Costo Interstate Battery best price/performance of any Flooded Lead Acid Battery?

[lkruper]

I got an email from Interstate in response to my question as to their claim that they had the best cycle life in the industry for golf cart batteries. The Costco Battery is $83.99 and in a follow in question specifically asking if the Costco battery had the same cycle life, the answer was yes.

What is surprising to me is that when I do the same analysis of cents / kWh based on cycle life, even the Trojan Industrial batteries don't have as good of price/performance. I am calculating 11.09 cents / kWh for the Costco Interstate golf cart battery.

Does anyone know of a lead acid battery with better performance measured in cents / kWh?

$$$
Thanks for contacting IBSA,

The 650 cycles you are referring to is at 80% depth of discharge (DOD), at 50% DOD it’s approximately 1220.

The Costco 6 volt is the more economical version of that battery with 207 AH whereas our XHD has 232 AH. Depending on your needs we also have the UL-16 battery with 380 AH of capacity.
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[Mike90250]

nice news. I'm about to install a remote system using 4, 6V costco golf cart batteries for a 24V system

[lkruper]

nice news. I'm about to install a remote system using 4, 6V costco golf cart batteries for a 24V system

Yes, now I don't need to worry about shipping or returns. I forgot to ask them what the Costco warranty was for those batteries. What really surprised me, is that the premium batteries like the Trojan RE or Industrial, when compared at a cents/kWh are not better than the Premium brand T-105. I did find an online advertisement for T-105-RE on sale for $125 which was a very good at 11.57 cents/kWh, but I don't think they can always be had for that price. Costco Interstate is 11.09 cents / kWh, it is local and convenient.

I do wonder if I can trust the Interstate claim of having a better cycle life than T-105, though.

[SunEagle]

$84 for that Cosco battery sounds pretty good. I purchased 2 of the 6v 232Ah directly from an Interstate supplier for about $150 each but got a credit of $25 for the old core so $125 OTD cost.

[lkruper]

$84 for that Cosco battery sounds pretty good. I purchased 2 of the 6v 232Ah directly from an Interstate supplier for about $150 each but got a credit of $25 for the old core so $125 OTD cost.

Costco has a $15 core charge not included in the $84. But according to the Interstate tech the only difference between your battery and the Costco battery is the capacity.

[Willy T]

I can't say this is good, bad or indifferent, but if you take a flashlight and look into the cell, you'll find the Interstate XHD has very different plates and separators than a standard GC-2. The plates are very thin and many more of them. The reason I looked at them is that a bank had some shorted cells on some fairly new batteries. What he was doing with the snout of a water canister was to long bending the top of the plates over when pushed to activate the water valve. The plates were also taller than other batteries and the electrolyte reserve was less. My observation was the plates looked disheveled and not very uniform and the negative plates were taller than the separators and positive plates.

By the way, I split a wood paint paddle in half and straightened the plates back up and as far as I know they are still floating along.

[Naptown]

Based on my rough calculation at 1220 cycles and max DOD of 50%
And $83 per battery comes out to a little over $.09 per kwh

[lkruper]

Based on my rough calculation at 1220 cycles and max DOD of 50%
And $83 per battery comes out to a little over $.09 per kwh

The Costco batteries are 207AH.... does that make a difference?

###
=U2*Q2/(((N2*J2*(Q2/(12/D2))*12)/1000)*K2)

U2 = $83.99
Q2 = 2 (number of batteries)
N2 = 207 AH
J2 = 0.5 DOD
D2 = 6v
K2 = 1220 cycles
###

[Naptown]

Error in calculstion
About $.109 kwh

[lkruper]

Error in calculstion
About $.109 kwh

I get $0.1109
... what did I do wrong?

[Naptown]

Ah x v x .5 x 1220 /1000 / total cost

[lkruper]

Error in calculstion
About $.109 kwh

I get 10.96 at $83 per battery, but the cost is 83.99

[lkruper]

Ah x v x .5 x 1220 /1000 / total cost

If you want cents / kWh shouldn't cost be in the numerator?

[Sunking]

What makes you think an Interstate battery is equal to a Trojan? That is a bit naive and gullible don't you think? What did you expect the rep to say? "No we cannot hold a candle to Trojan".... Keep in mind all sales people are pathological liars.

If you have Costco 208 AH battery you are comparing a 57 pound battery to a 67 pound horse of a battery.

EDIT NOTE:

You are making some assumptions that are not real, and you are not accounting for any Peukert Factor. All you are doing is crunching cycle's which is going to bite you in the butt big time.

First mistake is you are assuming the battery is 208 AH which is dead ass wrong. Truth is that 208 AH battery is somewhere between 75 and 290 AH. That battery is only a 208 AH battery if the load is = 10 amps. No more, no less. If you say draw power at 30 amps it is a 160 AH battery. But this is the least of your errors and a moot point.

The big mistake you made is I believe you only intend to use this battery infrequently and not every day? Is that correct? If so all you work is meaningless because for infrequent, standby, or emergency use you will never see anything close to even 100 cycles before the battery dies. Your error is batteries have both CYCLE and CALENDAR life. You used CYCLE life which is not applicable. It would take many many years if not decades to go through the number of cycles. Problem is your battery has a 3 to 4 year CALENDAR Life. If does not matter if that battery has 1 or 1000 cycles in 4 years, it is done and ready to be a boat anchor.

Wanna know what Calendar Life your battery has. It is made very clear and easy to find. Look at the warranty.

Lastly if you want to compare apples to apples in FLA batteries. Use the same AMP Hour rating and case size. The better of the two is the heavier one.

[lkruper]

What makes you think a Interstate battery is equal to a Trojan? That is a bit naive and gullible don't you think? What did you expect the rep to say? "No we cannot hold a candle to Trojan"....

If you have Costco 208 AH battery you are comparing a 57 pound battery to a 67 pound horse of a battery.

Interstate has a web page where they claim they have the best cycle life in the industry. So I emailed them and asked what DOD their 650 cycles represented. They said 80%. So I asked about 50% and they said 1220.

Then I asked if the Costco battery had the same cycle life. He said yes. While I take that with a grain of salt, I do believe Costco will honor their warranty, and if it does not perform, back it goes to be replaced. If you are right, it sounds like free batteries for life