I walked in to Wal-Mart today: A Man of Action...looking to seize the day and make it his biatch. I strutted back to the automotive section, humming my mantra, "Only the BEST for me! Only the BEST for me...!"
I grabbed the last Everstart battery off the shelf (Yes, I live a charmed life!" and strutted up to the register. (Quite a long strut, especially with a 10 pound battery under my arm, but a strut, nevertheless!)
The cashier struggled to get the box across the scanner while I happily slid my Visa card through the reader and made my purchase. I high-fived the cashier ("BOOYAH!" O0) and made my way to the parking lot, secure in the knowledge that I had purchased not just a battery, but the BEST BATTERY ON THE FARKING PLANET!
Or did I?
Seriously, I had no idea Everstart was WallyWorld's own brand. Did I fark up? Do I have a piece of shiat sitting in a box in my living room? Should I take it back without even trying it out? What has been your experience with Everstart?
it's crap. just as crap as every other battery.
couple it with a trickle charger when you're not riding for more than a few days, and it's golden.
WHAT ? GOLDEN ? A CHEAP BATTERY !? CRAZY TALK !!!
no, it's not crazy talk, it's just fine. I think I'm on my 2nd or 3rth (yes, I've seen 3rth in print!) season on a walmart battery. the trickle charger matters, and keeping the acid full is key. boil off the water, and you _NEED_ to replace it.
enjoy your new, nicely starting machine. :)
Whatever. It's a battery, they work then they don't. Brand matters far more to the marketers than it does to the end user - in many cases 5 or 6 competing brands of battery are built on the same assembly line with the same components. Neither walmart, tractor supply, pep boys, autozone nor sears make batteries - they have brand names painted on batteries by battery factories.
I have a 10 year old car-sized EverStart which came with my backhoe (that, it would BarelyStart on a Good Day) and it's still OK as a random 12V battery. I have a younger Yuasa MC battery (for the Seca, never installed, but charged regularly and formerly used for rocket launching, etc) which is now sulfated to stink and useless as anything other than a trade in. I don't recall what's actually in the GS, it was in the GS when I got it, and seems to want to talk to the charger more regularly now - I'll probably replace it in the spring.
Cool, a subject I don't have to talk out of my ass on! ;) I used to manage a battery store prior to my years spent as a Toyota tech. There is nothing wrong with buying a battery at Walmart. Everstart is a brand name, not a manufacturer. Unless things have changed in the last 10 years there are only 6 companies in the US that manufacture lead acid batteries (Deka, Exide, Johnson Controls, Castle and I'm drawing a blank on the others). Walmart buys it's batteries from one of those manufacturers (Exide on the East coast) and slaps a Everstart label on it just like Sears slaps a Die Hard label, Advance Auto slaps a Duralast label.... Even Interstate is not a manufacturer, just a distributor that slaps it's own "Interstate" brand on it. Like many other things, Walmart tends to have the lowest retail price on batteries (if they have the size). I have Walmart batteries in all of my bikes. I was actually disappointed last time I needed a car battery because Walmart no longer carries a low grade Group 35, they only have the $75 top of the line.
The important thing when buying a motorcycle battery for a GS is that it is "dry" meaning the acid has not been installed. A battery's plates start degrading as soon as the acid is added and degrade faster as the battery looses it's charge (acid is absorbed into the plates and sulfates). Not a big deal on a battery for a mass produced car that may sit on the shelf a few days to a week before it is sold but a motorcycle battery could sit on a shelf for years before someone needs that particular size. If the battery never had acid installed a year old battery is just as good as a day old battery. Walmart does not have the exact battery for the GS, the vent tube is on the wrong side. For the cost savings it is worth just running a new vent tube.
Other fun battery facts...
