Sears Diehard Platinum 31M issues

[jeep-N-montero]

Replaced the dual batteries in our Chevy diesel last week with refurbished Instersate units that came with a 6 month warranty, was right around $120 out the door for the pair. We have had single digit temps the last few nights so I plan to start it today without plugging it in for a good test.

 

[Hilldweller]

Replaced the dual batteries in our Chevy diesel last week with refurbished Instersate units that came with a 6 month warranty, was right around $120 out the door for the pair. We have had single digit temps the last few nights so I plan to start it today without plugging it in for a good test.

"Refurbished" Interstates?
That's a new one...
Where did you get them and what's the model number?

 

[jeep-N-montero]

"Refurbished" Interstates?
That's a new one...
Where did you get them and what's the model number?

Contact your local Interstate distribution center(not secondary retailer) to check for availability based on your application, each vehicle is different, look them up here http://www.interstatebatteries.com/

 

[Ducky's Dad]

I think "refurbished" in this case means they were used for something or returned/replaced under warranty but still tested as good when they got back to Interstate. The refurbishment is probably a charge, a test, and quick cleanup. I have purchased some Optimas like this in the past.

 

[Hilldweller]

Contact your local Interstate distribution center(not secondary retailer) to check for availability based on your application, each vehicle is different, look them up here http://www.interstatebatteries.com/

Thanks; interesting.

I think "refurbished" in this case means they were used for something or returned/replaced under warranty but still tested as good when they got back to Interstate. The refurbishment is probably a charge, a test, and quick cleanup. I have purchased some Optimas like this in the past.

I've witnessed unscrupulous retailers warrantying good batteries that way and reselling them out the back door. ...and I've notified the manufacturers.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

Some of the Optimas I used to be able to buy had been used in display booths at SEMA. So, sitting in a both for a week, maybe powering a sound system or some other automotive gizmo, and suddenly it's a used battery. Was a good deal, but I can't get those any more without a lot of screwing around.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

I have purchased used regular wet cell as well as Optimas from my local Interstate guys for the last 4 years without issue, interesting how many people are clueles when it comes to proper battery upkeep and blaming the battery when it's really their alternator that is the issue. So Interstate takes these "bad" batteries in to recharge and test them, then they sell them with a 6 month warranty. Last night I went out to do my own test by starting our Chevy diesel that has been sitting almost 2 weeks since being started last and without the block heater plugged in or winter fuel additive, temps have been in the 20's daytime and 8-12 at night the last few days. After cycling the glow plugs a few times it started right up.

 

[dcoy]

A disconcerting thread. A year or two ago, the Platinum Diehard was anointed the winner of a battery comparison in Overland Journal. I have subsequently dropped a Platinum in two of my vehicles when the batteries needed to be replaced without any problems (yet). Now this battery is discontinued? Interestingly, I can easily find them at Sears online. So with Sears Platinum/Odyssey out of the running and Optima generally considered to have jumped the shark long ago, I'm back to square one at deciding what to replace my @10 year old Optima dual battery system when it gives up the ghost. Any further perspective/recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

A disconcerting thread. A year or two ago, the Platinum Diehard was anointed the winner of a battery comparison in Overland Journal. I have subsequently dropped a Platinum in two of my vehicles when the batteries needed to be replaced without any problems (yet). Now this battery is discontinued? Interestingly, I can easily find them at Sears online. So with Sears Platinum/Odyssey out of the running and Optima generally considered to have jumped the shark long ago, I'm back to square one at deciding what to replace my @10 year old Optima dual battery system when it gives up the ghost. Any further perspective/recommendations would be appreciated.

