camel has a manufacturing plant in malaysia, so their product supplies are usually "fresher" compared to those that are imported from other countries....fresher batteries means lesser self discharge drain when reach your car as they spend lesser time in transit, meaning you get more "battery power" for the same spec/capacity compared to the imported batteries

Glad to know that, will try out camel battery after this, spotted few sellers around my area selling it 😎🐫🐝

Can google more for the brand, based on own check, these Camel and Astra brand are one with the highest CCA rating/reading, and Century battery the lowest from what i saw

actually, all those spec value, i seriously skeptical...

take for example for q85 or d23 size, a real experience

i had amaron hi life 85d23L...lasted me 2.5 years (never had periodical charging done) (i guess those were the time when amaron was newly introduced and their internals could be made more robust than current ones)

i had varta ln2 agm....lasted between 2 - 2.5 years (had periodical charging done)

i had varta q85 115d23L.....lasted around 2 years, 22 months if my memory serves me right (had periodical charging done)

now on voltec 85d23L....13 months as of now, can feel cranking a little weaker already (never had periodical charging done)

*never used start stop function since the agm battery

seriously, i believe it is part statistical luck, part the internal structural build quality (that we can't see), and all those uncontrollables such as vibrations, average engine bay temperature, average ambient temperature, voltage fluctuations within the electrical systems, etc.....heck don't know which is the main contributing factor....because all those have some effect towards the longevity of the starter battery

if for me after these experience, i'll just get whatever cheapest for the size that meet the minimum spec required of the car (pretty much most newer generation cars are at least EFB already) and refer shopee prices as reference

although i would want to risk the sodium ion aeson battery if the current one dies...very curious of this new battery medium in it and it's purported claims of durability....if it lasts more than 3 years, consider a win for me

This post has been edited by wkc5657: Nov 19 2025, 05:08 PM

Nowdays i do noticed some of car vlogger especially those involved in drifting, performance car, conti car using astra battery, as from my experienced my old 22 years old camry only astra last longer 2 years 2 month 10 days compared other brand which only last 1 and half years.. Very impressed 😳🌗🐝

Do you have a battery tester? Or have you done any battery tests (by battery vendors) before change? Pls share the readings if got. Thanks.

i didn't get the reading for the past battery changes, but i understand my car has a weird limit of 500CCA minimum requirement...after that the check light will light up

after a while, can notice the starter get even weaker

from error light lit up till battery die...my experience is in between 2 weeks till 2 months till the battery die

my own gut feel is that, if it takes 3 seconds for the engine to fire up after check light comes up, i'm playing with game of chance as the battery can die anytime

However, coincidentally, for the sake of checking, i did a reading last week at a battery shop, it was 500CCA/SOC 100%/Battery health 100%

But the crank start to slow already, don't think can last more than 3 more months

This post has been edited by wkc5657: Nov 20 2025, 09:36 AM

as a customer, a normal customer, will only check what the written spec, CCA reading of the battery products, before proceeding to buy. If it is fake, not an accurate reading as per advertised, then I guess we, the customers, are the ones who are losing.

So previously choose Camel due to its CCA reading cz the x70 was known as battery battery-hungry car, especially CKD, CBU not so much cz they use way bigger battery size, bigger DIN. The Camel (black and red top) is able to withstand 26+ months in that car, whereas in FB group, many complain battery flat at 15-18 months of usage.

Now the car has been using Astra since September 2024, and will check when will it die. Price offered and 18 months warranty are the reason choosing this.

to be fair, before fixing the batteries into the engine bay, the sellers did show the readings to be above rated specs on the packaging (which pretty much all established brands can achieve easily, unless the battery has been sitting idle beyond half a year)

And in my experience of using varta (which being a proper established brand), also performed so so compared to the mid spec amaron then....i really wonder whether really worth it to pay for brand premium instead of going for convenience at the nearest car battery installer near home....or batteries nowadays are really made at a lesser internal material spec compared to some years back....

nothing wrong with getting the largest aH rated battery that fits the engine bay, but that is not the be all end all spec to look for....because i think the game of statistical chance is very real (at least for me over 10 years of the car ownership)

unless there is internal short or failed plate, i too am puzzled whether those small transparent window to show the electrolyte health indicator is of any use if the battery just undergoes normal wear/degradation over the months of use

This post has been edited by wkc5657: Nov 20 2025, 11:23 AM

Since you mentioned you did periodic charging, I am assuming you have a charger at home. What you may want to try is to use the charger's aux power supply mode (@13.5v output) to hook it on your battery. This is to bulk charge the Q85 and let it go on for, maybe, 4-5hours. Then set it back to normal "smart" charging mode to monitor if the battery is full now. Also check if the charge state indicator/window is indeed normal now. Hopefully this can help you prolong the life of the expensive Q85 longer.