-Battery acid is 35 percent sulphuric acid and 65 percent pure water
-The acid never evaporates out of the battery, just the water. That is why you only ever need to add water to the battery
-As I said before, the lead plates absorb the acid as a battery dischages so keeping a battery fully charged slows the degradation (sulfation) process
-If left discharged a battery can freeze (all acid absorbed in the plates, just pure water left). If you ever see a battery with the case bulged out, that battery froze due to lack of maintenance (not covered by warranty)
-You pay for said warranty. When bought in bulk, batteries are cheap. Most of the price you pay is to cover that "5 year pro-rated warranty". When dealing with used car lots that didn't care about a warranty I could sell most size batteries for about $20 and still make a profit.
-Each cell on a lead acid battery is 2.1 volts when fully charged
-A 12 volt motorcycle battery is dead at 12.0 volts and fully charged at 12.6 volts
-Batteries have a "surface charge" right after charging meaning they will read more than 12.6 volts. It can not hold that extra voltage and will eventually lose it. You can run the headlights for a few seconds to remove the surface charge
-Batteries release hydrogen when charging, be careful not to cause a spark
-If a battery gets hot (not just warm) when charging it has a bad cell. Stop charging and replace the battery
-I have yet to see a "battery desulfinator" that works, save your money
-Like tires, batteries usually have build date codes. Many manufacturers have switched to plain English labels. The most common code system is a letter/number system. The letter represents the month and the number is the last digit of the year. D/6 means April 2006 (or 1996...). Some batteries list a manufacture date and a fill date, the fill date is the one you care about.
That's all I got for now.
-Jessie
Wow Jessie, you seem really charged about this subject. :D
Seriously though, in a few months I'll be leaving for a while. How long will a battery last just sitting with a battery tender?
-Porkchop
Here is more cool random facts:
1. If you charge a lead acid battery and a Ni-Cad battery in the same room the fumes will kill both batteries.
2. The charging system should charge around 14v to keep the battery fully charged, if it is charging at 12v your battery will die.
3. In aviation we have been taught to call them 14v system (12v battery) or 28v system (24v battery), maybe thats just my school though.
Im sure there is more but I cant remember right now.
Quote from: Porkchop on November 19, 2009, 05:11:48 AM
Seriously though, in a few months I'll be leaving for a while. How long will a battery last just sitting with a battery tender?
Depends on the battery tender and whether Murphy accepts your sacrifice on his altar. Well, in the case of Murphy, the battery probably is the sacrifice. So....
If "a while" is more than a few months (ie, you're being deployed) you might do better to just sell it secondhand before you go, and/or plan to replace it when you get back, and not worry about the tender.
I honestly can't suggest a "good" tender, but with at least dozens of models, most probably made poorly in China, I have to suspect that many of them are not that good. Perhaps I'm wrong. One old-fashioned trick is to use a 24 hour timer to turn a small charger on for 15 minutes to an hour (depends what the timer will do, mostly) once a day. A new-fashioned trick is to set up a small solar panel attached to the battery.
Hey Porkchop, nice pun :laugh: No worries if it is on a battery tender. That is the best way to store a battery. It will keep the charge topped off so it won't degrade very fast. All batteries die eventually though. I find 2-3 years to be the average life for a well maintained motorcycle battery. Poorly maintained batteries last about a season.
DoD- There are some decent trickle chargers on the market. I used to sell "Battery Minder" brand which seem to work as good as any and are lower priced than the "Battery Tender" brand. I also have a Black and Decker variable amp charger that can function as a tender. While not a problem on the GS, a lot of bikes have batteries in hard to reach areas. I have to unbolt the front seat on the SV to access the battery. The Minder/Tender come with a pig tail attachment that you can run somewhere more accessible which is very handy. On the SV it is run to under the backseat which comes off with a key like the GS. One thing I miss that I don't have anymore is a manual battery charger, one that doesn't have an automatic shut off. When a battery gets really discharged it can drop below 12 volts. That confuses most automatic battery chargers into thinking the battery has a bad cell. They work on the logic that each cell is 2.1 volts so if you have 10 volts then one cell must be dead... That is true if the battery has a charge to it. I had a nice Schauer brand battery charger for years. A friend of mine borrowed it to charge the battery on one of his work vans. One of his dumb ass employees goes to move the van while it is charging and ran the battery charger over. I guess the hood being open wasn't a good enough indicator that he shouldn't drive the van?!?! Que sera...