Not so disconcerting. The Platinums are still available from the manufacturer, Odyssey. Identical to the Sears batteries except for the label and the color of the case, but the Odyssey marines have a longer warranty. The early-to-mid-Mexican Optimas were crap, but the new ones seem to be OK, so seems like a safe buy if the the specs and price are what you want. The best alternative to the PM1 (other than the Odyssey 2150 Extreme) seems to be the Northstar 31M. I have owned them all. I got four new batteries this past summer: an Odyssey 2150 Extreme for the Dodge (warranty replacement from Odyssey); a Northstar 31M for the Tundra (bought on my nickel); and a pair of Optima G34 dual purpose marines (also on my nickel) as house batteries for the Dodge. The old GMC is running a pair of Optima Yellow 34/78s, the other two old trucks are running an Optima Red and an Odyssey 1500. Can't tell any practical difference between those two in normal use. I was prepared to buy a Deka 31 for the Tundra, but my battery wholesaler talked me out of it (he sells Deka, Optima, Odyssey, Interstate, and a bunch of others). Different strokes and all that...

 

[dcoy]

Not so disconcerting. The Platinums are still available from the manufacturer, Odyssey. Identical to the Sears batteries except for the label and the color of the case, but the Odyssey marines have a longer warranty. The early-to-mid-Mexican Optimas were crap, but the new ones seem to be OK, so seems like a safe buy if the the specs and price are what you want. The best alternative to the PM1 (other than the Odyssey 2150 Extreme) seems to be the Northstar 31M. I have owned them all. I got four new batteries this past summer: an Odyssey 2150 Extreme for the Dodge (warranty replacement from Odyssey); a Northstar 31M for the Tundra (bought on my nickel); and a pair of Optima G34 dual purpose marines (also on my nickel) as house batteries for the Dodge. The old GMC is running a pair of Optima Yellow 34/78s, the other two old trucks are running an Optima Red and an Odyssey 1500. Can't tell any practical difference between those two in normal use. I was prepared to buy a Deka 31 for the Tundra, but my battery wholesaler talked me out of it (he sells Deka, Optima, Odyssey, Interstate, and a bunch of others). Different strokes and all that...

Thanks. Still, if the Platinums are available as Odysseys they wouldn't be terribly desirable if they have that charging problem that is now being discussed here and elsewhere. It is nice to know that the Optimas now seem to be more reliable. The 10 year old ones in my LandCruiser are pretty amazing; they pass charge tests whenever I check them. If the new ones are as good as the old ones now I would be happy to replace them with Optimas.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

if the Platinums are available as Odysseys they wouldn't be terribly desirable if they have that charging problem that is now being discussed here and elsewhere.

Those Odyssey charging problems seem confined to the Group 31s. Been there and done that, still doing it on the new Odyssey 31M. I have had three Odyssey/Platinums in Grp34 and they have not had any charging problems whatsoever. My only gripe about the Odyssey 1500s in Grp34 is that they are expensive, and unlike the Sears version, they never go on sale.

 

[4x4junkie]

A disconcerting thread. A year or two ago, the Platinum Diehard was anointed the winner of a battery comparison in Overland Journal. I have subsequently dropped a Platinum in two of my vehicles when the batteries needed to be replaced without any problems (yet). Now this battery is discontinued? Interestingly, I can easily find them at Sears online. So with Sears Platinum/Odyssey out of the running and Optima generally considered to have jumped the shark long ago, I'm back to square one at deciding what to replace my @10 year old Optima dual battery system when it gives up the ghost. Any further perspective/recommendations would be appreciated.

I would say this is yet another great case to save a few Benjamins and to pick up a couple Interstate batteries at Costco.
If you're not a Costco member but have a Deka dealer nearby, the Deka Marine Master would be another even better choice (if you are running an isolator on your batteries, use the deep cycle unit for your loads, and a normal SLI battery for under the hood).

The Costco SLI battery under the hood of our Winnebago is another example, lasting nearly 6 years (and that's having been drained dead I don't know how many times because of a parasitic drain I think from the automatic door step, and it sitting discharged like this for months at a time too). For the price, they really are a hard to beat battery.


FWIW, if those 10-yo Optimas you have are still strong & healthy, I would suggest you give them a good long charge (like overnight or longer) at 14.6V every 2-4 months using a good charger or a regulated DC power supply like I mentioned earlier in the thread. This will help break up any sulfation that might be taking place and should keep those batteries alive for a good long time to come.

