Which battery to choose for Lada Priora

Since at the time of this writing, we have a fierce winter for two, the choice of a battery for many owners of Lada Priora is of paramount importance and this issue will be relevant for at least a couple of months until the temperature approaches positive.

As far as I know, AKOM batteries are installed on all Priors from the factory and their capacity is 55 Ampere * hour. As for the starting current, it is not so great for such a car and is equal to 425 Amperes. Here is a good example of what is on the Prior in 90% of the cases that you have seen:

Exactly the same is on my Kalina, and on my friend's Grant, so apparently there is only one battery supplier, well-known to everyone, AKOM. But whether the declared capacity and starting current is enough for harsh winter conditions, and how long a native battery can last, let's see.

So, at the same time with me, an acquaintance bought a Priora, and it was in 2011. Now we have 2014 in the yard, and his battery about a month ago ordered a long life. And in recent days, according to him, she often recharged it, since the power was no longer enough for cold cranking of the engine. Oddly enough, but my battery also went through about the same, only without a single charge and was also replaced with a new one.

Choosing and buying a new battery for Priora

Since my friend doesn't really like to understand the technical aspects of his car, he, out of habit, asked me to choose a new battery for him. Well, it's not convenient to refuse, although he often has to help him, we went to the store together and looked at what was on the shop windows.

The budget for the purchase was 3 rubles, and for this money it was possible to look after a battery of good quality, and if you do not consider the SILVER class, then you could take a simply gorgeous battery. So, from the entire model range that was presented on the counter, I liked three manufacturers, the well-known Bosch, the German VARTA and Tyumen, which was also among the leaders in some tests of past years from the same magazine “Behind the Wheel”.

But I did not want to consider the domestic one because of the initially biased attitude. As for Bosch, for 2800 rubles you could take an excellent option with a starting current of 480 Amperes and a capacity of 55 Amperes * hour. But only an external examination showed that the battery had stood in the store for more than 3 months and did not want to take such a copy.

And now about VARTA. Of course, if there was free money, there could be no other purchase option, since this manufacturer is considered the best in his business and is exclusively engaged in the production of this type of goods.

Of those options that were on display, the cheapest was at a price of 3200 rubles from the Black Dynamic C 15 series. This series is intended for cars with low energy consumption, which, in principle, can be attributed to Lada Priora and many of our domestic cars.

Moreover, the equipment of my friend’s car was “norm” and he didn’t have any extra electrical appliances: no climate, no heated seats, no other things ... So this option was just the perfect choice, but a little expensive!

As a result, I still managed to persuade my friend to spend another 200 rubles, but take a worthwhile thing, which, under normal circumstances, may be quite enough for 5 years of car operation. Moreover, I simply did not hear bad reviews about this company among my acquaintances, and there was no negative about these batteries on the network.

In practice, it showed itself just fine, with a downtime of 5 days on the street, the car starts up without any hint of fatigue and it turns quite well. Let me remind you that the starting current of this battery is 480 Amperes, which is much higher than that of the factory AKOM. In general, we were satisfied with the choice, do not mind the money spent, if you know that you bought the real thing !!!