Rechargeable Batteries

safes and fireproof safes that are outfitted with electronic locks. Whether you have purchased a home safe, gun safe or a commercial grade security container, the batteries in your lock will eventually wind up dead. Below we have put together our TOP 5 Questions & Answers to help you alleviate the headache of not being able to open your safe when the inevitable happens!

TOP 5 QUESTION OUR READERS ASK US

1) What brand or type of battery should I use in my gun safe?
Comparing rechargeable vs. Alkaline

Electronic gun safes vary from the storage of pistols and handguns to rifles and shotguns. Whether your lock uses biometric fingerprint access or is a digital keypad or electronic lock the type of battery you choose should reflect upon the following:

• How often you open and close the gun safe
• Does the safe sit idle for long periods of time with no use

If you access your gun safe on a daily basis you put a different type of ware on your batteries, typcially referred to as “high drainage.”  High drainage means your batteries are low quickly and frequently, if this is the case from repeated opening and closing of your safe you should choose rechargeable batteries. The general rule of thumb is that if you buy batteries more often than once a month you should probably consider rechargeable brands like Duracell or Energizer instead.

2) What are the best batteries for a Sentry Safe?
The manufacturer, SentrySafe recommends the use of Duracell, as do many of the top brand names. These batteries offer great reliability and tremendous value. Fore more information read our previous blog about AA Batteries with your SentrySafe

3) How do I replace my electronic safe batteries?

Every lock is different, just like every safe. To better help you , we’ve written several How-to blog articles for many brands and types of electronic safes HERE

4) My battery is dead in my safe, will it remember the combination?

YES. YES. YES. Both digital and electronic safe locks are designed with internal memory (much like your laptop or notebook computer) to remember the codes and combination.

5) How do I know if my battery is going dead in my safe?

*BEEP*  *BEEP* *BEEP* You can hear it loud and clear, a constant or repeated beeping sound coming from your hidden safe… that means it’s time to change or replace the batteries. Whether your safe uses 9V or AA batteries, safe manufacturers design their safes and electronic locks to beep when the battery needs replaced. A common practice is to replace the batteries every 6 to 12 months regardless if the lock beeps with a low battery warning.

We regularly update our blog with the best tips and tricks for getting the most our of your battery…whether that is Automotive, Cell Phone or laptop batteries, we are your source for Best Battery Tips!

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Prostart Value Grade Battery

Prostart Platinum Battery

Pep Boys is one of the largest Auto Parts stores in the United States. Pep Boys is known for their excellent auto parts pricing, and a one stop shop for all your auto parts needs. Not only does Pep Boys sell auto parts, but they also install a lot of various auto parts. The auto parts store combined with a full install garage has been Pep Boys trade mark to success. Among Pep Boys bigger parts hitter is their battery line, and battery installation. They offer a wide range of batteries for every consumers need, and in turn has been a big part of Pep Boys business. We are going to test and review the Prostart Value Grade battery, and Prostart Platinum battery that Pep Boys offers. We will test the Prostart Value Grade, and Platinum Battery under the same distress. One question has always been for budget shoppers. When spending more money, how much more do you really get?

Prostart Value Grade Battery

Pep Boys Prostart Value Grade Battery is exactly what the name implies, its Pep Boys base grade battery with price at the for front for shoppers on a budget. The Prostart Value Grade Battery offers a 12 month free replacement warranty and a 60 month pro rate warranty. We wouldn’t say the warranty on this battery is anything to get excited about, but how good of a battery is it? Now a cheaper battery does not mean the battery lacks in quality or performance, you may be surprised as to what we found when we tested this value grade battery from Pep Boys.

BestBatteryTIps.com started out with a brand new Prostart Value Grade battery as well as a brand new Prostart Platinum battery. Our goal was to see how long the batteries would last under certain extreme conditions. The test would be installing the battery in a truck and leaving the lights on bright until there was nothing left. How long would the battery last under these conditions?

