Many drivers ignored the importance of choosing the right car battery. Most will choose the cheapest possible without considering the specifications of the battery. Here we share some tips on how to identify and choose the right car battery.
Car Battery Types
For general passenger cars (non EV), there are a few battery types available in the market:
- Add-water type battery (or commonly known as wet battery).
- Maintenance-free battery (or commonly known as dry battery).
- EFB battery (Enhanced Flooded Battery), commonly used in the modern cars with engine auto start-stop function.
- AGM battery (Absorbent Glass Mat battery), commonly used in continental cars.
In general, consumers can choose any of the above battery type for their cars. However if their cars have engine auto start-stop function, then they must choose to use either EFB or AGM batteries.
Car Battery Specifications
Parameters like AH (Ampere Hour), CCA (Cold-Cranking Ampere), and RC (Reserve Capacity) define a car battery specification.
Consumers often confuse about the right battery specifications for their cars. Some manufacturers might supply car battery with same size but lower specifications just to maximize profit.
For example: Honda Civic FC is required to use a NS60LS (55B24LS) as specified by Honda. But in the market, some manufacturers might just identify their batteries as NS60LS without their actual specifications 46B24LS. As a result, an insufficient battery might have been wrongly installed. Many does not realize that NS60LS (46B24LS) is a lower specification battery with lower AH/CCA/RC compared to NS60LS (55B24LS).
Before making your purchase, do check on the car manual on the battery specifications. Make sure to purchase a battery with specifications that exceed or at least meet the minimum requirement specified by the car manufacturer.
Car Battery Warranty
It is difficult to know which car battery brand is better unless the consumer has previous experience with the brand. Hence the most logical way is to choose the battery which offers the longer warranty.
Car battery warranty covers manufacturing defects, and a defect battery is eligible for one-to-one replacement. However warranty does not cover faults that is caused by the car or user negligence.
Do take note some manufacturers offer the illusion of extended warranty at extra price, but the extended warranty is often not one-to-one replacement, instead it just offers some discount for customers to pay for another battery.
If you have difficulty in choosing the right battery for your car, do check out the services links which might help during emergency: https://centurybattery.com.my/services-2/ , https://bateriboy.com/ .
