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It’s always tempting to go with the cheapest-possible option, especially as wars and tariffs drive up the cost of everyday items. But there’s always the risk that you’ll get exactly what you paid for, as demonstrated by this very thorough test of car batteries from Walmart and O’Reilly Auto Parts conducted by the YouTube channel Project Farm.
Host Todd doesn’t do things by half measures, and this battery test was no exception. He rounded up nine brand new Group 65-rated batteries—four from Walmart and five from O’Reilly. The test group included one absorbed glass mat (AGM) battery from each brand, with the rest being conventional flooded lead-acid. Walmart lived up to its reputation for cheapness with prices ranging from $79 to $189, compared to $100 to $260 for the O’Reilly batteries.
Project Farm via YouTube
Todd started by measuring voltage, amperage, and state of health at ambient temperatures with a multimeter and battery analyzer, and the results weren’t good for the Walmart batteries. The four lead-acid batteries all showed fairly high internal resistance, meaning current can’t flow as easily through them. That’s obviously a problem for a device meant to absorb and discharge current, and a potential indication of poorer manufacturing quality. The Walmart lead-acid batteries also had an indicated state of health ranging from 84% to 88%, which shouldn’t be the case for brand new batteries.
Todd then hooked all the batteries to a carbon pile load tester to measure their performance under load, chilled them to zero degrees Fahrenheit to measure cold cranking amps, and measured their reserve capacity to see if it matched what was on the label. The lead-acid O’Reilly batteries outperformed the equivalent Walmart batteries in the load test, although Walmart’s AGM beat O’Reilly’s AGM here.
I’ll Never Buy Another WALMART Battery!
The Walmart AGM battery also did reasonably well in the cold cranking test, but the O’Reilly lead acid batteries did even better. The entry-level $100 O’Reilly Super Start Value registered 827 amps at zero degrees Fahrenheit. That was 302 amps higher than the cheapest Walmart battery, which only cost $20 less.
In the overall scoring, O’Reilly batteries took the top two spots, and all O’Reilly lead-acid batteries outperformed their less-expensive Walmart equivalents. Walmart’s AGM battery beat O’Reilly’s, and at $189, it’s $79 cheaper. But it also tied for third place with one of the O’Reilly lead-acid batteries, so it still falls short of expectations.
Stephen has always been passionate about cars, and managed to turn that passion into a career as a freelance automotive journalist. When he’s not handling weekend coverage for The Drive, you can find him looking for a new book to read.
