What is considered the best battery replacement for the JKU ?

 

You'll hopefully get some good answers here and this topic comes up frequently. One question you should answer is whether you do bumpy off road stuff. I've pretty much been using the best batteries Walmart has for the last 15 years or so. They always work well for me. Many on here say that gel batteries should be used if you do lots of off road stuff in the Jeep.

 

Interested in this one as well since I had been using the Sears Diehard Marine Platinum AGM, rebranded Enersys Group 34 batteries. I've wired all my accessories (winches, Audio system, onboard air compressors) taking advantage of the dual post connections on the Sears Platinum battery. Wondering what my best replacement option will be once my current battery decides to die. I kind of figured it would likely be the actual Enersys equivalent battery and just bend over and take the price rape that wasn't there with the Sears rebranded version which is no longer an option.

I'ld like to stick with an AGM Group 34, both for the offroad aspect and that an AGM/Gel battery typically has higher CCAs which I will need for my winch and audio system, while at the same time has the dual post options, since that will likely be a lot of extra effort converting my accessories over to a single post option.

 

Opinions and experiences on batteries will vary. I fall in the camp of "I've had good luck with optima red top's and poor luck with the Sears die hard gold". Outside of the jeep I've used the advance auto brand with mixed results.

I've had red tops in my jeep for 7 years now and only replaced it recently due to a slow death, but it had also been in 2 previous vehicles so I have no qualms with the death.

 

Bear in mind that my usage is very rough: I've managed to kill Optima Yellowtops and Sears Diehard Platinums within a couple years of purchase. Currently running a three year old Diehard Platinum (no longer sold, but it's the rebadged Odyssey) and a year old X2 PowerPremium from Batteries Plus. The X2 has a 60-month free replacement warranty, no prorating. I actually got turned onto these when Ray had one of his batteries fail on the Dalton Highway (sorry, don't remember brand, but it was also an AGM battery and only about two years old). The X2 was available in Fairbanks, where as many of the other popular batteries were not in the weird size he needed for his 3.6 motored JK.

11:03 if not forwarded automatically ...
https://youtu.be/0Eyq1klfCkI?list=PLNmyT4ZqfdQmBSNAXSfR8OG9jIeB94XTz&t=665

 

Interesting. This discussion motivated me to start doing some research and spec comparisons of the AGM batteries often recommended for our 3.8L JKs. The Battery Plus is a rebranded Northstar battery. What I further found is that Northstar was founded in 2000 by a group of engineers that came from Enersys. So it's no wonder that the Northstar manufactured batteries seem to resemble the Enersys batteries.

My criteria for this comparison is that the batteries needed to be AGM, Group 34, with dual terminals which is most common on Marine grade batteries.

One thing for sure, the Sears Diehard platinum battery was a steal when we were able to get them, Once I started to compare specs and prices. I'll likely update this, but this may be a useful shopping comparison tool. When I compare batteries, I like to include the weight. It's hard to fake weight vs. performance specs where typically the higher the weight means, more material, which in turn means higher performance specs.

Any requests to add to the list?

 

This is also a pretty good comparison test on JP Magazine since they published Manufactured specs along with some actual measurements.

Battery Bashing - Jp Magazine

 

I have been running an Exide Edge AGM group 34 for the last 3yrs with no problems. I had a spiral wound Exide orbital AGM (no longer available) in my YJ that lasted 10yrs and since I had never had good luck with Interstate and the sears platinum was no longer available I decided to go back to exide when the JKU needed a new power source.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I run 2 DEKA AGM group 34's, Just as good as Odyssey at half the price.

 

I have an Orielys super start AGM in my 2010 for the last 5 years. When I looked into it it's a rebranded Deka.