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Thanks - my battery is starting to show early signs of wearing out. My voltage sits at 14.7-15+ for longer and longer even with the same external temperatures.

Mine was exhibiting this behaviour last fall, but since I kept and have still been using the delco battery in a different application, I'm not sure it was the battery. I did however find the ground by the headlight loose when I swapped the battery, might be worth a check.

Happy I replaced it though, would not have wanted to mess around with the possibility of a bad battery with winter coming! I agree with Xtreme, AGM battery is the way to go. I bought a Sears Diehard Advanced gold AGM(group 47) which claims 600CCA. Believe the group 48 Sears AGM is 700CCA, If I had known this was an option when I bought mine I would have.

 

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Diehard and AutoZone's DuraLast batteries are manufactured by the same company. IIRC there are only like 3 manufacturers that produce the majority of the NA batteries available for sale, just diff labels slapped on them.

This is true, however some manufactures pay for the ones that test better. When I was around 20 years old I worked at a factory making shop vacs for sears and home depot, the sears branded ones the electric motor had to test above a certain level, all of those below that were put on the Ridgid branded ones.

I could have bought a duracell battery at Sams Club that was identical to the sears battery for much less money, but knowing the above I chose to spend the money on the name brand. Both even have the same warranty.

Duracell AGM Automotive Battery - Group Size 47 (H5) - Sam's Club

Sears.com

 

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I notice allot of you are going with the larger battery, what's the weight difference vs stock? If GM thought every pound counted with the ECO enough to shave off 3 gallons of gas(a gallon of gas is 6 pounds), would think adding any additional weight could start bringing down your MPG.

 

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I wouldn't doubt the factory battery was rated at 525 CCA because there was a weight spec on it.

I replaced my stock battery last fall with a sears agm(group 47, direct replacement 600CCA). Seemed the AGM battery was lighter than the stock battery, if I would have been thinking I should have weighed them.

My car sits outside 100% of the time, on previous cars anything more than 8-10hours on below zero nights my car would start a bit hard in the AM(even with new batteries). The stock cruze battery was fine at 18hrs, the AGM was at 24hrs in the same conditions. Imagine I could go a couple days in the winter with even the stock setup if I really wanted to push it. Don't think it takes much to turn over this tiny engine.

 

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I posted the weight differences between the OEM replacement and the larger AGM batteries in post 1.

The H7 is less than 7 pounds heavier than the lead acid OEM size battery.

Sorry I missed that. Not even enough weight to worry about.

 

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Which, name brand - Duracell or Die Hard? Thanks.

In the case above the Sears Die Hard would probably be the higher quality product. Yes it cost more than the Duracell branded ones that you can get at Sams club or Batteries Plus, but like I tried to point out in the previous post, sears does sometimes have higher standards for their products. Sears is known for a long lasting battery, so I can assume what I know as fact about their shop vacs, is probably true for their batteries too.