Sears Diehard Battery Warranty ISSUE!

C

chandalen

New Member
Aug 7, 2011
367
Alexandra Bay,NY
Boat Info
'83 Sundancer 270, Humminbird 593c
Engines
Twin merc 305, with new SEI 106 drives
I have a Sears Marine 31 AGM Platinum battery. It comes with a 36 month full replacement warranty, and costs $279.

I bought it in May(ish) and after getting it back from the shop had a voltage of 2.0 volts.

My on board charger, and a separate charger I have didn't register it as a battery. I took it to sears, where they checked it on their system, and after 90 min declared it a fully charged and operational battery. I was um.. stunned. HOW in 90 min did a battery that was at 2.0v go to fully charged in 90 minutes? All they had as proof was a short print out 'battery is good.'

After explaining the concept of batteries and the magic 10.5 voltage limit, they held the piece of paper in my face and said the battery was good and fully charged, and hot to the touch.

The Admiral ordered a 'fire at will' from the fleet and after the barrage of torment and flaq, Sears manager did offer a full refund, but at first said they would NOT sell us another battery.

Thats when I called in the special forces and asked politely.. let me get this straight, you will refund the battery cost, but not allow us to purchase another battery? After they mulled that over, they said they would sell us another battery but NOT allow the warranty to be on it. Again, I was confused... why have a warranty if your not going to honor it. Round 2 of arguments...

FINALLY Sears refunded the money, and let us purchase the identical battery. They did say if we have another issue with this battery to goto another Sears.

WOW... so.. ya... that was my Saturday adventure!
 
Actually it was Sally.... SHE said AGM is a special type of battery that can charge super fast (thats why they are so heavy and expensive) and you need a special charger, that I probably didn't have.
 
You are wasting your time dealing with Sears.....they think all batteries are automotive batteries and dealing with them on amarine application can be an absolute. In my one and only attempt to use Die Hards, I bought 5 and got one bad one. I thought I would wear it out hauling it to and from Sears before I realized the folks making warranty decisions were idiots. They wanted me to bring my boat to them for a "proper" load test. The fact that it would only hold 9 volts when fully charged didn't mean anything.........oih yes, my boat at the time as a 390 EC with a 14 ft beam.

Since them, I've purchased 30 batteries for boats and about 50 for equipment..........and not a single one has been from Sears.
 
C= Nominal Battery Amp Hours

Lead Acid Charge Rate "mr nice guy" charge rate = C/14 - C/20
Good Gel battery - C/8 - C/12 (GEL does not like heat)
Good AGM Battery - C/8
Really good AGM Battery C/4

So to put that into "normal" terms - if it was a 100 Ah battery
Lead Acid can absorb about 5-7 Amps / hour
Gel = 8-12.5 Amps / hour
AGM Battery = 12.5 amps
Really good AGM battery = 25 Amp / hour

The above are the "rule of thumb" charge rate. you can push charge into the battery faster - especially if it has been drained a lot. But the slower and longer you charge in "daily life" the better battery life you get.

And if Sears check a battery right after charging - it will most likely always show "good" - but leave it for 45 minutes to cool down and run the test again - you will see the right message on the battery tester. Tell them to read the battery tester manual...
 
These b@$t@rds play it both ways. My wife got an idiot light on her car a couple of weeks ago and pulled into a K-Mart (owned by Sears) and had the battery tested. Of course, it was "bad" and she spend $125 for a new one that I could have tested and changed out myself (which I had actually done not too many months ago). When she finally called me and told me the symptoms I figured it was the alternator, vectored her to the mechanic she should have gone to in the first place and sure enough we needed to buy her a new alternator. I'm sure there was nothing wrong with the battery. It's either bad training or a culture that says to always what is most favorable to the business rather than the customer, I suspect the latter.
 
Of course they are out for whats better 'for the company'

i think we were most disturbed about the comment, I'll return your money, but Im not going to sell you another battery...

sigh!
 
Wow, an email to Sears is definately in order here. And it sounds like you already did talk to the store manager so you're not going to get any help from anyone at that store.

I'm sure you bought the replacement battery on principle, but I would never purchase anything from that store ever again...especially any type of battery!
 
On principle partly, the other part, the 3 year full replacement warranty. Granted, it seems a little more difficult to collect on it that they would have you believe.
 
sfergson727 said:
Actually AGM batteries are compatible with any charger that charges lead acid for the most part....it's the gel cells that cause problems.
Click to expand...

I'm digging up an old post after doing the proper searching. I'm looking into either getting Optima D31m's, or the Sears platinum's listed in this post. I have a '99 310DA, and I, too, and very worried about my older charger killing either set of these AGM's. Thoughts on this? Should I purchase an up-to-date battery tender/charger? Mine is 20 amp I believe, stock from '99. I plan on making either a trip to Sears or NAPA on my way home to get either set, so any info would be very helpful!
 
sfergson727 said:
I wouldn't buy a new charger, unless your current one breaks, personally...but 20 Amp is fairly small, which I would not use to charge more than 2 batteries. The charger in my boat is a 40 amp model.
Click to expand...

I'll have to double check it being 20 amps. I have 3 batteries, so maybe you're right. It does a decent job of keeping my current batteries up to par. With 3 AGM's, I'm sure it will require more power (Scotty from star trek voice)
 
The very first thing I did as soon as I got her home from Richmond was to change the batteries to Optima Blue Tops, all three. It was the very best thing I did. I did not change the charging system and have had no issues.
 
dwna1a said:
The very first thing I did as soon as I got her home from Richmond was to change the batteries to Optima Blue Tops, all three. It was the very best thing I did. I did not change the charging system and have had no issues.
Click to expand...

Optima D31M's? I'm torn between those and the Sears DieHard Platinum 31's. Their specs are more impressive than Optima's.
 
Yes the D31's. I have Optima batteries in all my equipment for the last 8 years and never had any issue.
 
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