I let a brand new interstate sit for 3-4 days and it was already only showing 11.8 volts...

 

Sounds Typical from what I have seen and experienced from Interstate

At one time as a dealer, they actually cost us $10 more than the Delco Equivalent. I had one sitting on the shelf that only had 6 volt's. They actually asked us what we did to it... I asked the distributor why they kept bring us Junk Batteries...

I later found out that back at that time, they changed over to having someone one else make the batteries for them.

They may have been a decent battery at one point in time but I have never had luck with them at all. And there customer service as a distributor was just as poor as there product.

Like $30 Credit towards a new battery purchase on a battery that still has 1 year left on the warranty? Hell the core charge was $15

Then they said we weren't testing the charging system's correctly when we installed the battery. And then it was we needed to trickle charge the batteries for a said amount of time before testing them and condemning them and calling for warranty.

 

I went through 2 optima red tops and when the second one gave up I went to sams and got an energizer (or Duracell, cant remember) battery and its been great so far. Way cheaper than an optima and has a 3 year warranty I think.

 

I've been saying it for years. Optima is JUNK. I have one in the Camaro, and keep a battery tender on it 24/7 when I'm not driving it. my Silverado has been sitting in the driveway since jan 2 and it cranked up fine last week. the trailer brake system does not turn off on that truck and the duralast gold handled it just fine for almost 2 months.

 

Weird, I have two 1000a Interstates on my Svc truck and it runs all sorts of equipment and sometimes sits while I'm out of town etc. I have never had an issue with it starting after sitting, and I usually leave a big power inverter on etc... I have noticed though, when one gets pulled way down, around 10v or so it doesn't like to take a charge and hold it. I don't buy any of my batteries so I'm not complaining. I've got two on my two GMC trucks, two in the boat, two on the work truck, and every one of our units take two, plus I keep spares on the truck on a 2a solar panel. We're Interstate battery poor around my place

 

Forgot I started this thread, I've been inquiring with a few others.

I ended up getting an XS D3400 and an XS Power XP750-CK.

 

For future reference, since this is the latest battery thread here, I just installed an Autocraft Platinum AGM in the Denali. This one is manufactured by Johnson Controls in Germany and sold by Advance Autoparts. It is replacing what I assume is the original Delco as I bought the truck used and didn't see a date code on the battery, so it made it ~5 years. My first option was a Duracell, manufactured by East Penn, from Sams but I missed my window to grab it on sale yesterday and had a 25% coupon at AAP.