Did You
Know Batteries Lose Power
When They're Sitting on the Shelf? |
 A
battery can permanently lose some of its capacity when
it's stored in a partly or fully discharged state.
Periodic charging during storage can minimize the
deterioration, but not all battery distributors and
dealers do the necessary charging. That's why you may
want to know how to read the date codes on a new
product, to help you make sure you're really buying a
fresh battery. |
| Interstate
Batteries representatives rotate batteries every 90 days
to maintain fresh product. |
When Was Your Battery Born?
| Battery
performance can fade with age so learning to read
battery date codes, which show when the product was
manufactured, is helpful to know when buying or
diagnosing batteries. So, how do you find and how do you
read a date code? |
| Most
Brands of Batteries |
|
JOHNSON CONTROLS, INC. - INTERSTATE
BATTERIES, Motorcraft
East penn - Deka
GNB -Champion, Stowaway
The letters and numbers are
on a sticker affixed to the battery or hot-stamped into
the case cover along the top edges of the battery. The
ship date codes begin with a letter: A stands for
January, B for February and so on (some shipping codes
skip the letter I, so it cannot be confused with the
number 1. In those cases, J would represent September, K
- October, L - November and M - December). The next
digit is a number which represents the year the battery
was shipped. Therefore, an A6 would mean the
battery was shipped in January of 1996. |
| Exceptions |
|
| DELCO
- Freedom, Voyager, and some Sears brands The
code dates are stamped on the cover, usually near the
posts. The first character represents the year (0-9) and
the second shows the month (A-M, skipping I). For
example, 4CN1 would stand for 1994, March. |
 |
| DOUGLAS
- Farmland Find
the code dates stamped near the terminals or
occasionally on a sticker affixed to the battery. Only
the first five characters of a multi-character code are
significant to measuring freshness. Douglas uses the
letters in their name to indicate the year of
manufacture in the first character; the following
characters, 1 through 12, represent the month. (D-1994,
O-1995, U-1996, G-1997, L-1998, A-1999, and S-2000). So,
G12 stands for December, 1997. |
 |
EXIDE - Napa Legend,
Edge, Power-Tron and Titan
The fourth or fifth
character may be a letter code for the month and the
following character a number code for the year (i.e. RO8F3B
stands for June 1993). |
|
