Thread: New battery box

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This AGM market is fun to watch evolve. Over the past few years more apparent options have come about with competition. The thing to keep in mind is the production facilities for batteries in general are fairly expensive to build. For conventional lead/acid batteries there are basically three companies in the US that produce them, but hundreds of brands out there. Hmmmmm, all of them are produced in one of those three factories. And this is for the mature part of the market.

In AGM, to my knowledge, there is only one manufacturer, Hawker Co. They market a non-starter rated version of these batteries under the Hawker Genesis name, and their military grade, starter rated battery under the Odyssey name. The Odyssey brand comes out of a subsidiary company named Enersys, but it's still the same mother company/technology. If you look at the XS it's part number ends in 680, just like the Odyssey equivalent shape/size that's PC680. These same batts are marketed under a lot of other brand names such as Stinger, and others, often aimed at the stereo market for auxiliary power.

Then last week at the NSRA gig at Louisville there was a "NEW" product, named Hot Rod Battery...................hmmmmm, looks just like the two 680 versions discussed here. The case moldings are identical, the terminals are identical, and the specs, though there's some manipulation going on there, are pretty much the same. Personally I can't imagine that each of these resellers are putting up money to develope a better battery to be built by Hawker. I suppose it's possible, but unlikely.

The upshot is it looks like competition is doing to pricing what it does; stabilizes, maybe even lowers. A quick check of the net shows the bottom price for the 680 series, in various brands, is at about $130, with some deeper searching might be less. The Summit deal might end up being a plus given that they have a fairly low fixed shipping charge, and they occasionally do discount "coupons" on almost any product they sell. Others may or may not be as competitive on shipping. And something else important, given their size their inventory might turn more regularly, possibly ensuring a fresher battery. But it wouldn't hurt to check on that nomatter who you buy from.