Another Battery Company Left USA

Viking · Apr 17, 2013

Just got off the phone with my parts guy and he told me that Johnson Controls is being made in Mexico now. Bye bye optima, not going to buy you now. East Penn/Deka still made in the US. He also has seen a lot of filter companies having their stuff made over seas now.

This just pisses me off and I know this can open a can of worms, but just a heads up on the JCI batteries no longer made in the US.

birdco85 · Apr 18, 2013

They've been made in Mexico for a while, at least a year I feel. optima has been pretty bad. I get my batteries from Costco now, 3 year free replacement and they don't test them, just take them in at 2 years 11 months.

Sent from my Droid RAZR because I told it to...

Spatel23 · Apr 18, 2013

Optima has been crap for awhile now.

greyford1979 · Apr 18, 2013

I had an Optima in my 79, it started smoking and almost caught the truck on fire. Optima said it wasn't there problem and wouldn't honor the warranty, battery wasn't even a year old. No more Optimas for me!

old96stroker · Apr 18, 2013

All the more reason to buy Enersys odyssey batteres, still made in the USA!

davey99ps · Apr 18, 2013

Optimas use to be really good but they've gone down hill over the past few years. Odyssey is the way to go for dry cells

woodduck97 · Apr 18, 2013

Yep another battery down the drain. Luckly got a DEKA dealer pretty close to where I live. Going to be getting a set of batterys for the truck and a set for my trolling motor for my bow fishing boat.

mudslinger02 · Apr 18, 2013

I bought a new optima 2 years ago. It wouldn't hold a charge from the day I brought it home and they denied the warranty because it would take 2 days to go dead. Biggest piece of junk I've ever bought. It's still sitting in my garage in the original box. Oh and it says made in Mexico on it

SEABEE08FX4 · Apr 18, 2013

Powerstoke motors are made in Mexico too, be mad at your government for driving businesses elsewhere. When your government makes it hard to conduct business in the US it makes it easy to analyze your cost vs expense to mover your operations.

89 Stroker · Apr 19, 2013

had a optima in my 89 for 7 years now, still running good :bowfast:

PDT1081 · Apr 19, 2013

Viking said:
Just got off the phone with my parts guy and he told me that Johnson Controls is being made in Mexico now. Bye bye optima, not going to buy you now. East Penn/Deka still made in the US. He also has seen a lot of filter companies having their stuff made over seas now.

This just pisses me off and I know this can open a can of worms, but just a heads up on the JCI batteries no longer made in the US.

Johnson Controls is still in the US. There's quite a bit of construction work going on at their Toledo plant right now.

Viking · Apr 22, 2013

Johnson controls does more than make batteries. I wonder what the construction is for.

dirtflinger92 · Apr 22, 2013

89 Stroker said:
had a optima in my 89 for 7 years now, still running good :bowfast:

You have the old optima battery when they were still good. You wont get that kind of life out of them anymore

POWER-STRUCK · Apr 22, 2013

SEABEE08FX4 said:
Powerstoke motors are made in Mexico too, be mad at your government for driving businesses elsewhere. When your government makes it hard to conduct business in the US it makes it easy to analyze your cost vs expense to mover your operations.

exactly! well said, sad to say that the welfare dept. and court house are the most prosperous "business's" in America, the government has become too much of a parasitic drain for tax payers

TyCorr · Apr 22, 2013

old96stroker said:
All the more reason to buy Enersys odyssey batteres, still made in the USA!

Where do you get those? I was going to get sears platinums for my 00 but id.be up for suggestions.

Charles · Apr 22, 2013

TyCorr said:
Where do you get those? I was going to get sears platinums for my 00 but id.be up for suggestions.

That is an odyssey, unless something has changed lately.

Fwiw, I've been running my truck on a single 84 dollar exide I bought at tractor supply, and can't tell a second's difference between it and my old odyssey 1500. I'm sure if a person loaded it hard winching or similar it would be wildly varied between the two, but for actually running and cranking the truck... the cheapy works fine.

*** expensive batteries...

TyCorr · Apr 22, 2013

Charles said:
That is an odyssey, unless something has changed lately.

Fwiw, I've been running my truck on a single 84 dollar exide I bought at tractor supply, and can't tell a second's difference between it and my old odyssey 1500. I'm sure if a person loaded it hard winching or similar it would be wildly varied between the two, but for actually running and cranking the truck... the cheapy works fine.

*** expensive batteries...

Arent exide batteries good? My dad always swore by them. I have #gasp# walmart batteries in my truck. They havent really done me.wrong but they are beat after two years.

Im not necessarily for the expensive shti but I put a sears platinum in our van which has tvs, two heating and cooling systems, three power doors,etc. It was slaughtering batteries every year and two years ago I bought one a size bigger than recommended from sears. No more troubles. I was so pleased I spent 220$ on one for my LS a couple.months ago.

Are interstate batteries any good? Stick.with cheap shti in my truck?

old96stroker · Apr 22, 2013

I am not for sure Ty, my dad works at the plant where the odysseys are made, the sears platinums are essentially the same battery though, running one in my black truck right now, I had heard batteries plus could get the odysseys but not for sure, I guess just try and google it, you won't be disappointed in them.