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Battery guides
Straight answers to the questions people ask before they buy a battery. No sales copy dressed up as advice.
Battery broken in Alberton
If the car will not start this morning, the battery is the most likely cause but it is not the only one. Fifteen minutes and a free test tells you which.
Your car will not start
Work through it in order. Most of the time you will know what you are dealing with before you call anyone.
Your battery keeps going flat
A battery that goes flat repeatedly is telling you something. Replacing it without finding out what usually buys you a few months and the same problem again.
How long does a car battery last?
Three to five years is the usual answer in South African conditions. What moves it within that range is mostly heat, vibration and how the car is used.
What size battery does my car take?
There are two reliable ways to answer this, and one of them takes ten seconds with the bonnet open.
AGM, EFB and standard batteries
If your engine switches itself off at a robot and starts again when you lift off the brake, this page matters to you.
What a car battery actually costs
The number that matters is the one you pay at the counter, not the one on the shelf edge.
What your battery warranty covers
A warranty is only worth what it pays out. Here is what ours does and does not do, in plain terms.
How to jump start a car safely
The order matters. Done wrong, you can damage electronics on both cars or produce a spark directly over a battery.
Battery or alternator?
Replacing a healthy battery because the alternator is not charging is one of the most common wasted purchases in motoring.
Corroded battery terminals
The white or blue-green crust around a terminal is not just untidy. It adds resistance exactly where you least want it, and it is often a symptom of something else.
Your new battery keeps dying
If a battery you bought recently keeps going flat, the odds are strongly against it being the battery. Our own measured failure rate across 5 400 units is 0.26%.
Batteries for bakkies and 4x4s
Bigger engine, more accessories, harder roads. Each of those changes what you should be fitting.
Motorcycle, caravan and marine batteries
Same voltage, different duty. The mistakes people make here are about terminals and mounting far more often than about capacity.
When to replace your car battery
A battery almost never fails without warning. It fails after several weeks of warnings that are easy to explain away.