Battery lesson.
If you fully recharge the battery immediately and every time you use it, the it will last a long time.
If you repeatedly charge the battery only partially, the lead sulfate builds up on the plates. The lead sulfate increases the series resistance of the battery!!!
An inexpensive battery has a small number of plates in each cell. Small number of plates = small surface area.
The sulfate builds in the same way in the $24 no name as it does in the $120 top of the line battery.
The difference is that with more plates(more surface area) the series resistance of the cell does not increase as quickly.
Series resistance affects cranking Amps. Good old Ohm's law.
V = I * R
For a given I(amps) ...
If R(Ohms) gets larger, V volts gets smaller.
This is why your headlamp dims when turning the starter with a sulfated battery.
AFAIK there are only four ways to be sure you are getting a good battery.
1)Brother in law owns the factory.
2)Remove a cap and count the plates. 3 plates is low end. Don't know about MC batteries but the top of the line auto/truck batteries have 11 or more plates per cell.
3)Cold cranking amps. For two batteries of the same physical size, the one with the large CCA number will have more plates.
4)Warranty. Manufacturers KNOW all this stuff. There is a reason the cheap MC batteries have a 6 month or one year warranty while the expensive ones have a 5 year warranty.
(see #1
-Duck
edited to insert characters dropped by flakey keyboard
Post edited by: Duck, at: 2006/11/16 13:03