All Car batteries may Look the Same but there not
It never stops surprising me, the number of our customers
who think that they can fit any battery to their car. A typical question is
will an 063 car battery fit my Ford Mondeo1, 9 turbo diesel. This is because
the 063 cost in the region of £35 to £45 depending on the make of the battery.
I suppose that most car batteries do look pretty similar and indeed some are.
Most of the black coloured boxes are in fact recycled and
whatever the battery make they do in fact all look the same apart from the fact
that they do come in different lengths. In fact most batteries that fit
European cars are the same height and width, but they increase in capacity with
their length. From a 063 battery being the smallest to the 019 battery being
almost the largest. There are larger batteries, but the 019 is probably the commonest
of the larger sized batteries and fits many Mercedes and BMW models.
The other colour of box is the white or opaque and is used
to make the top quality batteries such as Varta batteries made by Johnson
controls, but not to confuse matters; Johnson controls also make other quality battery
brand names such as Lucas batteries. Lucas batteries are of excellent qualities
and can be bought online at www.batteriesontheweb.co.uk
at discount prices with a next working day delivery.
One of the key things
to look out for when buying your new battery is the number of amps that the
battery states on the label. For instance an 063 battery can have anything
between 35amps and 50 amps, the 50amps battery will be the strongest battery,
so this is well worth looking out for. Most standard car batteries are known as
wet cell lead acid batteries and are designed for starting and supplying the
electricity to your car. One thing to watch out for is the advent of the AGM
batteries that are now being fitted to some models of cars.
The AGM (absorbed glass matting) have an electrolyte-laden
mat made of boron-silicate glass between the plates and therefore can be totally
sealed as the battery acid does not evaporate, these batteries can also be used
as deep cycle batteries, and are used for mobility scooters and golf carts. In
the case of cars the batteries are used in the stop/start systems used by Volvo,
BMW and other makes of cars. This is where the motorist has to be careful it is
important to fit the correct battery and if you are not sure which type of
battery that you have on your car, you must check with your local battery store
or better still contact your car makers garage, but don’t buy one off them
because you will be paying twice the price as you would online.
Most car batteries that are sold online
will come with a three or four year warranty and to be truthful many of the companies will stick to warranty agreement, like buying any other products you take a certain amount of risk when buying anything online. Check the trustworthiness of the company, a good way is to email them with a question or better still telephone them with a question, you will soon know if they sound genuine or not. If they do not have a contact phone number on the web-site then do not buy a battery off them, there plenty of come and go companies, you are looking for trust and understanding, when you buy a new battery, so that if something should go wrong then it will be sorted out for you.
And finally most car batteries these days will be advertised
as maintenance free and come with carrying handles, these handles sure help
when it comes to lifting your new battery into the engine compartment.
Eric Roberts
Hi I would like to introduce myself. I have worked in the
Garage and tyre and Battery business now for 40 years. I have worked for a
couple for national tyre companies in my younger days, before starting my first
business. I now own a company here in the UK called Pellon Tyre and
Auto-centre, and I am a keen blogger about anything to do with cars and their
related products that will help my business. We are members of Point-S and
Motor-Codes and are also a Unipart Car Care Centre and of course Tyre-safe.