Why I suggest this is coz I was testing out a Q85 on a non start-stop car since Jan 2022. I ordered an MF batt but seller sent me a Q85 instead as he claimed his MF was out of stock. Since it was installed in a weekend car, it was charged with Bosch C7 periodically to keep it in good shape. However, seems like this Q85 doesn't (still is) like C7 charging pattern, and to my surprise, its SOH dropped to 35% once even on regular charging. Whenever this happened, the battery charge state indicator turned black, hinting it required charging.

So got to try something different, and I tried the batt shop method which is bulk charging. But I don't have those charger. Then if occurred to me I can "simulate" this method by using aux power mode on C7. This managed to revive the Q85 back to 100% SOH/600+A CCA. 2.5 years on, batt tester is reporting battery is OK with 85% SOH/540A CCA
.
Back to your batt. You mentioned recent test suggested it has 500CCA/SOC 100%/Battery health 100%. As per my testing on 2 Q85 (yeah I expanded usage of Q85 on another non start-stop car ), Q85 has way higher than 600A for CCA if SOH if 100%. Maybe the batt shop guy didn't use the correct battery size during tests?

too bad that my charger is the fully automated ctek mxs 5 charger....the only way to "force" a larger charge is through the reconditioning mode which can put in slightly higher voltage for longer period of time.

I guess your car being a non start stop one also meant that you have a car with lesser electrical burden, using Q85 is considered an overspec, hence the probable longer battery life.

i referenced against the amaron hi life 85d23 (which isn't EFB) few batteries back, but lasted the longest ironically. So either the amaron then was overly built, or batteries nowadays are cutting corners to increase sales....i tried agm (LN2 size, just slightly smaller capacity because it is shorter to standard Q85 but CCA higher) once because i read about how it manage to last more than 5 years in european car forums. With that in mind, i was alright with the premium then, but it is also a let down when it just decided to quit on me less than 3 years despite me being extra hardworking in charging it monthly and reconditioning it every 6 months with the ctek charger...cost me RM750 back then for that experiment.

the current battery with 500CCA/SOC 100%/battery health 100%....is actually a regular D23L "enhanced" MF battery (confirm not EFB)...i purposely avoid Q85 because got sick of paying Q85 price when the battery life also don't last...even i tried AGM before also don't make it noticeably longer.....i bought it because the battery shop was promoting that brand and gave 18 month warranty with a better price compared to century brand. Good news is that they honour the warranty as my other car with the same brand smaller battery get to claim a fresh when it died at the exact last day of the 18 month warranty.

So either i wait for the battery to degrade enough to be able to claim within the 18 months warranty, or i get the sodium battery experiment if it dies outside the warranty coverage/terms

This post has been edited by wkc5657: Nov 25 2025, 03:02 PM

Hi, I too have a Bosch C7 charger, and I too find that with regular charging my Camel AGM DIN80L battery is getting weaker still. You said you used the "AUX POWER MODE" to charger the Q85 battery, as in the 3rd mode button next to "REPAIR" mode ?

If I need to do that on my CAMEL AGM, can I just charge it like normal using AUX POWER mode ?

no idea for Bosch charger, but on Foxsur Battery charger it indeed put the old battery back to as new back, either normal mode or repair mode

AMARON hi life pro Din60L - 2022 - APR - till date

I do have a Foxsur charger too, and I use that for the regular MF battery on other cars without start/stop.

sui.....

TS would like to interview you in the future

what car by the way?

Hyundai Tucson 1.6T 2017

Yes, sir. It is the 3rd indicator light from left, with the power adaptor symbol. Before clamps are connected to the battery, press the MODE button, to the 3rd indicator (from left). Then connect clamps just like in normal/standard charging mode.

CAVEAT : I have never used this method on an AGM before, so proceed with caution. As I understand it, AGM requires higher charging voltage (14.4-14.7v) , so I am not sure if the aux power supply mode @13.5v can effectively charge your AGM or not (AGM float voltage is reportedly at 13.5-13.8v).

Just some questions I have in mind (sorry for being long winded haha)

1. Is your car originally designed to use AGM?
2. Did you switch to AGM mode on C7 during charging?

based on youtuber, many user put it under repair mode for 8-12 hours for flat battery/ old battery to kick it back as a new battery. the CCA rating will restore back closed to new after done repair mode for 8-12 hours. Did the same as maintenance purpose, once a month, by repair mode on both of my cars.

Thinking to get a car battery charger but i didn't know which one is a good one.. Plenty in tik tok shop but im afraid its not a reliable one.. Does shopee sell it? 😛🙂