Testing the Prostart Value Grade vs. Platinum

We wanted to test the durability of the Prostart Value Grade Battery as compared to the Prostart Platinum Battery. We thought that these would be good batteries to test solely based on their price. The consumers when possibly looking at batteries would pose the question as to what the difference is from the value grade vs a Platinum battery. You may be getting more with your money, but how much more are you getting? We put the Prostart Value Grade battery in a 1978 Ford Truck. We chose this vehicle because we didn’t have to worry about the truck lights being on a delayed timer and shutting the lights off on its own as do some newer vehicles.We turned all accessories off and then turned the headlights on bright and waited. Needless to say it was gonna be a little longer wait than we anticipated. One hour went by and guess what? We were still waiting on the battery to die. We could tell that the lights were dimmer than when we started, but still had some time to go yet. 2 hours and the battery had about all it wanted to take. The clock read 2 hours and 10 minutes when the battery was dead. We felt that was a pretty good time considering it was a Value Grade Battery. I mean really, how long did you expect it to last? What we didn’t know is how long a Prostart Platinum battery would last under the same conditions? A true test of two different grade batteries under the exact same extreme conditions would prove interesting to say the least.

Prostart Platinum Battery

Next on deck was the Prostart Platinum battery. The Prostart Platinum battery offers a 2 year free replacement and a 72 month pro rated warranty. We wasn’t sure what to expect considering the higher price tag for the Prostart Platinum battery. We did notice that the Prostart Platinum weighed more than the Prostart Value Grade battery. We attributed this difference to more lead in the Prostart Platinum battery. That is not surprising considering that more lead should be in a higher grade battery.

Platinum Series Battery

The question would be is what does more lead get you?

We installed the Prostart Platinum battery into the truck, and followed the same steps as we did with the Prostart Value Grade battery. One, and two hours went by and we were right back in a familiar place again. Would the Prostart Platinum make it past the 2 hours and 10 minute mark? We passed the Prostart Value Grade mark of two hours and ten minutes and still had positive steam. Three hours later from the time we started the Prostart Platinum battery was dead.

After conducting our test, we had to ask the question. Is the Prostart Platinum battery worth the extra cash considering it went another 50 minutes? Considering the amp draw from the headlights, another 50 minutes is a sizable difference.  The Prostart Platinum offers 12 more months of free battery replacement, and 12 more months of a pro rate warranty. We don’t concern our selfs with the pro rate side as it is hard to come out ahead with those programs. However, 12 more months of free replacement is with out a doubt worth looking at. We were mainly after to see if you get more battery just because you pay more. The answer to that question is yes, but how much more do you get? We’ll let you the consumer be the judge of that.

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Diehard Platinum P-1

Diehard Platinum P-2

Diehard Platinum P-3

Sears pulled out all the stops when they introduced their Diehard Platinum battery line. Sears has been known for many years for their dependably Diehard Batteries. Diehard Batteries were introduced to consumers in the 1960’s, and were branded that they would last forever. They stood behind the Diehard battery for as long as the owner owned the car for which the battery was originally installed. Over time due to the economy and better quality vehicles, people kept their vehicles for longer periods of time. Sears was forced to stop the “Forever” policy. However, Sears did continue to forge forward with their well known and accepted Diehard battery line.

Sears did their homework when they searched for a battery manufacturer to work with them on their new Diehard Platinum battery line. They obviously were searching for the next generation of ultimate Diehard power. Enersys the worlds largest industrial battery manufacturer was capable of exactly that. Enersys and Sears worked together to bring the next generation of Diehard power to another level. The new Diehard batteries would turn out to be AGM(Absorption Glass Mat) composition. These new AGM batteries made up of a composition of lead paste absorbed into fiberglass matting. This new design did away with free acid inside the battery. The new Diehard could be punctured, and still not leak any acid. The new design was also very resilient to extreme vibration. Cold and hot temperatures were also not much of a issue with this new bullet proof design. Sears accomplished exactly what they had set out to do.

