20 best batteries for VAZ cars: descriptions, pros and cons

The best batteries for VAZ 2114, 2115

Reliable and unpretentious domestically produced cars, the VAZ 2114 and its analogue, the VAZ 2115 sedan, are factory equipped with a battery with a capacity of 55 Ah. The on-board network is designed specifically for these parameters. At the same time, when buying a new battery, the owner can safely choose models with 60-62 Ah, the advantage of which will become obvious in winter frosts. In addition, the batteries must have straight polarity (the “+” terminal is on the left) and the appropriate dimensions to easily fit on the battery tray under the hood. The best batteries with the specified parameters are presented in this category.

Types of car batteries

Batteries installed on a car differ in body and internal structure.

There are three types of housing:

1. European, this is when the battery terminals are recessed into the housing, therefore, the installation height of the product does not increase.
2. Asian, this is when external current-carrying elements are brought up to the surface of the battery.
3. American, in this case the output electrodes are located on the side of the battery.

Often there are combined battery options, namely the “American-Asian” type with additional terminals on top. Automotive power supplies are produced with direct and reverse polarity. Russian batteries are manufactured with straight polarity, which means that the terminal with the “+” sign is on the left. Foreign cars have reverse polarity; their current carrying element with the “+” sign is located on the right.

According to the internal structure of the battery, they are divided into:

1. Lead-acid; This is the most popular type, where the electrolyte is a mixture of distilled water and sulfuric acid. Stand out:
   “wet”, this is a classic with a standard package set and liquid electrolyte;
2. EBF, where electrodes are installed 1.5-2 times thicker;
3. Ca/Ca calcium, where the electrodes are coated with calcium;
4. hybrid - the anode includes antimony and the cathode contains calcium.
5. AGM batteries contain plates with fiberglass mats between them that absorb the electrolyte. They are classified as maintenance-free devices.
6. Gel batteries are made using GEL technology, in which the electrolyte thickens using silica gel. The gel battery is not serviced; it has a high level of electrolyte and a safety margin.

The best batteries for VAZ 2110

To understand which battery is best suited to the on-board network of the VAZ 2110, the owner needs to take into account the influence of the following factors: the type of starter, the actual power of the generator, the nature of the upcoming operation and the presence of additional electrical equipment on board the car. The factory equipment includes a battery with a capacity of 55 Ah and a cold starting current of 255 Amperes. For more confident operation, you can take a battery with a slightly larger capacity (5 - 7 A*h), and the starter current can reach 500-550 A.

Manufacturer's choice

When purchasing a new battery, you should not save money and choose the cheapest model. Many unscrupulous manufacturers deliberately deceive potential buyers of their products by indicating inappropriate battery capacity or starting current values. Such deception is often revealed when there are problems with the ignition.

A priori, a quality product cannot be cheap. Specialists from one of the rating agencies have compiled a list of the most reliable car battery manufacturers. The rankings were distributed as follows:

Summarizing all of the above, we can come to the conclusion that there is no single answer to the question: “which battery for a VAZ is best to choose?” does not exist. It all depends on the specific car model, the number of built-in electrical devices (sound system, electric clock, etc.), and operating conditions. So if the battery light on a VAZ has been on for a long time, then you need to go to a specialized auto parts store, or best of all, to an official dealer of the Lada brand.

We tested two dozen batteries of the most popular size on the market, 242x175x190 mm. The results are amazing: more than half of the batteries tested failed.

With an old battery, this is not life.

The crisis has hit everything, and the battery market is no exception. Buyers look first of all at price. Even owners of prestigious cars are in no hurry to splurge on expensive batteries such as AGM and EFB, which everyone predicted unconditional dominance a few years ago.

It’s even somehow awkward to talk about amperes, coulombs and degrees if the mass consumer chooses what is cheaper. On the other hand, budget products often have poor quality, and the savings can cost a pretty penny... This time we decided to focus on inexpensive batteries.

The best batteries for Lada Kalina

The manufacturer installs lead batteries with a capacity of 55 Ah on the Lada Kalina car. At the same time, the discharge current is only 255A (at -18°C). If replacement is necessary, you should focus on these indicators when choosing a battery. The new battery must meet standard dimensions and have straight polarity. The capacity may be slightly larger, but not significantly (a battery with parameters of 70-75 Ah will not have enough generator power to fully charge). The starting current should not be lower than specified (if it is higher, it will be easier to start in winter). You can find out which battery models are best suited for the Lada Kalina in the category below.

Dimensions

To install the battery in the engine compartment, there is a special niche with a stand and holding fasteners. To ensure that the battery stays securely in place and does not jerk from side to side, you need to choose the correct overall dimensions. And, of course, if you purchase a large battery, it simply will not fit on the platform.

Standard batteries for VAZ cars have the following indicators: 24.2 cm – length, 17.5 cm – width, 19 cm – height. When purchasing a new battery, you can rely on these measurements, but it would be a good idea to play it safe and independently measure all the geometric parameters of the old battery with a tape measure.

Is the battery cheaper?

At first, the search for the most inexpensive batteries of the most popular size 242x175x190 mm gave a modest result - only five products priced from 2,610 rubles for a Podolsk battery to 3,002 rubles for a Tyumen battery. Not enough for a full examination. They raised the price bar to 3,500 rubles and added six more batteries. But what about without big foreign names - Varta, Bosch, Mutlu? In addition, domestic batteries close to their price, for example, AkTech, were left behind. Along the way, it turned out that some eastern brands set prices for their products that were not at all “crisis”: the most expensive battery was not Bosch at all, but the Korean Solite for as much as 5,000 rubles!

As a result, we collected two dozen batteries. Let's see how price relates to amp hours and coulombs.

