How find out how batteries are rated/

Cas

Well-known Member
Several discussions on here yt about the best battery. I know group number, ca, amd cca. But is there a stamdard like for bolts. Grade 2,5,8,10 for example. Was thinking about taking a milk scale amd weighing to find the heaviest battery in a group amd buying it. I did this one time and bought four DEKA batteries. Eight years later they are still good.
There must be an easier way. Is there anywhere you can find this data?
 
In 1976 I shopped by weight, bought a JC Penny battery, and it lasted a long time. In those days everybody had a catalog with shipping weight, made it easy.
 
Hello Cas,

I don't think weight is a way to measure battery quality or longevity. You know CA and CCA ratings, those are the standard rating all manufacturer HAVE to meet. Most wet batteries don't like more then 20% discharge before recharging them. Buying a higher capacity battery is one way to get longer life,

Guido.
 
I thought so too for years, till I realy started to learn more about batteries from an engineer from Exide. He explained the trouble with buying the largest cold crank bat we could for our trucks, its great if they need it, but the ones that don't it actualy shortens the life as they are not drawn down enough and will start to sulfate the plates over time. I said but how can that be as they always told us how bad it was to over discharge a non deep cycle, he pointed out that discharging slowly over time like rv or trolling motor is different than the rapid discharge that starting does, and still doesn't draw it down anywhere near as far as a deep cycle can go but there is a range they work best in. I now by a suitable battery not as big of battery as I possibly can. And one thing that came to mind after this discussion is the ridiculously small battery I bought for my Toyota pickup 7 years ago when it was on its last legs, bought it just cause it was on sale super cheap at kmart, the truck went to the junkyard a year later and the battery has been starting my Ford 3400 ever since even in subzero weather, so bigger isn't always better for sure!
 
I assume every company that actually makes batteries offers lists of specs that give all the info you want. Problem is that most places selling batteries do NOT make them. They just relabel and resell -like Walmart and Interstate selling batteries made by Johnson Controls. It's hard to go wrong when going by weight. Many of the other numbers like CCA or CA don't mean an awful lot.
I have never had any problems getting the hard data on any battery when I consulted the actual company that makes them.
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CA or CCA don't tell much about overall battery capacity. Weight just about always will. Just about any battery can cut down amp-hours to beef up the quick rush of cold-cranking-amps to look good at a glance.
 
For a conventional flooded lead acid battery, the more lead (plates) and acid corresponds to more weight, although "weight" isn't a rating I've ever seen published on the side of a battery.

Amp Hours is a measure of the energy storage capacity, so if you have maybe a solar system or an RV etc., Amp Hours is certainly a rating you want to consider and those are often advertised on Deep Cycle Batteries.

Another rating to consider in Deep Cycle battery use is the rated number of Life Cycles and that's often a published and advertised rating you can use to make a choice.

Id you need more of a conventional auto/truck engine starting battery (NOT a Deep Cycle) Cold Cranking Amps or CCA is a rating to look at.

So I would say the use of the battery (deep cycle or auto starting) determines the ratings and parameters you may want to look at when choosing.

John T Long retired EE and rusty so no warranty
 
In brief - all CA or CCA is . . is how many seconds a battery can provide a huge rush of current at a cold temperature. All it is .. is a short term "burst" rating. It does not mean an awful lot but . . A car or truck with a 12 volt system needs to stay at 9 volts or higher when the engine is cranking. Also a battery loses 1/2 its power at 0 degrees F. So the plan is - to have a battery with enough amps at 0 degrees F to make 300-400 amps available to the starter motor and glow plus (if diesel) at 0 degrees F. If 300 amps is needed at 0 degrees - then a 500- 600 amp CCA battery is needed. There is a lot of nonsense involved in the rating. CCA is a measurement of a 30 second burst of power all the way down to 7.2 volts and that is not very helpful. That since the battery needs to stay above 9 volts.
If you load-test a brand new battery rated at 500 CCA - it will usually test at 250 amps @ 9 volts @ 70 degrees room temp. Can't say I've done the test at 0 degrees F.

Amp-hours (AH) or Reserve-Capacity (RC) both tell how much energy a battery can provide steadily over time. Car batteries are often rated by RC whereas deep-cycle batteries by AH. Both mean basically the same thing in the long run and you can convert one # to the other with math.

The third rating scale often not seen with car batteries is projected life cycles. Just about any company that makes deep-cycle batteries will give projection charts that basically tell how many times the batteries can be discharged, and recharged, before they are worn out.

The one factor that is pretty constant is battery weight. Just about always - the heavier the battery -the more power over time it will provide. All batteries sold for cars and trucks and storage banks have spec sheets showing weight somewhere.

There is also a more obscure 4th rating called the Self Discharge Rate. All batteries goe dead on their own as they sit without being charged. Even if hooked to nothing. Generally speaking, the more HD a battery is - the faster it goes dead. That because of more antimony used inside of it. Conventional lead-acid batteries with loose water/acid mix go dead faster then AGM (absorbed glass matt) batteries.

Also an even more obscure 5th rating. Voltage at a steady high amps and ability to keep above 10.5 volts. This is important when using a DC to AC inverter since inverters automatically shut down if DC power drops below 10.5 volts. Not all companies publish these numbers. Outback is one of the few that does.
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