What's the Sign of a Battery Brand You Can Trust?

"Trusted brand" is a catchphrase that gets thrown around a lot. There are some brand names that have been around for decades, which suggests they'll also be around for decades to come, but what if the brand you are considering is a relative newcomer, especially in the battery space? Batteries are not an inexpensive purchase, so you want to make sure the company behind the battery brand you are purchasing will be there for you, if you need them. After all, what good is a 10-year warranty, if the company isn't around ten years from now?

That's easier to do if you are buying a battery from a major retailer, who has a long track record and will be there to provide warranty service and support for all the products they sell (you can find OPTIMA batteries at many of these well-established retailers). What if you're considering a battery brand that isn't sold through well-established retailers or has a less-familiar name? How do you know if this is a brand you can trust? 

We've watched many battery brands come and go over the years, in some cases, leaving customers with very expensive paper weights in the shape of batteries. Others have been caught posting fake reviews for their own products and at least one has even run afoul of the FTC for making false claims about their products. We can often see the writing on the wall when a new brand pops up, because the warning signs are one google search away. What do we mean by that? It's simple- look up their physical address on Google Maps in street view (you can see a Google Street View photo of OPTIMA's corporate headquarters here).

In many cases, batteries are being sold out of UPS store mailboxes, home addresses or as a side hustle out of another business. History has shown this is not a solid model for long-term viability in this industry. Some of these battery brands are just individuals, who purchased batteries from online wholesalers and then apply their own labeling before re-selling them. Their level of commitment to being in the battery industry extends to what they've spent to buy labels and batteries to re-sell. They don't have an actual physical business location or they may run their battery sales out of their home or someone else's business.

Never mind any kind of background in engineering, do you think someone with that level of commitment has ever even visited a battery manufacturing facility? Do they know what to look for or ask of suppliers, when they are buying batteries to re-sell to you or are they just looking for the lowest price and the biggest margin? If they sell batteries out of their house and decide to move, will they tell you how to contact them in the future?

If you are left with more questions about a battery brand than answers, the deal you think you might be getting may not be so good after all. So what is the sign of a battery brand you can trust? How about an actual sign? Look up that brand and see if you can find a commercial building with a name on it. If barbers and nail salons can afford to put a sign out in front of their businesses, surely a reputable battery brand can as well. 

If you'd like to see the sign on OPTIMA's manufacturing facility, click here.