The purchase was carried out in a retail network in April - May 2016. The research results relate only to this sample and cannot serve as a basis for evaluating all products of a particular brand.

MAIN CRITERIA FOR EVALUATING BATTERY QUALITY

Reserve capacity.

Shows how long a car will last with all power consumers turned on (headlights, windshield wipers, ventilation system) if its generator is damaged. Measured in minutes. The higher the result, the better.

Reduced starting energy with declared current.

Characterizes the battery energy in starting mode. It is measured in kilojoules. The higher the result, the better.

Reduced starting energy with a single current at -18 and -29 ºС.

Allows you to compare the current characteristics of all batteries under the same conditions, regardless of their rating data. Simply put, the higher the energy, the, other things being equal, the more attempts to reliably start the engine. It is measured in kilojoules. The higher the result, the better.

Acceptance of charge at constant external voltage.

Shows the battery's ability to recover after a deep discharge. In practice, a battery that accepts charge better than others will also charge faster when traveling. All batteries passed the test.

Note.

Technical measurements were carried out by specialists from the Research Center AT 3 Central Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The test results relate to a specific sample of batteries and cannot characterize all products of the same name as a whole.

How to determine when replacement is needed

Now let's look at the signs indicating that the battery has reached the end of its life and needs to be replaced.

1. The car stopped starting reliably (strained “cranking”) at low temperatures without obvious changes in operating conditions.
2. The battery drains quickly even with not a particularly long period of inactivity (a day or two).
3. A fully charged battery is enough for 3-4 attempts to start the engine.
4. The battery is “boiling”, although the charging current is within normal limits.
5. Under a relatively light load (high beam, etc.), after five to ten minutes the voltage at the terminals drops by more than 0.2–0.3 volts. The engine must be turned off.
6. The voltage at the terminals when placed on stationary charging suspiciously quickly reaches 14 V.
7. After starting during a long trip, the battery does not have time to restore energy.*

* In this case, the cause may be not only a “dead” battery, but also a malfunction of the generator or relay regulator. Diagnostics of the vehicle's on-board equipment is required.

Will that do?

The overall impression of the test results is painful. There are three main reasons for the disorder. Firstly, sellers are still slipping in stale goods, albeit with guarantees, smiles and seals. Secondly, it’s unpleasant that in the Russian frost, out of twenty brand new batteries, eleven failed. Thirdly, out of two dozen batteries, only two really fought for victory - Tyumen Battery Premium and Varta Blue Dynamic. Their gap from their opponents turned out to be serious. Moreover, curiously, the advantage is obvious both with and without price.

Take a look at the first columns of the table, which shows the reserve capacity of brand new batteries. In brackets we give the actual “volume” of electricity for which the buyer pays. By analogy with gas station: you ask to fill the tank full, but the gas station attendant only splashes on the bottom. But there is a difference: a gas station “error” will not lead to anything terrible, but a discharged battery, as the pros say, “goes sour.” Often this is irreversible: it loses capacity and becomes inoperable. We were ready for this, so before starting the tests, as usual, we charged all the batteries to capacity. And you need to do this before you install the battery on the car. Our measurements confirm this.

Now about the “overpayments” for the brand. A miracle did not happen: all the little-known batteries accumulated together at the bottom of the table. The most annoying thing is that the prices for many of them are not cheap at all. There is clearly no point in overpaying for such imports. And the first half of the table was filled with familiar names - we advise you to focus on them.

OUR TIPS

First of all, we determine the size of the battery

.
It must be guaranteed to fit in its workplace - in the engine compartment or trunk. At the same time we determine the polarity
. An old battery will help here: look - is the plus on the right or on the left? Often the length of the wires does not allow connecting a battery of the “wrong” polarity.

When choosing a battery brand, we strongly recommend that you be guided by the list of our winners

recent years. Don't be fooled by the low price - there are no philanthropists on the market. The brand determines the value. As a rule, with the same dimensions, serious companies offer batteries of different energy capacities (for example, different declared amperes and ampere-hours). It’s better to take the maximum, even if it’s a little more expensive.

Not worth purchasing

products that have “Ah” type units indicated on the labels or in the passport. This indicates the technical illiteracy of their compilers and raises doubts about the quality.

The purchased battery must be charged.

After charging and holding (keeping the battery disconnected from the charger) for 10–15 hours, the voltage should be 12.5–12.7 V. If measured immediately after charging, the readings can significantly exceed the actual open circuit voltage.

Everything is in place

To identify leaders and outsiders, we introduced a scoring system. In each type of test, the best and worst results were taken and assigned five points (maximum) and one point (minimum), respectively. Each of the remaining participants received an intermediate score proportional to their position between the leader and the outsider. For example, if, when measuring reserve capacity, the leader showed a result of 112 minutes, and the outsider showed 78, then the participant with a result of 87 minutes gets 2.06 points. If a battery fails in one test or another, it receives 0 points.

The total score based on the results of measurements is the arithmetic average of five intermediate assessments. Then we divided it by the price of the battery, after which we again brought it to a five-point scale. So the final score is essentially value for money.

The Tyumen Battery Premium and Varta Blue Dynamic batteries turned out to be unrivaled in our tests. Taking into account the much more attractive price, the “Siberian” rose to the top. If we didn't take prices into account, Varta would be first. However, the “foreign” battery has another paradoxical advantage over the Russian battery: it is easier to find on sale. It sounds illogical, but it is true, and not only in Moscow.

Conclusion? You cannot purchase a battery looking only at the price tag. Savings may backfire. It is better to spend a little time to familiarize yourself with the results of our examination. Good luck with your purchase and stable voltage in the on-board network!