I got them certainlydepressinglowdownmindmessin' Wintertime battery issue blues

I had trouble starting my truck after the last cold snap, but just figured that I'd left the Ham rig on. It happened again yesterday after another cold snap. It shows 12 volts after sitting all night, and drops to 9 volts under load. The battery is a 2 year old X2 Power Premium. I took it back to Batteries Plus to have it checked, and left when they immediately started to weasel out of the warranty. I put a temporary battery on the truck with an ammeter monitoring for a parasitic drain. It's stayed around 10 to 20 milliamps unless I opened the door. NAPA was kind enough to test the battery and give me a printout showing that it needs a charge even after a 90 minute charge at 40 amps. It's definitely bad. I replaced it with a standard battery from NAPA, AGM's seem to be hard to find right now.

I know there's a thread with a poll on what kind of battery is being used, but I can't find it. If someone will post the link, I'd like to change my vote.

Old battery

New battery

 

Good Luck to you with the new NAPA battery ~ hope it works for ya.

 

I been using napa batteries in my race car, they have been good over the last 20 years.

 

This is at least the second time reported here about Batteries Plus weaseling out on a X2 AGM warranty. NAPA is trustworthy if you have a warranty issue or a bad part.

 

I would call my bank or CC company to talk about doing a chargeback on the batteries plus purchase for them not honoring the warranty

force their hand

batteries aren’t cheap

you spent your hard earned money

might be a long shot but you never know unless you ask!

 

Best thread title in a while, and holy terminals batman!

 

I was hoping for a new Dylan song

 

"How many times, will my truck not start
Befooooore I can warranty this thing"

 

Sorry to disappoint, but the title was shamelessly paraphrased from Jim Croce.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLKhUnl_yhc

 

@Randy Morton ahhh, Croce is a cool dude too.

 

Did you keep the X2 or leave it with NAPA?

If you still have the X2, you might consider putting a CTEK charger on for a few days. CTEK charger has a test and repair cycle that diagnoses the battery and desulphanates the plates if needed. Once it does the repair cycle, it starts a gentle, slow charging cycle to 14.3V(?). I've seen some videos where AGM batteries have been brought back from full discharge.

Your terminals look like you're using the heck out of your battery. The truck alternator will need a little help getting an AGM battery to the ideal charge level they prefer.

$177 CTEK (56-353) MULTI US 7002 12-Volt Battery Charger,Black

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FRLO9Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Thanks for the info. I still have the battery, but I'm not sure I want to invest that much on the odd chance that the battery can be saved.

 

I have the same AGM from X2..so far so good but it is on a charger when parked for long time. The guy at Battery plus mentioned not to let it go below 12V iirc.
but yeah sucks for the warranty as they advertised 5 years...

 

Investing in the CTEK charger probably only makes sense if you plan to have another AGM battery in the future. I bought my CTEK with my Northstar battery, and I am able to keep the CTEK charger on the battery whenever it's not being driven.

The video below is the one I mentioned before. The contributor is a sharp old Mercedes geek, and he's specifically trying to recover an AGM battery he says was dead for 3 months. It doesn't even register on his voltmeter.

Recovery is a little more complicated than I remembered. To get the dead AGM battery up to a charge level where it would accept a charge, he first had to hook a good battery to the dead battery in parallel (+>+ , ->-), and then attach the charger to the good battery. Once the dead AGM battery was up to some minimum level (11.5V?), he connected the CTEK directly to the AGM battery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyKmE-NOVsE

 

I have that exact charger and it didn't save my X2 Power either time that it died on me.

BTW, screw Batteries Plus.

Are you anywhere near DFW?
If yes, perhaps I can let you borrow my charger and try it.

BTW, screw Batteries Plus.

I'm not bitchin' at you, just commenting on Batteries Plus:
How the **** can a user prevent the battery from going below 12Vs?
When it reads 12.6V when you get out of the truck for the night, then in the morning when you try to start it, it reads 9.6v?
It makes no sense to me to buy a $300 battery, then have to a $120 charger for it, and then have to remember to do maintenance charge the battery once a month..

BTW, screw Batteries Plus.