 

[Cabrito]

See, that's the thing... When I dropped it off they had a big rolling tester thing and when he put it on he showed me that it was failing the load test and that it was a little below 12v. It had been fully charged by my big home charger and then I put it on my battery tender for four or five days. He took it into the back where I couldn't see anything and told me to come back the next day. That guy who helped me wasn't there, and when the new guy brought it out he just said "good to go". I tried to get him to tell me if it had been load tested and he sort of side stepped the question and told me that it was full charged and his tester tested it good. Then he rushed away and left me standing there. I was on my lunch brake and needed to get back so I figured I'd test it when I got home. I thought maybe I wasn't using a good enough charger.

I've tested it a few times with my tester and it's only showing about 450 CCA's where it had been showing me between 750-900. I had already purchased a new AGM Interstate because I went to death valley over thanksgiving and needed a good battery ASAP. I plan to keep the Diehard for a utility battery. I'm going to take it back and ask them to show me.

I only go when I have time to stand around and watch & wait. Also, none of this "hide it in the back room" stuff. I dropped mine off in next to an empty bay and they brought their charger over. I watched it charge the whole time and we both looked at the results. On Bill's charger, we got to around 12.8v if I recall, but it started falling quickly on his multimeter. Their charger never registered above 12.0v.

Meanwhile, the Sears I went to for the replacement didn't even test it (even though they said they would have to on the phone), and didn't even care about my old battery until I asked where I should put it. A greedy fellow would have just thrown it in the back of the truck and taken it home for a utility battery, but I'm not that guy. I lugged it in and asked where to put it and someone came over and took it away.

You might try a different Sears.

If the second guy at Sears tested it right off the charger, it may have tested good at that point in time. Or, if he "tested" it with a multimeter and it showed high enough voltage, he was just getting the surface charge and he may not know any better. Or, if he used a hand-held digital tester, he may well have gotten a false positive. One of the dealers I do business with uses the little digital testers because they get pallets of used and warranty batteries to test and recondition for cheap sale and they need to test them quickly without a lot of handling. I have purchased used batteries from them that tested good on their units and tested bad on my tester. They admit that my load tester is more reliable than theirs, but takes longer than theirs. Mine is a simple old-school Schumacher. Odyssey recommends using a carbon pile tester on these things, and you can probably find a serviceable one for $50-$75, but it's one more unnecessary expense on an already expensive battery.

It's unfortunate that they don't know what they're doing. Even worse that they don't care. No ethics...

I was in an autoparts store and a kid rolled in with a Civic, pulled the battery, and brought it in. Said he had to jump the car all week and barely made it there.
They put a load tester on the one-year-old battery, failed it, sold the kid a new battery (cheapest house brand) at full retail. Laughed at the kid when he left.
There was nothing wrong with the battery ----- the old Civic's charging system, cables, etc. And you can't test a system with a depleted battery....

Update - I've had it on the trickle for the past few months.. Pulled it today and brought it in. They tested it and load tested it on their big unit and although it showed 12.** volts it totally failed the load test. The actual load test took a minute or more to provide results. Of course now that they have discontinued this battery they need to find a suitable replacement. They don't have anything as beefy as this one anymore.. They got my info and are going to try to come up with something for me this week. Open to suggestions from the group here as to what I could ask them for.

 

[zelatore]

I just went through this as well. Aside from not holding a charge correctly, there were small cracks developing around both posts on mine. Odd, especially since I don't even use the negative SAE post, just the threaded stud. It was about 9 months old and they took it without even testing it. At first they tried to offer me another (lesser) battery but I told them I wasn't interested and asked for store credit. They had no problem giving me a gift card for the full purchase price. This was my hope all along as I had already bought a Northstar for the truck and since I'm in the process of building a new shop I should have no problem finding $300 worth of tools. (at least few Craftsman tools are still worth owning, but that's a story for another thread)

 

[Cabrito]

Store credit? Not a bad idea..

I do want another battery to go with my 100w solar panel though or maybe even just a second battery for the FJ