Battery Replacement-How often & which one?

[Capri to ST]

It's getting harder and harder to find a group 96R AGM battery for our cars. The Advance Auto / DieHard one that I have now appears to be discontinued-
https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...or-high-electrical-demands-96r-agm/12102917-P

It's still shown on their website and it will let you put it in your cart but then it says it's unavailable, and my local Advance Auto told me that it had been discontinued due to a lack of demand when I tried to order it from them.
Pep Boys shows one made by Champion on their website, but it also won't let you order it online, and when I called my local store they didn't seem to know what I was talking about, the guy that I talked to honestly didn't inspire me with confidence.
The only option I'm aware of now is the Odyssey performance series battery that does still seem to be available in a group 96R size AGM, but it's about 10 lb heavier. That's a lot of extra weight to put up high in your engine compartment.
My decision then boils down to getting a conventional battery which is 10 lb lighter but could theoretically leak, or the heavier Odyssey AGM. It sure would be nice to have more choices.

 

[Intuit]

conventional battery which is 10 lb lighter but could theoretically leak, or the heavier Odyssey AGM

Every leak-acid battery I've ever had in the prior and current vehicles have put acid in the battery tray; and because they were both Fords that tray drained onto a ground wire conveniently placed beneath the battery tray. (went through three alternators in the prior vehicle because of that)

AGM weren't invented or available at the time so what I started doing was, bagging the battery.
The bags designed for hot foods, are heat resistant.
So bags from chicken places like PopEyes, KFC, Churches for instance, did the job nicely.

Just be sure not to block/cover the battery vents.

In the bottom of that bag, was baking soda. (neutralizes acid)

Started covering the terminals with engine oil and sprinkled baking soda on top; which stuck to the oil. The sanded surfaces of the insides of those clamps kept their nice golden-copper color.

 

[jmrtsus]

As I have never had a battery leak in my long life it is not a concern for me. I had the FiST OEM battery last over 6 years before replacing it with another high quality lead/acid battery. I believe the 2 most common causes of "leaks" are overcharging or driving so aggressively as in racing or AutoX that it forces leaks from the vents. With today's computers the charging system is not a likely suspect although I'm sure there is a way for it to happen. I have owned 5 Fords and still have 2 plus many other makes both foreign and domestic and alway driven hard in the twisties and never a leak, so sympathy for those that have had a bad battery history. On the other hand my John Deere lawn tractor eats batteries every other spring! 5 batteries in 10 years.

 

[Capri to ST]

As I have never had a battery leak in my long life it is not a concern for me. I had the FiST OEM battery last over 6 years before replacing it with another high quality lead/acid battery. I believe the 2 most common causes of "leaks" are overcharging or driving so aggressively as in racing or AutoX that it forces leaks from the vents. With today's computers the charging system is not a likely suspect although I'm sure there is a way for it to happen. I have owned 5 Fords and still have 2 plus many other makes both foreign and domestic and alway driven hard in the twisties and never a leak, so sympathy for those that have had a bad battery history. On the other hand my John Deere lawn tractor eats batteries every other spring! 5 batteries in 10 years.

That's good to know, thanks. I wonder if one possible cause of overcharging which leads to leaking could be getting a new battery and not resetting the battery monitoring system.There's another thread about how that needs to be done, and the workshop manuals confirm it.
If the battery monitoring system is not reset then the charging system could think you have an old battery which needs more charge and then charge at a higher rate than the fresh new battery needs, thereby overcharging it and possibly causing it to leak.
As I think about it, this is probably a stretch, because realistically most people probably don't reset their battery monitoring systems because they either don't know about it or just don't want to, and most batteries don't leak despite this. It's just something that occurred to me so I thought I would mention it.