Battery warranty

[greatcir]

I bought my 2120 new 8 months ago. Last week, my port battery died. It was an Interstate battery, marine RV deep cycle, SRM-29 675 CCA 845 MCA.

I removed the battery and found the only Interstate battery dealer in town (no Parker dealer here). I noticed the date tag had not been punched as I removed it and the Interstate web site said it had a one year full replacement warranty.

When the Interstate battery dealer looked at my dead battery, he looked at the numbers stamped into the battery when it was manufactured by Interstate as he said that is when the waranty clock began. They did that because boat dealers sometimes had a boat sit on the lot a year and then they punched the date out on the battery effective the day the boat was sold.

My battery had only a few days left of full replacement warranty (12 months) even though I had the new boat for only 8 months.

They tested the dead battery overnight and I picked up a new battery for no charge.

Point is, when you buy a new boat or battery, if it is an Interstate check to see what date your warranty actually started to tick.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Pete

 

[andertonm]

All lead-acid batteries have a date stamped into the case. The scrape-off numbers on the plastic label mean nothing. When we stocked Interstates, they would rotate batteries that had been sitting on our shelves. We switched over to NAPA and they provided us with a multi-charger that keeps all of the batteries on the rack on a trickle charge. It's only anecdotal, but the NAPA batteries seem to be more reliable. I'm told there are only four battery manufacturers and they just label them for the client, but within those four manufacturers there may be a wide array of qualities and lines to meet a price mark. I think it's a product where you get what you pay for. A higher quality, denser, better engineered battery will cost you more.

 

[greatcir]

Mark,

Thanks for the info. My experience has been the heavier the battery the better it seemed to be. Once I needed some long lasting batteries on another boat so I bought them from Catipillar. They delivered the 100+ pound batteries, removed my old ones and installed the new ones for the price of the batteries. They worked great for my needs.

Just seems a bit unusual we might buy a new Parker boat with the battery warranties already expired unless our dealer was near at hand to replace them. I also have not looked at the date stamped into the battery case when I bought a new automobile battery, but I will from now on.

,,,,,,,,,,,,Pete

 

[Uncle Matt]

I had a similar type issues with my Parker and the Johnson bilge pumps I had them upgrade to when I purchased the boat from them. They replaced one pump two winters ago because it wasn't working and told me it wasn't under warranty. The warranty was only 1 year I was told. Well I bought the boat new and only owned it 7 months. They informed me the bilge had a date stamped on the box and the pump was over one year old. So, technically, it could sit on the dealers shelf and expire and they would be selling you a new pump that is out of warranty.

Either way, the dealer replaced the pump for free and yada yada yada....