Where to buy a battery in Ontario?

[Spooling]

Hey guys;

I need a new battery for my AR190. Any advice as to where to buy and what to buy? (I live in the GTA) I googled and found Royal Battery and obviously there is Canadian Tire. I just figured I'd ask if anyone has any advice.

Thanks!

 

[Babin Farms]

I would think that any auto parts store should be able to get you what you need

 

[jeffrt]

Costco has a good selection of batteries, and the return policy is awesome. I saw online that Interstate makes their Kirkland batteries. I have one in my F150, and it's been good for 3 years now. Have a Canadian Tire battery in the boat from last year (lineups were too long at Costco), and it's been good too.

 

[Canuckjetboater]

Canadian Tire had Northstar AGM TPPL batteries on sale. Not cheap but tremendous improvement in all areas with amazingly fast re-charge times.

 

[Spooling]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I ended up picking up a Group 24 Deep Cycle from Crappy Tire. I presume those $400ish grey batteries are Northstar's?

 

[Canuckjetboater]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I ended up picking up a Group 24 Deep Cycle from Crappy Tire. I presume those $400ish grey batteries are Northstar's?

Yes, I bought the TPPL Northstar because I left my 2020SX195 at a dock that had no power, therefore no ability to charge the battery from a 110v source. The Northstar (or any good brand like Penn Deka) TPPL has an incredibly fast recharge rate so the puny stator of my boat could easily bring it up to full charge on the way back the dock from a day on the water. As well, the TPPLs have dramatically superior ability to run stereos etc. while at anchor. If you trailer your boat or can charge the batteries at your slip you can get by without a TPPL - I would still buy an AGM though just for the extra longevity at anchor particularly if I did not have a second battery. A portable (they're really compact) Noco lithium battery booster is another safety feature for one battery boats. I had one of those from on sale days at CT.

 

[Spooling]

That's funny. I have a NOCO pack in the boat glove box as well, that's what's allowed us to get out the last few times as the boat's battery wasn't able to fire the motor. It was weird because the blower, bilge and radio all seemed to work well. I guess it just did not have enough amps to kick the starter over.

I have a Solar panel at the dock with a charge controller to maintain my battery. It seems to have done a great job at keeping the battery charged up. This year however, for whatever reason my battery is depleted enough to not be able to start the boat. The funny thing is that the charge controller says "charged" even though the battery can't kick over the starter.

 

[David Martin]

Sometimes a starter armatures/bearings ect....... or a starter solenoid can demand more amps than batt can handle. Corrosion can diminish the power(amps) flowing towards a device. With that said I always lean towards Battery and cables first........charge controller probably reads voltage for full reading but batt needs to be checked under a load for amps, and if it has amps then somewhere along it way to starter its getting lost.

Battery/starter tester are on about 30 to 40 bucks might be worth looking into since the cost of Batts are so getting up in price.

 

[Spooling]

When I boosted the boat with the Noco pack, I used the secondary terminals on the battery and it started without issue, so I presumed the battery cables were ok.

Without load the battery was putting out about 12.5-12.6 volts, but yeah, I'm sure under load it was probably dropping way down.

 

[David Martin]

I thinking your Batt may be just fine.... a load tester would help but one clue you gave sticks in my brain....... it turns over just fine with a boost. Several things can cause a starter motor to require more amps than usual to get moving. Corrosion closes the solenoid contacts, bring the amps to the party and said contacts are so dirty/corroded you have and amp drop to starter requiring a boost to get going. Second electric motors/starters can get soft shorts in there windings making them harder to turn over until you hit them with a boost.

Hope this helps

 

[Canuckjetboater]

I have seen good batteries replaced when battery grounds and solenoid grounds were at fault. Also battery cables are prime suspects as the electricity can draw moisture into the cables where it causes power-robbing corrosion. The cable appears fine but isn't. Friends or previous owners have replaced "marine" cables with automotive cables and the trouble began. Cheap, incorrect or corroded battery cables and corroded terminals are a cheap fix and one place I would go before looking at a $350 AGM TPPL.

 

[Spooling]

My boat is a 2014, I'd hope it's good, but I guess we'll see. I will pickup a load tester and let you know how it goes!

 

[Babin Farms]

If it's the original battery then I would replace it regardless of how it tests. That's very old for a battery

 

[Spooling]

I think I had replaced the battery in 2015, so yeah, still pretty old. Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it!

 

[212s]

If taken care of properly, a typical lead-acid car or boat starting battery should last 10 years or more. It's number of cycles and depth of discharge that determines battery life, not just years. The 2013 car in my driveway has the 8 year old factory battery still in it and it cranks great even in the dead of winter. I always put a thin coat of vaseline on new battery terminals to prevent corrosion and never let the battery drain down, and it's used daily to charge up the battery. If you don't drive your car every day, you should have some kind of charger/maintainer to keep it topped up and in good shape, even sitting for a week in the driveway and starting it only on weekends will shorten the life of your battery. Boat batteries have it tougher since they could have bilge pumps or other systems that could drain the battery a bit during the week, and that little bit of drain adds up over time.

Marine starting batteries when kept charged during storage or non-use should last just as long. If you run your regular marine batteries down to 60% a lot, then you should change to AGM deep cycle so they can handle the deeper discharge states without damage. Even during the week while I'm working I keep the boat batteries on the charger so they're always topped up and in good shape. A charger is a good investment to prolong battery life in boats and cars that sit for long periods.

 

[Spooling]

In the winter I keep my battery on a battery tender and I have a solar panel and charge controller continually connected in the summer. I would have thought all would be well. I guess we'll find out this weekend.

 

[Spooling]

Well, I purchased a load tester from Canadian Tire and went to work. The battery was reading 13.4v immediately after coming off the solar cell/charge controller.

Blower seemed to work fine, etc. but voltage dropped to 12.9 pretty quickly with the blower on for around 20 seconds.

I did a load test and within the 10 second test, the battery voltage dropped to 7.2 and showed as bad.

So, in went the new deep cycle battery, hopefully this one lasts longer. The one I took out was a group 24, Napa maintenance free marine battery.