Still no issues with my Interstate MTP-27F I replaced that X2 Power with.
I actually used that X2 for the core return, I was that pissed off at Batteries Plus.

 

I would try a different store location and see what they had to say. I would not settle for excuses. Heck I’d buy a new one, the exact same, then return the old one for a full refund if that was the last resort

 

Great info. I just put that Ctek on my Amazon list.

 

I finally found the thread with the poll about which battery everyone's using.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/battery-size-and-options.9407/

 

If it wasnt the same as a Northstar I never would have bought it...bought the CTEK at the same time and it is on the battery a lot.

 

Just a little update, the X2 Power Premium battery that I installed in my daughter's car about a year ago died last night. It now has a shiny new NAPA Legend Premium battery.

 

Where weak or poor quality batteries go to die! November and June of every year I give all my battery’s a good overnight trickle charge, keeps them fresh and you can usually catch one before it totally fails.
NAPA batteries work well here! Never had a NAPA battery fail prematurely.

 

This is interesting.
I am on my 3rd X2 Power battery and have not had any issues. Sold 2 of the vehicles so still have one going.
I had heard of this issue with what seem to be newer X2 Power batteries. I read somewhere Northstar recently got bought out but nothing definitive.

Looks like I will likely be jumping back to NAPA Legend AGMs but the 24F seems to be the largest that will fit with a side note that it is taller and there may be good clearance issues.
The NAPA has 65AHs and 710CCAs
The X2 Power smokes these numbers with 92AHs and 930CCAs
Not to mention it is a deep cycling battery that and should not see adverse affects of draining it.

I have never had an Odyssey but have heard good things. May have to try.
The Odyssey 34R is 68AHs and 850CCAs

 

I have an 18 month old X2 27F with no issues. However I have seen posts here that are quite negative. So I called Batteries Plus where I purchased my battery in Orange, Park ,Fl. I learned X2 has been bought out by Optima Battery s. They will honor the warranty after a 3 day evaluation period. They will offer a loaner battery with one huge catch. If the battery is deemed good you have to purchase the loaner.

 

Basically, Northstar, Optima and X2 are made by the same group. X2 is supposed to use pure lead plates.

 

And Optima are pure and utter GARBAGE!!!!!
I am going to check on this warranty policy for my local place.
If that is the policy I will politely inform them to pound sand and I will never purchase as much as a AA battery from them ever again.
I have bought 3 X2 batteries from them and countless smaller batteries for jump boxes and power equipment.

Are there any other Cycling/starting battery options out there?

 

I've just had one X2 battery, it died in 2.5yrs. I walked in to the Batteries Plus I bought it from and they handed me a new one. I bet I wasn't in the store 3 minutes.
Obviously I'm not happy that a battery that expensive died in half of the warranty period, but I can't complain about them just handing me a new one as advertised when I bought it.

 

The policy is more contrived these days because of the EnerSys buyout.
Google EnerSys. Nothing is sacred anymore.
My dealer says the X2 brand will be dropped.

 

I picked up my truck on Jan 3 2015, the cheap OEM battery lasted me the same amount of time as the X2 that costs right at double that of a standard replacement. Like I said before, I wasn't happy when it started to fail, but since that warranty paid off I'm currently sitting at about the same dollar amount as I would have been if I just bought a normal replacement battery.

I don't plan to buy another one when this one decides to shit the bed.

 

Sounds like they've figured out a scam to sell more batteries. Keep the old one on a charger for 3 days, declare it good, and sell a new battery.

 

Yep. Thanks for that. EnerSys aka Exide aka Odyssey, et al.

It appears EnerSys received all Northstar and X2 production with the buy-out, and are presently selling it off. Once that inventory is gone, no more Northstar or X2. Their product from the same tooling will be the Odyssey Performance in black/red. Spec CCA for the "ODP-AGM27F" is 850 CCA versus the Northstar NSB-AGM27F CCA of 930. That's the bad news. There is good news...the ODP-AGM27F is $61 cheaper.

That's progress the American way...If your competition is killing you in the marketplace, buy them out, cheapen it up, and put your brand on it. Sorry, EnerSys, that dog won't hunt.

https://www.odysseybattery.com/products/odp-agm27f-battery-27f-850/