Walmart now carries the Prius Prime battery—EverStart MAXX 140R

Good news! You can get an EverStart MAXX 140R Prius Prime battery at Walmart now!

Group size: BCI 140R (equivalent to EN LN1 and DIN H4)
Reserve capacity: 95 minutes (OEM reserve capacity: 76 minutes, AC Delco AGM reserve capacity: 80 minutes)
CCA: 480 A (OEM CCA: 445 A, AC Delco CCA: 520–560 A (depending on the supplier))
Price: $149.84
Date of manufacture: 2023/03
Made in South Korea

This battery easily beats both the OEM battery and AC Delco AGM battery. I also like the non-AGM batteries better because you can top of the electrolyte with distilled water.

EverStart MAXX batteries have been consistently top-rated by Consumer Reports.

 

I took these pictures around 9:45 PM on Friday, March 31, 2023, at my town's Walmart. I don't know the online situation.

 

You made your comments based on theory—not real-life data.

While AGM batteries can be great in many respects, some of the very worst-performing batteries in life tests in Consumer Reports' testing were also AGM batteries. So, if you are out of luck, you may pay more for an AGM battery but get worse life. Contrarily, there were also flooded lead–acid batteries that were top performers.

In particular, ACDelco Professional 65AGMHR battery Consumer Reports tested was at the bottom in life tests in group-size BCI 65. So, consider again before you opt for the ACDelco EN LN1 AGM battery for Prius Prime.

 

I wondered what it was. The batteries are locked behind bars and you can't grab them and pull them off the shelf. I wonder if some electrolyte leaked, perhaps from another battery above? Or rat pee that could be used as a battery electrolyte substitute? Anything is possible at Walmart though.

 

I am inclined to trust systematic tests by the team of engineers at Consumer Reports more than anecdotal remarks.

 

Their head of engineering holds a EE degree from MIT. They have 58 testers working in 63 testing labs. They even hold an engineering week. In addition to the engineers, they employ a diverse group of scientists and analysts.

What goes into Consumer Reports' product testing | Engineers week—Consumer Reports

 

I—including everyone else on this discussion board—already knew how to use the Google search before you sent that link. There is no need to provide information that is already easily accessible there.

We pointed out that your blanket statement of an AGM battery always being better than a flooded lead–acid battery was false—in fact far from being true—and I pointed out to actual laboratory-performance tests that there is a significant overlap in performance of AGM and flooded batteries—only to be dismissed by you claiming that they were done by journalists. If you resort to foul-mouthing established organizations and claim that you know better without having any credentials yourself, you automatically lose an argument.

 

Note that Gen 5 requires proper venting on the 12-V battery. Insert the exhaust hose into the vent hole on the negative-terminal side. Note that some aftermarket batteries do not come with proper vent holes—do not buy them for Gen 5. I did not check the vent holes on EverStart MAXX 140R. Make sure to plug the vent hole on the positive-terminal side on the aftermarket battery, as aftermarket batteries come with vent holes on both sides.

Also note that an oversized battery won't fit in Gen 5 due to the rigid hold-down clamp.

 

AGM batteries vent, too. They have the same vent holes on the sides to insert the exhaust hose for trunk-installed batteries such as in Gen 5 Prius.

As I said, quality of AGM batteries varies with the manufacturer, and EverStart Maxx 140R advanced flooded battery beats the ACDelco LN1 AGM battery because it has a much higher reserve capacity—95 minutes vs. 80 minutes. The reserve capacity is the most critical feature for Prius.

EverStart batteries are made by Clarios (formerly Johnson Controls). If Walmart ever starts (no pun intended) to carry an EverStart Platinum H4/LN1/140R AGM battery, we will check its reserve capacity (RC). However, EverStart Platinum H5, which is 17% larger than H4, has only a 100-minute RC. Therefore, I suspect that an EverStart Platinum H4 would have an 85-minute RC. Currently, I would choose EverStart Maxx 140R (95-minute RC) over AcDelco LN1 AGM (80-minute RC).

In fact, I also looked at the ACDelco battery catalog, and it lists its LN1 AGM at 80-min RC vs. 90-min RC for its LN1 flooded. Therefore, it looks like flooded batteries have a higher RC than AGM batteries and hence more suitable for Prius in general.