Used to back in the day, I'd get a walmart everstart battery, and every three years kill it beyond anything ( Pour all acid out, fill with hard tap water then overcharge for 20 minutes.) and take it back and get a replacement whether it needed it or not. I knew it was going to give before long and needed that truck to always start quickly and not need to worry. Can't do that now. One battery, One warranty. You can only exchange them once now which kind of sucks.
NEVER get a vatozone battery though. They are the WORST! Be its the bottom line or the gold line. Every 6 months they were dead. The manager actually insisted he check my alternator before doing a warranty exchange it got that bad. When everything checked out, He had no choice then the idiot said I wasn't the only one with this problem. I told him I'm one less, when this one gives in 6 months I'll get mine from walmart again from now on and never have to worry again. He didn't like that at all. Actually, I don't get crap from vatozone anymore. Orielly or napa now. Their stuff has gotten terrible in quality. Had a PS pump fail 3 weeks after I installed it....I left it and sold the truck instead. But when it worked, It worked like a dream.....
Odd given that Johnson Controls makes both Wal Mart and Auto Zone Batteries.
Each company has a specification sheet in regards to performance. For instance, the Deep Cycle/Cranking batteries I buy have a minimum zero tolerance life cycle duty required by Auto Zones' spec sheet. So Johnson Controls manufactures the battery to exceed the spec sheet.
Now if the components are contaminated prior to manufacturing, the battery's ability to generate voltage will be severely curtailed. In other words the chemical reaction will not be able to sustain an electrical charge.
I purchased a battery from Sears about 25 years ago or so that continuously failed (went through 3 of them in less than a year). It was a 36 mos. pro rated battery and like clockwork it failed. The Service Mgr gave me the business and I never went back.
Turned out that the mfg had received contaminated lead. There was quite a few failures and Sears switched suppliers. I happened to be one of the lucky ones to buy a bad battery.
By the way, your practice is why battery warranties are what they are today. Batteries that fail are charted and tested statistically for failure mode analysis as to prevent future problems.
All Batteries today go through a thorough testing before shipment. The components are now tested prior to manufacturing for contamination and failure mode analysis. The finished batteries are then tested statistically for failure mode analysis again.
My friends at Johnson Controls were telling me all about some of the return batteries and the chemical analysis.
The whole reason behind checking the battery before you buy it. You don't want to purchase a battery that has been poorly handled which resulted in fluid loss. It will fail guaranteed.