Diehard Platinum P-4

Diehard Platinum P-5

Diehard Platinum P-6

The Diehard Platinum battery line consists of eight elite batteries. Diehard is only one of two battery brands to offer such a wide selection of AGM battery composition. The other battery brand is Odyssey also made by Enersys, go figure. Sears numbered their new Diehard Platinum batteries for easy consumer selection. The P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, PM1, and PM2. The P stands for Platinum, the M stands for Marine, and the number represents the battery group number. Below is a review of the Diehard Platinum batteries with each batteries manufactured specifications.

The P-1 Platinum Automotive Battery group number 34 from DieHard offers 135 minutes of reserve capacity and 880 cold cranking amps.

The P-2 Platinum Automotive Battery group number 65 from DieHard offers 135 minutes of reserve capacity and 930 cold cranking amps.

The P-3 Platinum Automotive Battery group number 75/86 Dual Terminal from DieHard offers 90 minutes of reserve capacity and 710 cold cranking amps.

The P-4 Platinum Automotive Battery group number 34/78 Dual Terminal from DieHard offers 135 minutes of reserve capacity and 880 cold cranking amps.

The P-5 Platinum Automotive Battery group number 35 from DieHard offers 100 minutes of reserve capacity and 740 cold cranking amps.

The P-6 Platinum Automotive Battery group number 25 from DieHard offers 100 minutes of reserve capacity and 740 cold cranking amps.

The PM-1 Platinum Marine Battery group number 31 from DieHard offers 205 minutes of reserve capacity and 1150 cold cranking amps.

The PM-2 Platinum Marine Battery group number 34 DieHard offers 135 minutes of reserve capacity and 880 cold cranking amps.

Diehard Platinum PM-1

Diehard Platinum PM-2

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]]> http://bestbatterytips.com/best-battery-brands/diehard-platinum-battery-review-p1-p2-p3-p4-p5-p6-pm1-pm2/feed/ 1 http://bestbatterytips.com/best-battery-brands/who-makes-odyssey-batteries-mailbag-mondays-qa/ http://bestbatterytips.com/best-battery-brands/who-makes-odyssey-batteries-mailbag-mondays-qa/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:18:01 +0000 Kip http://bestbatterytips.com/?p=1298

Odyssey Battery Line

Brian from Alabama

There seems to be a lot of confusion on the internet from what I’ve been reading. Who makes Odyssey batteries? I was under the understanding that Odyssey is the manufacturer of their own batteries. I was also told from a different source that Optima makes Odyssey batteries. Please help me with this question, because I have no idea what to believe.

BestBatteryTips.com

Brian, thanks for taking the time to submit your question to our Mailbag Mondays segment. We always enjoy finding out whats going around on the world wide web. We still to this day get a chuckle out of some of the gossip on the web. Well Brian here’s the real deal on Odyssey batteries. Odyssey Batteries are not manufactured by Odyssey. Odyssey batteries are manufactured by Enersys. Enersys is the largest industrial battery manufacturer in the world. Enersys is without a doubt a global leader in providing a very high quality battery. Enersys also has the largest line of AGM technology batteries on the market. The Odyssey battery is known for its up to 10 year life expectancy, and the use of pure virgin lead plates inside the battery. The Odyssey battery is said to be able to sit in storage for 2 years and still be good as new. The Odyssey battery is very resilient to vibration, which is very important considering most batteries fail prematurely due to vibration. Enersys stands behind their product by offering a unprecedented 48 month free replacement, and up to 100 months pro rate warranty. You can shop around, but those kind of warranties in the battery business aren’t something your likely to run into elsewhere. When it comes to AGM technology, nobody as anything on the Odyssey brand battery. We here at BestBatteryTips.com highly recommend the Odyssey battery to anyone looking for the ultimate battery.

