course the vehicle is garaged in a pretty warm climate, very few starts at minus temps.

[JSG]

10 years is good going - I replaced the original in the 90 TR at Stoneleigh last year - at 9 years old it was fine for starting and driving about but a dead cell meant it didn't like being parked up for a day with the fridge plugged in.

[Tanuki]

Wow! That's good going!

I generally replace batteries on a 3-year cycle (and keep the old ones around the house for powering inverters/radios/jump-starting-the-generator-during-power-cuts). To me, springing £100 every 3 years on a new battery is cheap compared with the cost of a non-starting vehicle.

[Litch]

I think the point here is that a good quality battery will last for years whereas a cheap replacement will let you down after just a few years. The battery fitted in the factory will usually out-last a replacement by a factor of 2-3 times (as proved in the comments above) just because people want to save money rather than get the best they can.

We have never had to replace the battery on any of our cars as the original-fit one is still working fine when we sell the car on (usually at around 5-years old and often to a member of the family), none of them have ever given problem in the following couple of years either otherwise we would have known about it. On modern cars that rely so much on electronics and need a reliable power source that will deliver the correct voltage that is no mean feat.

When the original battery on my old 90 was getting a bit sluggish I replaced it with an Exide Maxima but was very upset when it died at 2-years & 2-weeks (2-weeks outside the warranty). I replaced that with a new OE battery and that is still going strong after 6-years with no signs of getting sluggish in the (cold) winter mornings we had last year.

[Phil]

My 110 is now 9 years old and still running on the original battery despite frequent heavy use of the winch, powering radio equipment and cold starting in recent severe winters.

Is that unusual?

Phil.