Not all car batteries are created equal! Learn your vehicle's battery specifications.
CC0 Public Domain via Pxhere
Your car battery is located under your vehicle's hood. Not only does it provide the electricity needed for your door locks, sliding windows, lights, and other car accessories, but it also allows you to start your vehicle. The moment your battery dies, your car is no longer functional.
Like other motor-vehicle components, batteries wear out over time and need to be replaced. Do-it-yourself car-battery replacement can be a real money saver, but how do you make sure you're choosing the right battery? There are five important factors that must be considered when searching for an appropriate replacement battery.
It is important that your car battery fits snugly and securely in its battery tray. A car's battery tray will vary in size depending on the manufacturer, but most are designed to accommodate batteries of a specific group size.
Your car's battery group size can be found in the battery section of the owner's manual. If you no longer have access to your original owner's manual, you may also consult the reference guides provided by battery retailers to determine the appropriate battery group size for your car.
Buying and installing an incorrectly-sized battery will be a waste of money and may cause damage to your car.
Always dispose of old batteries in a designated battery-discard container.
While there are many car-battery brands on the market, most are fabricated by just a few manufacturers. Some brands share a name with their manufacturer (e.g. the manufacturer Exide produces batteries with the same name).
Some EverStart
Some EverStart
Some EverStart
AC Delco
Champion
DieHard (Sears)
—
Exide
Duralast (Autozone)
—
Napa
Kirkland (Costco)
—
—
Motorcraft (Ford)
—
—
Interstate
Ideally, you should buy whichever battery brand is specified in your vehicle owner's manual. If you find that the recommended brand is too expensive and you want to do some cost-cutting, be sure to choose only batteries whose specifications meet the requirements outlined in your owner's manual.
You may be tempted to buy the cheapest brand available, but this is usually not advisable. Cheap batteries are often rife with defects and tend to perform poorly in the long term. Purchasing a cheap battery may save you money now, but in the long run, maintenance and replacement will likely cost you more than you saved in the first place.
You can also buy car batteries from local service stations and tune-up shops, but selection may be limited and the batteries they stock may not be as fresh as those offered by larger retailers.
Newer batteries tend to perform better and last longer than older batteries. Be sure to check the manufacturing date on any replacement batteries you are considering purchasing for your vehicle. Generally, a battery is considered "fresh" if it is less than 6 months old.
Unfortunately, manufacturing dates are rarely listed in conventional notation. Instead, 2-character alphanumeric codes are used to express the age of a car battery. The first character will be a letter from A to L, representing the month of manufacture; the second character will be a number from 0 to 9, representing the year of manufacture.
An age code of L8 would indicate that a battery was manufactured in December of 2018.
Each decade, the numerical characters used in battery manufacture date codes complete a cycle and reset at zero (e.g. 2020 is 0, 2021 is 1, 2022 is 2, and so on).
A battery's reserve capacity rating (RC) refers to its "standing power." This is the amount of time the battery can continuously supply the minimum voltage necessary to run your car should the alternator or fan belt fail. With an excellent reserve capacity rating, your car can run on its battery alone if the alternator stops working.
Do not simply select the battery with the longest reserve capacity you can find. Consult your owner's manual to learn the recommended reserve capacity rating for your particular car model. Only choose batteries whose RC ratings fall within the recommended range listed in your vehicle owner's manual.
Battery RC ratings are generally listed in minutes. If you can't find the RC rating on a battery's label (some labels do not list this information), check the product literature or ask a store assistant.
Think of your battery's RC rating as your car's emergency kit. The longer the operating time of a battery's reserve capacity, the less likely you are to become stranded in the event of unexpected trouble.
Always keep your car's battery clean. Buildup of corrosive material can significantly shorten a battery's lifespan.
Reinhard Müller, CC-BY-SA-4.0 via Wikimedia
Cold-cranking amps (CCA) measure your battery's ability to start your car during extremely cold weather. During freezing conditions, many vehicles are difficult to start (ignite) due to the thickening of engine oil.
The cold-cranking amp rating listed on a battery refers to the number of amps a battery will be able to support for 30 seconds at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Choosing a battery with a high CCA rating is a good idea if you plan to use your vehicle in a cold climate.
If you live in an area that has a relatively warm climate year-round, cold-cranking amps need not be as important a consideration in your battery selection process.
CCA (cold-cranking amps): This indicates how much electrical power the car battery can deliver to the car's starter motor at 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
CA (cranking amps): This is another measure of electric current in the battery, taken at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Generally, a battery's CA rating is higher than its CCA rating.
This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
Want more information on camel charger, functions of a battery, camel battery? Click the link below to contact us.