Excellent points I missed joker. Yea, 12 volt batteries need at least a volt and a half to 2 volts above the 12 volts to charge. Acceptable voltage range outputs on a 12 volt charging system are generally 13.5 - 14.5 volts. Check your battery voltage before you start the engine and compare it to the engine running at idle and at 3,000 RPM, if the voltage stays the same your charging system is not working. Ideally a battery is only power for the starter motor, the charging system should create the necessary power once the engine is running. That is not entirely true though because power needs sometimes exceed the available output of the charging system in a car. But look at a lawn mower or a dirt bike that doesn't have a battery and you see what I mean. The battery shaped idiot light in a car is just looking for voltage above 13 volts. If it comes on with the engine running your alternator just took a dump. At that point you are running off the stored battery charge. Turn off any unnecessary electrical devices (radio, A/C...) and make a B-line for a repair shop or an auto parts store. Once that battery runs out of juice your car will die.
Today's fun fact: Once started, a Toyota can run with the battery disconnected. Just make sure you don't let that positive cable touch anything metal. Not an approved Toyota repair technique but that's how I changed Toyota batteries. That keeps all the radio presets and computer memory from being lost. Newer Toyotas do not have idle air circuits (fuel injection equivalent of an idle jet in a carb). Instead the computer controls idle by opening the throttle a little bit (same as us manipulating the throttle to keep a carbed bike with a clogged idle jet from stalling). The amount the computer has to hold open the throttle changes as carbon builds up in the throttle body. If the battery is left disconnected too long the computer loses it's memory and the car will not idle and runs horribly. It can relearn the idle value but you have to drive it a while. Hot swapping the battery is the flat rate mechanics way around all that hassle. Later
-Jessie
QuoteIf "a while" is more than a few months (ie, you're being deployed) you might do better to just sell it secondhand before you go, and/or plan to replace it when you get back, and not worry about the tender.
Well, you guessed it. Deployment looms in the near future for me. So now I have a Wal-Mart Everstart battery, which has been very good to me, and a cheap float charger from Harbor Freight Tools. I was planning on removing the battery and hook it up to the float charger. I'm was hoping the battery would still be good enough to use again next year when I get back.
-Porkchop
What size should i get for my GS. i went in the other day and the smallest fitting size (in stock that day) was only 3 x/x inches tall. and like 3X4 or something wide and long. seems pretty small for a motorcycle batt. People who have everstarts what is the number on the side? (not store item number) the like 9BS whatever.
Quote from: gregvhen on November 19, 2009, 01:59:19 PM
What size should i get for my GS. i went in the other day and the smallest fitting size (in stock that day) was only 3 x/x inches tall. and like 3X4 or something wide and long. seems pretty small for a motorcycle batt. People who have everstarts what is the number on the side? (not store item number) the like 9BS whatever.
The wiki says ES12BS but I believe I went with the ES10BS. I'll have to double check when I head home today.
-Porkchop
If memory serves, ES 10L-A2 is the Walmart number you want. I believe the correct size for the bike would be 10L-B2 with the "B" denoting the vent tube on the opposite side of the battery but I don't think Walmart carries that (at least not ones around here). Your best bet is to test fit the battery before you put in the acid in case it does not fit for some reason. As long as the acid is not installed they should return/exchange the battery.
Porkchop- Any time to get another good ride in before deployment?
-Jessie
QuotePorkchop- Any time to get another good ride in before deployment?
I'm hoping to get another ride or two in before I go. Unfortunately, it's going to be nuts between now and Xmas. PM me about how you feel about a ride 26-27 DEC or 2-3 Jan? Shortly after that I'll start preping the bike for extended storage.
