Sam's Batteries: New or Old?

[ghurd]

Had a small solar job to do.

Just a copy machine load.

A 70W panel, controller, and the basics.

They want me to pick up the batteries at Sam's Club.  No problem.

I take my handy $3 meter, and it was a good thing too.

Only 3 6V golf cart batteries on the shelf.

Front 2 test at 6.01 and 5.9V.  Ouch.

But the rear one tests at 5.7V.  It has corrosion and the wing nuts are rusty.

I guess I did not really need the meter to sort out the corroded one from the non corroded 2.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I opt for the ones that are only "regular dead".

Fancy regulated 10A On/Off sump pump charger for 36 hours gets them up to reasonable, with the sound of an occasional bubble.

By 48 hours, they are holding the Green Light On for a long time between cycles.

So I load them back in the truck.

About now is when I see the date stickers.  (because the 6V are in a dark corner at Sam's)

One is 6/08 (5.9V), other is 5/08 (6.01V).

Oh boy.  Better check the water.

They were not exactly boiling, but who knows...

One has 2 cells low and one cell extra low.

Other has all 3 cells just barely above the plates.

One "seems to feel a bit bulged".  It rocks a bit on smooth level floor.

I hope it is only my paranoia.

Moral of the story:

Take a meter.  Check the water.  Look hard for a date sticker or terminal date code.

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

Oh, jeze.  I can't believe you actually bought 'em rather than finding another source.  A battery that's low in the store got that way by self-discharge over a LONG period and will probably be sulfated.

(I also check the state of charge when buying a battery and never take the ones that aren't up there - going to another store if I can't find a full set of essentially fully charged ones on the shelves - with the same date code if I'm going to parallel 'em.  The big stores usually have enough turnover that you can find at least a couple good ones of any given type.)

[Tritium]

Funny but I just had a battery issue with Sams Club. I purchased a new battery and the terminals were noticed to be buggered up like the battery had been used already (after I got it home). I took it back and told the sales person I would not take it and he said it would go back on the shelf anyway to sell to the next person. I bet this happens a lot when a battery comes back in on warranty. It is checked or not and cleaned up and back on the shelf it goes.

Buyer Beware is the symbol of our current retail/wholesale system in the USA.

Thurmond

[DamonHD]

Goodness, I think they'd get spanked for that in the UK, passing off clearly damaged/used goods as new.

Rgds

Damon

[DanB]

interesting, I should think they'd be fairly new.  One thing definitely comes to my attention though... the $3 meter bit.  If its one of those cheap LCD meters... then the reading you get will not likely be accurate.  But so long as you get a good reading off a known full charged battery then I guess you could make comparisons.

[bob g]

i run into this issue frequently in my business with hd truck batteries

if i am on a call and have to buy batteries from an unfamiliar vendor

i will not accept any battery older than 6months, according to the date code

and usually because hd trucks use 2 or 3 and sometimes 4 in parallel, i will

not accept a set that is more than 2 months apart in date code.

everytime i stray from this rule i end up with warrantee issues with my customer

and bigger problems getting a supplier to warrant them, they usually will but

my time is worth more than a battery in most cases time i get through explaining and argueing my point with some pimple faced kid that claims to be certified by

wallyworld or some such crap...

for the purposes of deepcycle i would darn sure never accept a battery with a date code over 6 months, unless the voltage is up to at least 80% SOC and from a reputable source that i know has experienced staff. crystallized and hardened sulfaction is just too much trouble to reverse to make it worthwhile unless the batteries are deeply discounted.

my main supplier out here, will deeply discount batteries that have older than 6month date codes, in many cases i can get a set of AGM batteries for 25% of my original cost if he has any and i need them when he has them.. they move them so fast that it is really unusual to have anything older than a couple months in most cases,, i suspect those that are older came back from consignment to other resellers

that don't have a very high turnover rate.

as for sam's club, i would expect that they would move their batteries fairly briskly, that is the wally world credo, rapid turnover,, but maybe golf cart batteries sell very slowly in area's where folks don't play much golf?  who knows?

bob g