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Lithium Ion Batteries

Nickel Metal Hydride Battery Pack

Energizer NIMH Batteries

Lithium Ion Button Battery

Buying a battery for your portable device can be very confusing. More times than not consumers are unaware of the differences between the different batteries available. Comparing apples to apples is very important in the battery world. Consumers get so caught up in comparing the price that they don’t understand the different types of batteries. When I say apples to apples, I’m referring to the exact same battery in size, chemistry, manufacturer and milliampere-hour (MAH). The size generally speaking is correct, however the consumer don’t thoroughly understand the chemistry and Mah side of the equation. The old saying that all batteries are created equal couldn’t be further from the truth.Battery technology has come so far over the last decade alone to squash those beliefs. We here at BestBatteryTips.com want to provide some insight to consumers on purchasing the right battery for their portable electronic device.

One of the first steps to purchasing a battery is knowing what your battery model number is. The model number on a battery represents everything about that exact battery. The battery model number tells us what electronic device the battery will fit in, MAH capacity, and chemistry. You will find that while shopping online some battery websites have cross-reference search engines for battery model numbers to take you right to the battery you are needing. Once you find the replacement battery you may have several selection options. Two of the primary selections will be MAH and Chemistry. You can always go with more MAH, it will allow your electronic device to last longer on a charge. However, you will have to pay for more available power. Depending on whether your comfortable with your existing MAH will depend on if you want to upgrade or not. Chemistry is also a very important consideration. Generally speaking I would stay away from any Nicad chemistry batteries if at all possible. These batteries suffer greatly from the so called memory effect. Nicad batteries as compared to Nickel Metal Hydride and Lithium Ion, don’t have the capacity of their superiors. When we talk about purchasing a battery for your power tool, its difficult to buy anything but Nicad. There is some new power tools out there using Lithium Ion technology, but it seems Nicad is in most. Lithium Ion also called Li-ion is what consumers are most familiar with. They are in most phones,cameras, watches, and camcorders. They don’t suffer from memory effect and also have a excellent available capacity. When purchasing a new battery, you can’t go wrong with Lithium Ion. Nickel Metal Hydride also known as Nimh, is also a excellent choice. Nimh can be charged and discharged thousands of times without deteriorating over time. No need to worry about memory effect with Nimh. With Manufacturers its hard to tell whats going. Consumers are gonna be hard pressed to find a portable electronic battery made here in the USA. 99% of all the batteries for these Gizmo and Gadgets are made over seas. Now that doesn’t mean you can’t get a quality product. However its hard to know what you are buying, and sometimes may feel like a crap shoot. Your best bet is to purchase the battery from a retailer who stands behind the product they sell.

So when we speak of comparing apples to apples, be sure to look over the batteries stat sheet. What chemistry am I looking at? How much MAH does this battery offer? Does this retailer stand behind their product? What will this battery cost me? These simple steps will help your battery buying experience, and will make sure you get the right battery for your needs.

Duracell NIMH Batteries

Duracell Alkaline Battery

Alkaline are the most common used batteries in households. The number one reason for this is because of the cheaper price that alkaline batteries have over their competition. Consumers seem to buy the alkaline batteries thinking they are saving money at time of purchase, when they are really spending more money over time. Alkaline batteries are not designed to be recharged, and are generally discarded once the the battery is exhausted of its stored power. The only advantage that alkaline batteries have over NIMH batteries is cost and discharge rate. The NIMH batteries cost 2 1/2 times more than alkaline batteries, and have a high discharge rate as compared to the alkaline battery. People who keep equipment stored for emergency purposes, such as flashlights when the power goes out. NIMH batteries do not store well over long periods because of their high discharge rate. When the flashlight would need to be used, you could possibly only have 65 to 70% of stored power depending of course on length of time stored. Alkaline batteries have a very slow discharge rate, and are a excellent choice for these applications. Now with that being said its time to take a look at what NIMH batteries have to offer over alkaline batteries. NIMH batteries have a much higher capacity than alkaline. Bottom line, NIMH batteries have a lot more power to offer for high drain devices such has digital cameras. NIMH batteries are rechargeable batteries, and consumers can expect to get 750 to 1000  or more charge discharge cycles out of them. That’s a huge advantage over alkaline batteries for applications such as remote controls, wireless controllers, and kids toys. NIMH batteries can also be recharged to full capacity in less than a hour. As we mentioned above, the NIMH batteries have a higher initial cost than alkaline batteries. Consumers can expect to pay around 29 dollars for a 15 minute quick charger and 4 AA NIMH batteries included. Keep in mind you get 750 to 1000 recharge cycles with that purchase. A pack of alkaline batteries will cost you almost 5 dollars a pack. So you can recharge your NIMH batteries 5 times and you get your money back on the alkaline batteries, and still have 750 to 1000 recharge cycles left! The NIMH batteries are also good for the environment because they have no cadmium in them as opposed to NICAD.

