Community Forums

pacevette · 11-19-2012, 11:45 AM

Late last spring i purchased 2 new house batteries for our MH. About the middle of the season i noticed the voltage was getting low. Before we put it into storage i removed the batteries and put them both on the charger. One would charge to 65% and the other would charge to 80%. I returned them back to Sams. It was an argument but they did exchange them for 2 new ones. I went home and immediately put them on my tester. Both batteries were dead! Went back to the store and got a full refund. They tried to explain that the stock is rotated on a regular basis. But if they don't sell any it's a mute point. I wanted to share this in case anyone might run into the same problem.

LVJ58 · 11-19-2012, 11:53 AM

Thanks for the head's up, I replaced our 4 6v deep cycle coach batteries this year with Interstates from Costco, so far no issues with holding a full charge.

Steve N Sal · 11-19-2012, 12:00 PM

Had the same problem about a month ago. I purchased two 6v Energizers from Sam's in April 2011. Well they just went dead and of course being they were out of warranty there was no adjustment. Well I purchased two new ones only these are Duracell. We'll see how these hold up. If I have the same experience with these that will be the last batteries I'll purchase from Sam's.

pacevette · 11-19-2012, 12:21 PM

I just got off the phone with East Penn who makes the batteries. He told me that this was impossible and said it was probably my RV....Are you kidding me?! Never offered anything or did he want to know where i purchased my batteries from. Customer service IMO was terrible. I told him that apparently cheaper is not always better.

LandKinaMoho · 11-19-2012, 01:51 PM

One gits what one pays for. No misspelling intended.

1fanman · 11-19-2012, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LandKinaMoho

One gits what one pays for. No misspelling intended.

X2 Absolutely

Possum · 11-19-2012, 03:03 PM

I could have bought my sixers for the C Class from Walmart but opted to cross the street to Canadian Tire. I got units with about 50 amp hours higher rating for $6.00 a piece more but the kicker for me was the warranty. CTC gives unconditional 3 year warranty (that the honour anywhere in Canada) that I had to test when we were in New Brunswick last spring. Presented the paperwork proving the purchase date and we had new batteries in a matter of minutes. Like the man says, "One gits what one pays for. No misspelling intended"

TdogKing · 11-19-2012, 04:15 PM

My last set of 6 volts came from Sam's Club and they still weren't dead after 9 years. I decided to buy my next set there again about a year ago.

mgscott4 · 11-20-2012, 08:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pacevette

Late last spring i purchased 2 new house batteries for our MH. About the middle of the season i noticed the voltage was getting low. Before we put it into storage i removed the batteries and put them both on the charger. One would charge to 65% and the other would charge to 80%. I returned them back to Sams. It was an argument but they did exchange them for 2 new ones. I went home and immediately put them on my tester. Both batteries were dead! Went back to the store and got a full refund. They tried to explain that the stock is rotated on a regular basis. But if they don't sell any it's a mute point. I wanted to share this in case anyone might run into the same problem.

There has to be more to your story.

You noticed the voltage getting low? what voltage?
What is the conversion to volts for 65% and 85% of charge?
What failed on the batteries?
Did you or they check the specific gravity on each cell? Did both batteries have bad cells?
Did you check your output of your MH converter?
What condition are your battery cables and connectors?
During the year you owned the batteries did you check the water level?
Did they sit dead for an extended period of time?
Do you routinely draw them down below 12 volts?

Did you try to charge your new "dead batteries"?
What voltage were they?

If your have a bad converter (either over charging or under charging) or bad cables, any new batteries you purchase are probably going to fail also.

imorton · 11-20-2012, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgscott4

There has to be more to your story.

You noticed the voltage getting low? what voltage?
What is the conversion to volts for 65% and 85% of charge?
What failed on the batteries?
Did you or they check the specific gravity on each cell? Did both batteries have bad cells?
Did you check your output of your MH converter?
What condition are your battery cables and connectors?
During the year you owned the batteries did you check the water level?
Did they sit dead for an extended period of time?
Do you routinely draw them down below 12 volts?

Did you try to charge your new "dead batteries"?
What voltage were they?

If your have a bad converter (either over charging or under charging) or bad cables, any new batteries you purchase are probably going to fail also.

I agree.... Either you had dead cells or some other issue going on.

pacevette · 11-20-2012, 08:33 PM

The converter is good and it was checked. One battery did have a bad cell which possibly drained the other one. Cables were good. Water level was checked on a regular basis. I believe they were never rotated in stock. Im not sure what else the problem could be since I brought 2 new batteries home and neither one read over 5.5 volts. I do own a very high quality battery charger and it reads what percentage the batteries are charged. It never read over 65%.

"007" · 11-20-2012, 09:41 PM

I had two wet cell 6 volts, changed them out to two AGM 12 VOLT place them on a 12v charger before installing plus checked all battery cable negative cables to chassis frame plus from converter to frame.
Have had them for two years, made stop overs at Cracker Barrels for night stop overs during winter months, couldn't ask for better reliability from the Sam batteries.

Gary RVRoamer · 11-23-2012, 09:47 AM

It is not at all unusual that a new battery is not fully charged. It may mean they have been on the shelf awhile, though.

Nor am I surprised that East Penn would not do anything - they are a factory and not the sales channel (except for their own Deka retail brand). They built a battery to somebody else's spec, that was sold under somebody else's brand name, with somebody else's warranty.

wa8yxm · 11-23-2012, 11:29 AM

"One gets what one pays for" usually, true, not always.

Some years ago I purchased what then was about the most expensive starting battery on the market for my car.. the J.C. Penny "Forever Battery" As I recall I paid sixty bucks.

It failed in just about a week... They replaced it no questions asked (heck they remembered installing it)

Several YEARS later, as my Brother was getting married (Rehearsal day) that one failed.. The store manager who replaced it was a genuine jerk.. but he replaced it.. They no longer offered the lifetime battery then but did have a 5 year one, and put itin instead, but engraved it to indicate it was still a lifetime warranty.

That one went with the car when it died. It was 1977 when I got the first one, and 1985 (As I recall) when the car died (might have been 1986) Car died of a drug overdose.. Yup, I pulled up to the red light and stopped, the shuttle driver for Sentry Drugs also pulled up to the light and stopped, thus "overdosing" my car with his truck.

The point is I paid for a lifetime warranty and that's what I got.
But the battery... Well the first one failed dang near before I left the parking lot. That's why they warrant them.

I might add, I was very happy with my purchase.. the "Adjustment" when they did the 2nd replacement was over 150 roughly 2.5 times what I paid for the original.

It is written that any comapny, no matter how good, turns out the occasional lemon. LIkewise even the worst company occashionally messes up and turns out a gold nugget. the difference is the ratio of lemon to gold.