Battery Duracell or OEM Subaru

I replaced the OEM battery in my low-mileage 2019 Alltrack S two days ago. (OEM battery was lead-acid 5K0 915 105 D, it was replaced with a Duracell Ultra Platinum SLI47AGM, 600 CCA.)

Subaru OEM batteries can be pretty shit in cold weather. Even the service department at my dealership admits this. I eventually fed up with my Subaru batteries chugging in cold weather and replaced them with Interstate AGM batteries (with more CCA). I haven’t had any troubles since.

Subaru are known for using cheap batteries, winter just makes it even worse. within the first 2 weeks of buying a 2022 Outback, i junked the battery and put in a great aftermarket one.

Wife’s Ascent had a factory battery that last maybe 2 winters. Replaced it was a yellow top and haven’t had any problems since. Subaru even gave us credit for it so that was nice

Duracell flooded lead acid would be a good choice and around $200.

Just used Duracell. We will see how long they last.

The auto start/stop failed to start the car today while waiting in a left hand turn lane at a red light in traffic. Potentially dangerous situation for anyone. Fortunately the person behind me got out of his car and pushed my car across two traffic lanes to the right curb. The Subaru dealer told me last week when I had the 42k mile maintenance done that the battery was fine based on a battery test. I had specifically asked for the battery to be checked because the starts sounded weak. Now I’m back at the dealer after the failure incident and the diagnoses is a bad battery. It is not safe to have the car automatically shut down on the road when the battery does not have the power to auto start.

I bought the battery last summer, drove the car around for about a month no problems.

I put the car away for autumn/winter.

Took it to auto parts store last night, checked in in the morning.

Employee brought it out, said it needed more time and put it back on "fast charger".

I come back 4hours later and they're telling me it exploded on the charger??

Subaru's factory batteries suck. I've had to replace them in several Subaru's that were only like 2 years old. Doubly tough if the car is just sitting for a period of time between uses.

I had Subaru batteries last me only 2 years in upstate NY. I kept getting them for free under warranty. I probably got 4 this way. Finally, the dealer said your alternator is bad and that's why they are going bad (completely bogus). I started going to a local mechanics soon after that and they told me that super OEM batteries are complete garbage.