Lawn Tractor Batteries

[realsteelfreak]

So after 7 years my DieHard in my Craftsman died.
I go to the local sears store, an independent retailer and checked prices, told 49.99 for a silver diehard and 59.99 for the gold. 10 bucks back for the core.

Autozone started crap about how many horsepower it had and the cheapest one the had was 41.99 plus core, wanted 70 bucks for the battery I needed according to them, sorry not today.

Back to sears, when the battery scanned it was 59.99 for the silver, the price went up. The girl sales person with the guy sales person decided to check the ''online price''. It was 35.99, regular 44.99 online, but get this , with in store pickup.
So in the end I bought the silver DieHard for 35.99 and they gave me 10 bucks off for the core, with tax I was out the door for under 30 bucks.
Way to go sales girls at the local Sears, win win.

[SpiderGearsMan]

battery prices are way up

[Dan Barlow]

I have no luck with lawn mower batteries. I usually make a mount on the back and mount a old car battery. Congrats on your good fortune with your battery.

[SpiderGearsMan]

My brothers Boat Battery just turned 19 years old - Delco Voyager

[pdub]

WOW, Jerry if you got 7 years out of a lawn tractor battery....wow! I've had two that lasted 3 years apiece. But I don't shop. I get whatever they have at Auto Zone. 40-50 bucks, whatever.

And year before last I jumped the mower off for 2 months at the end of the season to keep from buying a new one that would sit all winter. I don't take the battery out at the end of the season. I'm just too lazy.

[TheSilverBuick]

Nice! It does pay to shop around. Even when I worked at Autozone (2002-2005) the AZ store 2 miles from us would have prices on some parts $10-$20 less than us. When browsing parts online I usually punch in a couple different zip codes to see if the price changes. They don't seem to back track it to where it actually ships too.

[BOOOGHAR]

the batteries in todays mowers are junk imo, I hear customers all the time say "well I just got it last year..." ALOT of them are the autozone shit batteries BUT a strike against them is that they do not maintain these mowers, I cant not fathom how people can spend $1,500 -$15,000 for riding lawn mowers and leave them outside in the elements like a cheap bicycle from wal-mart and expect to get on it week after week and expect zero issues, a lil preventive care, sta-bil, and a battery maintainer go a long ways

[TheSilverBuick]

I need a battery maintainer. Do they make batteries survive the bitter cold? My JD was started semi-regularly all winter, but if I went more than three days without starting it I had to jump start it. Now that it's summer again as long as I start it at least once a week it has no problem. I did do the 8 hour oil/filter change and grease all the zerks

[realsteelfreak]

My mower stays in the garage ,washed on a regular basis along with maintenance it's done great . I too have seen people buy new mowers push and riders and wonder why they don't run good or even start

[Karberator]

I have a 10 year old Craftsman lawn tractor. The original battery lasted about 2 1/2 years,and I bought a replacement from Wal-Mart. I may be forgetting a battery,but after the Wally-World one died I bought one from Atwoods ( a midwestern farm/ranch store) for $19.99. That cheap battery lasted a couple of years or so,but it died late one afternoon. I just went to AutoZone and bought a battery for $40 or so. I thought that was pretty high,but I wanted to get my mowing done and over with. It's lasted a year or two so far.

My mower has a 17 horse Kohler engine,and it still runs great. I change the oil once or twice a year,and I use ethanol-free gas. I used to take my leftover car wash soap and wash the mower off,but now I just blow the dust off of it with my leaf blower.

[pdub]

My mower stays in the garage ,washed on a regular basis along with maintenance it's done great . I too have seen people buy new mowers push and riders and wonder why they don't run good or even start

I'd sure put Junior the Mower in the garage if there was room for him. The cars are worth more. And Bubba's a truck. He and Junior are on their own in the elements.

What I don't understand is the folks in this garage door community that have their garages crammed full with $200 worth of household storage crap, and leave $50,000 worth of cars out there in the weather.

[Beagle]

the batteries in todays mowers are junk imo, I hear customers all the time say "well I just got it last year..." ALOT of them are the autozone shit batteries BUT a strike against them is that they do not maintain these mowers, I cant not fathom how people can spend $1,500 -$15,000 for riding lawn mowers and leave them outside in the elements like a cheap bicycle from wal-mart and expect to get on it week after week and expect zero issues, a lil preventive care, sta-bil, and a battery maintainer go a long ways

The car stays out in the bay water breeze and rusts to hell, the mower is in the garage. (I usually wash the car after a trip to the bay)

28.99 for a two year battery from Wal-Mart. 3 years is not bad. I consider batteries a rental item.

[HillbillySailor2]

As long as you stay away from the Valuecraft lawn batteries at Autozone, you should be okay. You'll only get two years out of one of those. The Duralast 285/230 battery ($34.99 at our particular store) is great for all mowers, save the big commercial jobs. Oh, and not only do I work at AutoZone, I also do small engine repair, so I'm not plugging that particular battery just because I work there. Almost any lawn battery that meets those CA/CCA requirements should last you around 4-5 years. But as a word of warning, the quickest way to kill your battery is short cut jobs. You MUST run your mower for at least 30 consecutive minutes to give the charging system time to replace the charge used to start it. If you're constantly stopping the engine and restarting it, you'll kill it dead quick. And for you "really cold weather guys", take your battery out of the mower and store it in a warm place after the cutting season is complete. They can freeze and go bad if you don't.

[Beagle]

that's been my experience with any battery - freeze it when it's discharged and it's pretty much over.

[realsteelfreak]

Wish I had a bigger garage, my door is 8' wide , about the width between the outside wall and back door stoop. With the tool box siting on the side near the door
my F150 really wont fit inside my small space The wifes car is a 99 Camry , to old to park inside. My little garage is about right for a couple bikes, a couple pedal cars, the tool box and the tractor.