New battery for a tenner

[Stuart]

Folks, if anyone needs a new lead acid battery, Halfords are currently clearing stock of the Yuasa 53030 for the princely sum of a tenner apiece.  I just blagged one 🙂

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Check very, very, very carefully, many of them are old (circa two years) and some are goosed.

 

Im sure some are fine. But get a meter on them before installing or charging. And even if they show you a decent voltage on them in the branch, before you pay, check them again after 24 hours to see what the genuine resting Voltage is.

 

Calling @Greenstreak-Andy D

[Stuart]

Well the rotten bar stewards.  Thanks @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary I will take my multimeter with me.  What am I looking for - 12.7v minimum?

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

This was purchased, last Saturday by Andy, at Halfords.

 

Metered before doing anything else, as soon as he got home.

 

 

Ues, that’s under 9 V!

 

and the  activation date..,

 

[Stuart]

Cheers for that.  I think if it has an activation date like that I won't even bother checking the voltage - they can give me a refund there and then

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Just now, Stuart said:

Well the rotten bar stewards.  Thanks @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary I will take my multimeter with me.  What am I looking for - 12.7v minimum?

Around that would be good, not below 12.5 V. The trouble is though, if they bang them on a charger, even for just a bit of time, then immediately bring them out for you to test, the Voltage they show won’t be the real resting Voltage, it will still be higher than normal due to only just coming off the charger. Really you want to see what the voltage drops to overnight, after its been taken off charge.

 

Wonder if they’ll try and resell Andy’s! (They said it would go for recycling, but you can take that two ways.)

 

I’ll let Andy tell you how they messed him round from pillar to post, at two different Halfords branches.

 

Shame is, I bought one from Halfords last year and it was fine, a good price too, but they appear to be down to the door stops and paper weights now, with these things.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

4 minutes ago, Stuart said:

Cheers for that.  I think if it has an activation date like that I won't even bother checking the voltage - they can give me a refund there and then

Yup, I’ll be honest, i don’t know how old a date is considered reasonable in the battery industry, but personally I wouldn’t really want one longer than twelve months.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Oh, and they were £50, only last weekend, when Andy got the one above. Heaven knows what you’re getting for a tenner!

[Stuart]

We shall see tomorrow.  Thanks again for the heads-up

[Richard (OldStager)]

different application, but my last job as a fire alarm engineer saw me replacing these every 18 months to guarantee they worked as a back up power source, i fitted one of the ones i had removed from a job and fitted it in the comp car i had, it lasted all of 3 events - and yes it was a battery designed for cyclic use.

 we never stocked more batteries than we had in for planned maintenance due to the low shelf life. they were all genuine yuasa ones as well. the date stamp should be heat melted into the black top surface.

[Stuart]

They just refunded my tenner so I presume it wasn't in stock at my local store after all.  Probably just as well

[Man On The Clapham Omnibus]

I've got one of those 'on-load' battery testers that's like an electric fire on fat jump leads. Not many half-dead batteries survive that! 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

36 minutes ago, Stuart said:

They just refunded my tenner so I presume it wasn't in stock at my local store after all.  Probably just as well

Yep, these batteries seem to have brought out the very worst side of Halfords customer service.

 

They seriously wanted Andy to drive to the next town, Congleton, (where it was bought), return it, then drive to Crewe to pick up the replacement.

 

Andy took it direct to Crewe, but turned out they didn’t have any after all. I think they actually suggested he drive to the Newcastle branch at this point!!

 

Personally I’d recommend everyone runs as far away from this offer as possible! It’s unlikely to end well.

 

The real problem will be if they realise and finally bung them on chargers. They will appear fully charged and OK if you check them at collection. But will fail way earlier than they should, and won’t have the capacity they should have, either.

[Greenstreak-Andy D]

As @Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary says, avoid. It’s another too good to be true. 
I will let you guess at my thoughts on this one. 
The story has a happy ending though, I replaced the banner with a competitively priced AGM gel (£92 delivered) from Tayna. Very pleased. The engine leaps into life. Spinning over so much quicker than the Banner ever did ( I have only owned this westie from Jan 2020). 
 

I have no affiliation with Tayna, just pleased with replacement.

https://www.tayna.co.uk/motorcycle-batteries/exide/agm12-31/

 

Andy

[Stuart]

@Greenstreak-Andy D I'm fancying the Leoch EB30-3 AGM off the same page