Okay.  Upon the advice of my mechanic, who told me that my battery's charge was low, I went ahead and sought out an Interstate Battery dealer.  I found one in Whittier on Whittier Avenue, north of Mar Vista and south of Penn Street, one block west of Pickering.  The owner, Larry Farnworth, was terrific.  He was friendly.  That never hurts.  He was informative, telling me that my batter had at least 1.5 to 2 years left of charge.  He tested my battery.  In fact, he did three tests on my battery to reach that conclusion.  He learned too 

What I learned is that anyone can tell the age of your battery.  There is a data code stamped on your battery.  I heard him ask about an A2.  

Though Mr. Farnworth was one of the friendliest, you're never going to find any businessman reveal his secrets for fear of losing business.  Mr. Farnworth was terrific.  He was straight with me.  He even offered to clean the top of my battery for me, which he did. He sprayed what was called a Battery Cleaner.  He explained that it is essentially baking soda and water aerosoled; in other words, under pressure.  [Clean corrosion on car battery. Option two is here.]  For further cleaning, there is alwats the option of battery cleaner: 

Okay.  So he cleaned my battery, and I was thinking that he was doing something nice for me, which again it was.  But he also cleaned my battery because he needed to see the data stamp on the battery.  The grease on top of my battery was too great: he couldn't read the stamp!  Once cleaned, voila!  Data stamp was clearly visible.  

From a forum I found this: 

Don provided you with good information. Car batteries are stamped with a date code, either on the battery's case or an attached label. The vital information is usually in the first two characters-a letter and a digit. Most codes start with the letter indicating the month: A for January, B for February, and so on. The digit indicates the year: 0 for 2000, say. For example, B3 stands for February 2003. I hope this helps.  

Did you get that?  The forum member suggested the site, ManageMyLife.  All that is is a SearsPartsDirect.  This may be a better source to tell me more about my battery:

A 4 or 5-digit shipping date code is engraved into the cover of each Interstate battery at the time the battery is shipped from the manufacturing plant. This code can only be seen when looking down on the top of the battery. The code is not on the label on the battery and it is not on the rim around the cover. The code is usually near one of the corners of the battery. This code tells when the battery was shipped from the factory to the local Interstate Battery wholesale distributor. The additional digits tell where the battery was made.

The first digit from the left side is a letter which stands for the month of the year. A = January; B = February; C = March, etc. The second digit from the left is the year that the battery was shipped from the factory (0 = 2010, 1 = 2011, 2 = 2012, 3 = 2013, 4 = 2014, 5=2015).

The national policy of Interstate Battery System is to recharge our batteries that are on a dealer's shelf or in our warehouse every 3 months in order to keep them fresh. Usually, a battery is sold to a consumer during the first 3 months after it is received from manufacturing plant. 

If the battery has been recharged by an Interstate Battery wholesale distributor then there will be another date code on the cover of the battery. It will either be a 2 digit code that is branded into the cover or is on a small round label that is on the cover. In each case, the code will be read in the same way: The first digit from the left is a letter that indicates the month that the battery was recharged (A = January, B = February, C = March, etc.). The second digit indicates the year that the battery was recharged (0 = 2010, 1 = 2011, 2 = 2012, 3 = 2013, 4 = 2014, 5 = 2015).  

On amperage and voltage, this was helpful: 

For the voltage part is is fairly easy, simple and straight-forward. Usually car batteries are lead acid type which has a 2.1V/cell nominal voltage and has 6 cells so in total they give 12.6V, however in connected circuit I have measured them with my multi-meter to be at 13.3V at fully charged state. Some heavy vehicles like bus or truck may use 2/3/4 of them in series so in those cases voltage will simply add. For motor bike however, I saw 3 cell 6.3V battery too. So, either trust what is printed on them or look for the battery chemistry and count how many cells they have or just measure it yourself.

But for the measurement of current it is a bit tricky because battery won't say how much current they can provide, I mean yes they say that but differently. Like a 100Ahr car battery can theoretically provide 100A of current at it's working voltage range for 1 hour, lower the consumption to half you will get double the time and vice versa, in reality it is a bit different though. But There is another thing, the CCA rating or cold cranking amps which basically tell you how much current it can provide at a short amount of time which is needed to turn on the car. Usually this value is much more higher than the rating it has if it is a automobile lead acid battery. Like a 100Ahr car battery might have 800-1000A rated at CCA, but this is true for batteries with higher number of plates, thick plate batteries usually have low CCA.

But why even pursue an InterState Battery?  Aren't all batteries the same?  

And if you're like me and always looking for detail after detail, and bit of information after bit of information, then you might enjoy this video diagram of how a battery is constructed and how it works. This helps only when you're confronted by a mechanic who is telling this and that. Getting a few details from this videio might help you understand your mechanic's terms. All the best to you. 



Here is a Consumer Reports report on the different kinds of batteries.  Turns out that there are only 3 major battery distributors, which I found interesting and a lot more battery brands.  My mechanic, whom I trusted on my first exposure to, recommended Interstate batteries.  I should have asked why. A good friend said to me that there really is no advantage to a particular brand.  So there's that.  The last couple of batteries that I've owned have been InterState.  But I am just not that good of judge to tell you whether or not if these are superior or inferior.  I mean how many car batteries does one buy in a decade?  Two, three, maybe four batteries?  And we buy them usually in an emergency.  How many of us have extra batteries at home or an extra battery in our car, say, in our trunk?  So we buy during emergencies. 

No wonder there are stores, like InterState Battery, that are dedicated to batteries.  The tools and equipment alone that one needs to just test your battery is no small headache.  

1.  Voltmeter.  Here's what it is: 

A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring electrical potentialdifference between two points in an electric circuit. Analog voltmeters move a pointer across a scale in proportion to the voltage of the circuit; digital voltmeters give a numerical display of voltage by use of an analog to digital converter.  A voltmeter in a circuit diagram is represented by the letter V in a circle.

You can see here what they look like and what they cost: between $10 and $20.  

2.  Hydrometer.  

A hydrometer is an instrument that measures the specific gravity (relative density) ofliquids—the ratio of the density of the liquid to the density of water.

A hydrometer is usually made of glass, and consists of a cylindrical stem and a bulb weighted with mercury or lead shot to make it float upright. The liquid to test is poured into a tall container, often a graduated cylinder, and the hydrometer is gently lowered into the liquid until it floats freely. The point at which the surface of the liquid touches the stem of the hydrometer correlates to specific gravity. Hydrometers usually contain a scale inside the stem, so that the person using it can read specific gravity. A variety of scales exist for different contexts.

These run for about the same price as a voltmeter, $10 to $20.

Anything else? There is this. Turns out that the data stamp is heat stamped into the side of the battery. Funny how it took me about 6 videos and several hours to learn of this. This is the problem with bloggers who are not specific enough. Please, dear blogger, be specific. Specific is good. The more specific the better. Please.