EDIT: Customer Service at Sentry Safe recommends Duracell or Energizer; see comment section

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Orbital Select Battery

Spiral Cell Technology

The Orbital battery is Exides version of the Optima. Among the patent race in North America for the lead acid spiral cell wound technology was Optima, and Exide. Optima got the North American patent, while Exide gained their patent in Spain. There is not much difference between the two, expect that the Orbital tends to be cheaper to buy than the Optima. Exide offers 2 versions of the spiral cell wound technology. Black and Blue as they are referred to out in the market. The Black is a starting battery like the Red Top that Optima offers. The Blue Orbital is a deep cycle battery, and can be used for starting applications as well. The Blue Exide Orbital is like the Optima Yellow top, which is a dual purpose spiral cell technology battery. A big miss conception about these batteries is that people tend to think of them as gel batteries. The batteries are a conventional lead-acid battery that uses an AGL (lead paste absorbed into fiberglass matting) design that eliminates the problems of vibration and shock that would break down a ordinary lead acid battery. The tightly wound grids resist vibration which in turn stops plate shedding. This design is also very resistant to high temperatures and sub zero temperatures as well. The Orbital is also completely and permanently sealed. When the battery is in use, hydrogen and oxygen inside the battery are captured and reunited to form the water supply within the existing electrolyte. This technology does away with the need to ever add water to the battery. Another  nice feature of this battery is that it can be installed in any position sense it is completely and permanently sealed. The Optima and Orbital are also better for the environment because the batteries due not leak when they are cracked or punctured. There is no doubt that this technology is hands down better than a conventional lead acid battery. The battery life expectancy is close to 10 years on these batteries. The only issue people have with these batteries at this point in time is the price of them. You can expect to spend anywhere from 125 dollars to close to 200 dollars depending on where you purchase them.

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NICAD AA Rechargeable

NICAD(Nickel Cadmium) batteries were very popular in their day, but now are obsolete because of NIMH(Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries. NICAD batteries suffered in available capacity,they were susceptible to memory effect, and not to mention they are not environmentally friendly. Nicad batteries contain toxic cadmium.  Nicad batteries needed to be fully discharged before charging again to 100%. On a cordless drill for example, if you used half the battery working on a project and then charged it back up again for the next day the NICAD batteries would start using only 50% of their capacity thinking it was 100% charged. NICAD batteries however were hard workers if you drained them all the way down and took them back up again to 100%. They would take a lot of abuse of heavy cycles, time after time but lacked high capacity. Nicad batteries had around 750 charge cycles in them.

NIMH AA Rechargeable

Nickel Metal Hydride is an excellent replacement to Nicad. Nickel Metal Hydride has no memory effect, so they came be charged back up at any time with no worries. NIMH also contains no toxic cadmium, and are environmentally friendly. NIMH offers 2 to 3 times the available capacity over Nicad batteries. NIMH are a excellent choice for high drain electronic devices like digital cameras. NIMH batteries have 1000 plus recharge cycles in them, making them a power house in the rechargeable sector. One of the draw backs to NIMH batteries however is their discharge rate when not in use. NIMH have a high discharge rate, and for that reason are a bad choice for emergency applications like backup flashlight batteries in cellars. NIMH batteries are a great improvement over Nicad batteries, and are a excellent choice for your next battery purchase.

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