Sears Diehard Platinum 31M issues

[Airmapper]

I don't have that charger, but I think the controls are similar to my Ctek 7002. You might try giving the battery a full charge on the AGM setting (probably "snowflake") and then letting it rest overnight before you try to recondition it. If/when you run the recondition cycle, disconnect the battery from ground so that you don't risk frying your electronics when the charger goes to 15.6 volts. Your current 12.69OCV is probably about 70-80% of a full charge.

Well I ran recondition. I'm sort of regretting it now, hopefully it didn't screw anything up. I read somewhere 15v was all you should put on these batteries, but forgot and just now looked it up.

Last weekend I just ran a normal charge, it got up to 12.76 after resting overnight. I'll check in the morning and see where it sits.

I'm not too sure about these Ctek chargers. I sent one back for the temp light being on, the manual says that means the temp sensor is defective and it doesn't compensate for temp. I got a second unit in, same exact thing. Either quality control sucks, or they don't know if that light should be on or off....

 

[Ducky's Dad]

My Ctek is different model, but it's been flawless since I got it six months ago. It gets used about every week on one battery or another. Either mine does not have a temp light or it has just never come on.

 

[Hilldweller]

Well, Sears will warranty the battery - but only for what they have in stock, and they don't carry the PC2150 any more. They have a Diehard Gold 31M with lower CCA, lower RC and higher 20 hr rate. Debating getting it only because otherwise I'm without a battery in my truck for who knows how long while trying to work something with Odyssey.

I don't see a Diehard Gold 31M on their website.
Is it an AGM? What's the amp-hour rating?
Don't worry about the CCA; you're after reserve capacity, ease of charging (low resistance).
Is the retail price comparable? Maybe talk them into throwing in a charger to go with it...

 

[gravedgr]

That DieHard Gold is not nearly the same battery as the PM1. You have time left on your warranty, so have Sears check other stores or their online distribution system to get a direct replacement. Or look around yourself and find a Sears store you can drive to, to do the swap. Or ask for a cash refund of your full purchase price and go buy a Northstar. Or wait until Sears gets the new Northstar replacement for the PM1; Northstar can probably tell you when that will happen in your market. As I recall, the PM1 has a full replacement warranty that runs for 36 months, so figure out how long you can wait to get a suitable replacement, assuming that your current battery will still run the truck. A PM1 at 75% is still better than most batteries at 100%. When my PM1 developed a bad cell right at the three-year mark (three years and about three days), Sears would not warranty it, but Odyssey did. Odyssey probably won't do that now because, as I understand it, they are no longer manufacturing batteries for Sears. Another alternative with Sears is to accept a Platinum Grp 65, or maybe just a fresh Grp 34 Platinum to use a house battery.

Well, luckily I was able to search around on my own and find the last one in town about an hour away, so I drove over today and swapped it out. Per the guy I spoke to yesterday, they are not selling any more platinum batteries at all - I'm assuming he meant (or didn't know) *until the Northstar batteries arrive*, but they didn't have a single Platinum of any size/group on the shelves.

He also said it was a replacement warranty, and the swap was my only choice. He essentially gave me my choice of batteries in the store, but like I told him I wasn't going to swap my $300 battery for a $120-150 battery.

I'm not wondering if I should try and find a trickle charger for it to help maintain, but before long the truck is going to take up permanent residence in the driveway instead of the garage (the wife pushed me into buying another sports car). I just don't want to end up in this spot again in 12-18 months, but I'm still not sure what caused the problem on the last one. My driving habits did not change, and the only overnight draws happened months before the problem and never pulled it below about 12.6 or so. So I'm still scratching my head on figuring what _not_ to do this time.

 

[gravedgr]

I don't see a Diehard Gold 31M on their website.
Is it an AGM? What's the amp-hour rating?
Don't worry about the CCA; you're after reserve capacity, ease of charging (low resistance).
Is the retail price comparable? Maybe talk them into throwing in a charger to go with it...

He said it was a 31M and the size looked roughly the same, but you're right and it probably was not. The sticker for it on the rack was missing. See post above - I ended up not having to take it, but I seem to recall the stats being

775 CCA vs. 1150
185 min RC vs 205
105 amp hours @20 hr rate vs 100

Edit - thinking back on the the size, it was probably a 34M. What is interesting, is looking at Sear's site right now, they don't show any gold batteries - but the shelves in the store are littered with them. In Lithonia, probably 25% were gold, but in Alpharetta, 50% probably were.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

I did see a DieHard Gold Grp 31 AGM in a Sears store last summer, don't remember if it had marine terminals. This was probably in June, and there were no Platinum 31s on the shelves but some 34s. I don't remember the specs on the Gold 31, but noted that they were pretty low for a big AGM. I spoke with the Northstar rep shortly after that and he told me that the rollout of the Northstar batteries was moving ahead slowly.

I'm still having a hard time keeping the voltage up on my new (July) Odyssey 2150, even with lots of driving on a 270 amp alternator and relatively frequent treatment with the small Ctek and big Ultimizer chargers. Battery works fine, but the multimeter says it's not completely up to snuff. I'm waiting to see the new Odyssey chargers for the big batteries, due in the spring.

 

[Airmapper]

I'm still having a hard time keeping the voltage up on my new (July) Odyssey 2150, even with lots of driving on a 270 amp alternator and relatively frequent treatment with the small Ctek and big Ultimizer chargers. Battery works fine, but the multimeter says it's not completely up to snuff. I'm waiting to see the new Odyssey chargers for the big batteries, due in the spring.

Sounds kind of like mine, but I've not been paying close attention until recently.