-Porkchop
My schedule is pretty open at the point Arty, just let me know what works for you. Around Thanksgiving I usually put all my bikes but the little Nighthawk away for the winter so I may be struggling to keep up ;)
-Jessie
Edit: Forgot to ask where they are sending you.
I have an Everstart ES12BS installed sideways. Works great!
QuoteEdit: Forgot to ask where they are sending you.
Afghanistan.
-Porkchop
I've found over the years value means much more than price, the wally world batteries last just about as long as the warentee and not much longer. I hope to never buy another lead acid battery again, only dry cells from now on. I put a Optima red top in a Ram Charger 4x4 in 02, in 05 it went into my sons 2x Jeep Cherokee then in Augest it went into my youngest sons 4x4 Jeep Cherokee. I just replaced the 2.5 year old Max wally world battery in my wifes Buick with one and am certian it will out live the car. The next battery the GS needs will be one if it will fit.
Quote from: Paulcet on November 20, 2009, 07:15:18 PM
I have an Everstart ES12BS installed sideways. Works great!
what do you mean sideways? like sideways to what its sposed to be which would be inline with the frame, or sideways the way is should be which is perpendicular to the frame?
If you want a sealed battery try the Scorpion AGM battery, right size for GS500. It's $54 shipping included. I put one in mid March this year and it's started right up since then faster than ever, if it does that thru this coming winter here in NE Ohio I'll really be impressed. Arrived a couple days after I ordered it online.
http://www.batterystuff.com/batteries/motorcycle/sYT10L-A2.html
It's a 10L-A2 or 10L-B2 since there is no vent. Just stick it in and go! My last 2 Everstarts were really marginal in the cold, lots of jumping past 2 winters.
Quotewhat do you mean sideways? like sideways to what its sposed to be which would be inline with the frame, or sideways the way is should be which is perpendicular to the frame?
Perpendicular.
Negative terminal in lower, left, rear corner of the battery box. Positve terminal at the upper, left, rear.
I think the battery Jack is talking about is the best fit. Does anyone know the Ah rating differences?
The 12 amp everstart does drop in side ways.
The better, best IMHO battery to use though is a japanese fully sealed battery that is thinner front to back than the everstart.
Its expensive but in the past and present I have been able to harvest batteries out of the battery dump @ the local dealer. The thing is to bring it back to life, you need to get a desulphating charger, then patience and time. Charge it and use it, several times before you drive off on a dark night into the unknown.
I like the fact that they are free and the fact that I can use a dead product ... and the fact that they are free. BTW did I mention they are free. OK, they are free.
The everstart is just about any economy battery and it does fine if the bike is in good shape and will start in 1-2 cranks, and well, if the bike is regularly used or the battery is often charged its fine, else its gonna die on you sooner than a high $$$ battery.
Almost any battery will last the 3-4 years you'd get out of a high $$ one if you use/charge and keep the bike in good shape. But with poor maintenance the bad ones die in a year and good ones die in 2-3.
Cool.
Buddha.
My Everstart battery didn't like going unused for more than 3 or 4 days, else it seemed to lack enough juice to readily start the bike - if the bike didn't fire up within 5 cranks, then I would have to put it on the charger for couple hours ...
So I bought an AGM (advanced glass mat) battery and don't have that problem - doesn't seem to need to be kept on a charger so far.
One more disadvantage of buying the Wal-Mart battery: taking the old battery back for the core charge refund! I went back this morning with my receipt and my old battery to get my nine bucks back. There were six people ahead of me in line at the customer service desk and it took about 25 minutes of my day. (sigh)
I just plain hate Wal-Mart. :flipoff:
I personally enjoy my wal-mart trips. but that dont matter. My expeirience with the everstarts is good so far. Ive had a moped battery (es9bs) sit out for 2 weeks straight, put it in the other day and started just fine. Thats why im gettin a 12BS for my gs.