Slightly used car battery OK to buy?

If it was sitting around while discharged, then it is ruined.

Depends. If he let it go dead on the shelf, it's destroyed. If he didn't, it's could be as good as new. Assuming he is telling the truth, of course. Are you willing to gamble $30 to find out? I might be.

--scott

I find it odd that they'd use it to start a stranded car (presumably with a bad battery) and not continue to use it.

The problem is that, instead of "taking it out", maybe they never put it in. So they may have used the WalMark battery to charge up the car's normal battery, got the car going, and that was it. The WalMart battery would have been partially discharged, and left in that state for months. That's not good news.

I would be suspicious that this was the cheapest booster battery they could find, and that either they never planned to use it in the future, or the car's existing dead battery was better anyway.

There's nothing wrong with buying used batteries if you know what you're doing. There's a junkyard around here that sells batteries for $25 flat. I read up on AC-Delco date codes, and picked up a relatively new AC-Delco, just out of a wrecked car, with a nice green eye, and it's been working fine for the past year and a half. The AC- Delco sealed batteries last for years and years up here in Ontario if they're not abused (eight to ten years is not outrageous), so I have few worries.

In short, I think you're better off finding out what batteries work best in your climate, and finding a junkyard with a good selection. The WalMart is probably bottom-of-the-line; I would prefer a nice AC- Delco or Interstate out of a freshly-scrapped car. The junkyards will also give a bit of a warranty--90 days is typical. And the selection is better.

....Ed