Marine Deep Cycle Cranking Batteries

[Skulley]

Well I broke down and bought an Exide Nautilus for my cranking battery.  I have never tried one so this will be a first.  I will let the forum know what I think in a few months.  It is a maintenance free battery.  My trolling motor batteries are from Complete Battery Source and they are wet cells.  They have held up as I enter my third year of use with these. 


BD               

[TritonTR20]

3 deka tm batteries and 1 decka dual purpose battery in my boat. That is all I buy.

[dartag]

is there a Deka dealer on the east side??   might need 2 new 31 TM batteries.   

[bassinman#1]

NAPA deals with Deka. Right around 69 bucks or less.

[djkimmel]

is there a Deka dealer on the east side??   might need 2 new 31 TM batteries.  

Closest East Penn Deka distributor. Give them a call and they should be able to tell you where to get batteries if not directly from them.

Wonch Battery
26332 Lawrence Street
Center Line, MI 48015
Phone: 586-758-5400
Fax: 586-758-5956

[Ranger_Boats_Team_North]

I have sold a LOT of Deka Batteries where I work at in Rockford. (Corner of Wabsis Lake Rd, and M-57) And I have NOT one battery come back or anyone come back saying one bad thing about the battery infact it has been all good. I have a few friend that have Minn Kota 101 36V Fortrex. And they Deka Gel Matte and they use them ALL day in the wind and the batteries do not die. In fact they still were at 1/2 at the end of the day. But I recommend everyone to have a Stay-N-Charge on there boat.

[ROI Outdoors]

DieHard, Duralast, Interstate, ProStart, Everstart and Optima are all JCI brands.  For the guys that have had problems with the Everstarts I would recommend trying them now, if you plug your on-board charger in after every outing they will last at minimum 3 years, I got 5 years out of my 2 trolling and am going on 7th year with my cranking - that is without ever adding any water or messing with them.  They are hands down the best overall value today, from price to availabilty to reliability to local presence - JCI is the only major manufacturer of batteries that employees a substantial amount of Michigan residents.  Johnson Controls has over 9 different locations in Holland and just announced they will be adding another 500+ jobs there with their new facility.  Even if the batteries are made in Wisconsin buying a JCI brand supports you local economy because JCI has tons of local employees.   

I don't personally know one person that has had an issue with an Everstart in the recent past (but I am sure I will after this post  so its fair to say that the days of Everstart being known as a low quality Walmart product are over.

So for anyone having a bad experience with an Everstart take one for team-wooden shoe and try them now because they are much improved, and if you ever plan on spending more than $100 don't be dutch and upgrade to the most advanced spiral cell technology battery on the market and get an Optima.

[Skulley]

Everstart batteries are sold by Complete Battery Source as their own brand.  Those are the wet cells I have.  Good battery.  Very pleased with their performance.  Going on my 4th year with them.  I may or may not have to replace them.  They are about $90 a piece from them.


BD           

[karol]

 surprised no one said anything about the trojan batterys. lot of guys that fish on st clair from our area like these for their big deep v models. some of the tin boats really are hard to control in the wind and these batterys are the only ones that'll last the whole day
karol

[MadWags]

West Marine

[djkimmel]

My Deka batteries last longer than a whole day of fishing Lake St. Clair. Since I switched about 7 years ago, I have not had one single bad battery and always finish the day with plenty of juice to keep fishing at the end of the day exactly how I started the day. Very important for fishing the open, windy Great Lakes.

[Skip Johnson]

West Marine

Deka supplies west marine's batteries.
Deka simply puts west marine stickers on deka batteries before their shipped to the stores, surprised the heck out of me when I was at the deka distribution wharehouse, there's a couple other stores deka swaps the stickers on but memory slips me right now but I think bPS was one of them.

[djkimmel]

The caveat I always have about buying store brand is simple - they can change from year to year (and have in the past). If you can find out for sure one of the top companies is making that year's batteries - great. But before you buy them again two years from now, see if you can find who they are getting them from that year. Sometimes, in trying to save money, the large chains may try batteries that don't have the same quality as they did previously.

I have to say that for a while now, it seems like many of the major chains are sticking with the better battery manufacturers.

Batteries are like so much in our industry - many, many decals on the packages, but only a small number of companies making all of them. It's that way with rods, rod components, reels, line, tube lures and more.

An example is rod guides - many anglers seem to think Fuji makes great rod guides, yet Fuji doesn't make a single rod guide according to what industry insiders tell me. They get their parts from the same company many other large rod makers buy their parts from. They just market them under the Fuji brand. Now, it probably isn't quite that simple and may change year to year, but I can't tell you how many times someone has told me they "like brand X and don't like brand Y" when I know that brand X and brand Y actually come out of the same production line from the same factory. I have always preferred to try to find out who is making the things I buy and also knowing when it changes in case that knowledge affects my buying decision. It helps to deal with companies you can trust of course.

I like and trust Deka because I know who makes them, where they are made (Pennsylvania) and the people who I buy from are no nonsense, honest people who have proven themselves to be knowledgeable. And as you'd expect from a product from that environment, I have excellent performance from their batteries!

My fishing means too much to me to roll the dice on...

[Lip_Ripper]

I have a brand new one i won at a top bass event last august, i can sell you 50 bucks its yours!!!!

[djkimmel]

If you mean a Deka battery, I'm all set. I have 3 in the boat and should get 3 or 4 more years out of them. Thanks.

[Lip_Ripper]

NP DJK have a good one