After a round on the Big CTEK, restore mode, overnight mine settled to 12.74. But, it's been cool, like high 30's, so I guess that isn't horrible considering it was not at optimal temp when I measured. Like you I think I'm going to settle into a regimen of normal charging fairly frequently for a while and just see what happens. I'm going to have my alternator checked as well, I know it's not high output, but I suspect it's not putting out what it should.

CTEK actually replied to my email, said my charger was fine. They did some revisions to the model but didn't revise the manual. The light is supposed to be on, even though the manual provided pretty clearly says it's a fault if it is. Not thrilled with that, but at least I'm done with that hassle. Now knowing it's okay, I'd say it's a pretty decent charger. I'd like to try it on some other batteries. The power supply mode is probably going to be handy, I'm always needing a battery around for 12v electronics, and not having one handy, now so long as it doesn't pull more than 25 amps, I can just plug it into the charger.

 

[Ducky's Dad]

They did some revisions to the model but didn't revise the manual.

When I got my small Ctek, I read the manual several times and was still confused about some of the apparent inconsistencies in it. When I called Ctek, they agreed that the manual was "incorrect" on a couple of issues. My observation was that it had been written by a failed ESL student. They did not disagree.

 

[4x4junkie]

I'm not wondering if I should try and find a trickle charger for it to help maintain, but before long the truck is going to take up permanent residence in the driveway instead of the garage (the wife pushed me into buying another sports car). I just don't want to end up in this spot again in 12-18 months, but I'm still not sure what caused the problem on the last one. My driving habits did not change, and the only overnight draws happened months before the problem and never pulled it below about 12.6 or so. So I'm still scratching my head on figuring what _not_ to do this time.

Battery sulfation is a phenomenon that occurs slowly over time. You don't notice it until one day it manifests itself as slow engine cranking (lower output voltage under a load), lowered ability to take in charge current, and an inability to hold a good resting voltage.

If the sulfation isn't too real bad, many times you can recover the battery with a desulfator, but the best way to inhibit sulfation in the first place indeed is to thoroughly charge the battery once every couple months or so.

Given the peculiar charging requirements of this particular battery, I strongly suspect that you can get a much better charge into it than you can with many of these $$$$ "smart" chargers if you just simply take a 13.8V DC regulated power supply (the type used for mobile two-way radios, car stereo bench testing, etc.), readjust it's regulator for 14.7V (a little less volts if the battery is warm, like 14.5V or so), then just leave it connected to the battery until the charge current stops dropping (it should taper down to about 0.5-1 amp). Only thing with this is that you must remember to check occasionally and take it off charge after the current stops dropping, as it of course won't shut itself off automatically (this can take as much as 24 hours time, but should be between 4-10 hours on a healthy battery).
Many such DC supplies can be had with variable voltage & current controls right on the front panel, eliminating the need to take the cover off it to adjust it.

Beyond that, I would say buy a different battery.

 

[Hilldweller]

He said it was a 31M and the size looked roughly the same, but you're right and it probably was not. The sticker for it on the rack was missing. See post above - I ended up not having to take it, but I seem to recall the stats being

775 CCA vs. 1150
185 min RC vs 205
105 amp hours @20 hr rate vs 100

Edit - thinking back on the the size, it was probably a 34M. What is interesting, is looking at Sear's site right now, they don't show any gold batteries - but the shelves in the store are littered with them. In Lithonia, probably 25% were gold, but in Alpharetta, 50% probably were.

I had a very nice battery charger donated to me for a doorprize at CFW, btw. One of them fancy $200 ones...

 

[gravedgr]

I had a very nice battery charger donated to me for a doorprize at CFW, btw. One of them fancy $200 ones...

Who do I have to bribe for that? Can I have the kids pull from the hat? Maybe they'll be lucky!

 

[SWITAWI]

Confirmed: DieHard Platinums are no more...

FWIW...

After I could not get a DieHard Platinum locally and discovered the website would no longer allow online ordering of them I called Sears directly and spoke to a very helpful lady who informed me that they will no longer be making/selling the Platinum series. She did not know if it would be eventually replaced by something else similar.

BTW, I ended up getting a DieHard Advanced Gold Group 34R, which seems to be exactly the same as a Deka Intimidator 9A34R (775CCA, 120 Reserve) underneath the Sears labeling - http://www.eastpennmanufacturing.com/wp-content/uploads/Intimidator-Automotive-Flyer-1737.pdf

There does not appear to be a Group 31 of the Advanced Gold line - http://www.sears.com/search=diehard...s_Car Batteries&catalogId=12605&storeId=10153

 

[Hilldweller]

Who do I have to bribe for that? Can I have the kids pull from the hat? Maybe they'll be lucky!

Luck of the draw, sir. Luck of the draw.
If I win it I'll put it back in the kitty since I already have one though.
I was hoping that your kids and Brian's would pull numbers and run prizes around. It's a long jump off the stage to the field. I'll need boots on the ground....
I went out to Rugged Ridge yesterday and Dave gave me 3 boxes of swag and some nifty LED lights. Gotta love the holiday spirit.

 

[gravedgr]

Luck of the draw, sir. Luck of the draw.
If I win it I'll put it back in the kitty since I already have one though.
I was hoping that your kids and Brian's would pull numbers and run prizes around. It's a long jump off the stage to the field. I'll need boots on the ground....
I went out to Rugged Ridge yesterday and Dave gave me 3 boxes of swag and some nifty LED lights. Gotta love the holiday spirit.

They will be thrilled to help. We went to AL once for the Ga. Trail Riders annual drive/camp event and won some nice schwag, including a gift certificate for a local offroad supply shop that turned into part of a Viair 300P 12v compressor.

 

[BigSwede]

Here is a cheap 125 ah AGM battery $169.99. On the downside it is 16" long, and made in China.
http://www.amazon.com/100ah-upgrade...9790738&sr=8-20&keywords=group+31+agm+battery