Official Product review: DieHard security battery
Application: my old BMW and later [maybe] the Triumph
I bought a DieHard "security" battery for the '72 BMW a couple weeks ago, and it
works great! After two weeks, the car hasn't been stolen once!
Granted, it also wasn't stolen during the three years that I had a regular
battery. Sears also claims it repels elephants, and this feature works great as
well. Anyway, here's the rest of my analysis:
1. It took 4 Sears automotive center employees to program the thing; don't buy
one when you're in a hurry. They have a 4 number code, so it's not likely that
another security battery owner will turn on my battery in the grocery store
parking lot.
2. It's so terribly cool to click the remote and get a little beep in my
otherwise low-tech car. Or not, but from a security perspective, with the
battery "armed" it does emit a series of beeps when there's a draw on the
battery, i.e. you'll get beeped if you open the door (and trigger the dome
light). A kid stealing change off of the floor of my car might be surprised. And
unless the remote enabled the battery, the engine *will* die, either when
started with a key or even a jump start, after a few seconds. When this first
happened to me, I thought "...but I just replaced the coil?" ;-) My wife gently
pointed out that I spent twice the normal price of a battery to have this
feature. At least it wasn't the coil. :-)
3. The boys left the lights on again, but the battery shuts down at some point
so you can't drain the thing. This is why I bought it, really. And it's worth
the $$ when I can drive to work each morning w/o jumping the car.
For the 2002, I think it's a great cheap deterrent to joy-riders and accidental
battery-draining. But, because it allows some draw on the battery -- e.g. for
accessories, the dome light -- it might not be a good choice for my TR4, where
my goal is also to avoid Lucas-based electrical fires during time in the garage
-- e.g. a spell of bad weather. My guess is there could be enough current going
through to start a fire. I suspect for the TR4, a remote battery cut-off
*inside* is the better trick, and the existing negative-post battery disconnect
for extended storage.
--
Steven Newell
Denver, CO
'62 Triumph TR4, '72 BMW 2002
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