Absorbed Glass Mat batteries excel in modern cars with advanced tech and are a worthy replacement if its time to replace your old lead-acid battery. Here's why.
Automotive technology has advanced at ludicrous speed, yet modern automobiles still use battery technology that originated in the early 1900s. We should clarify we're not referring to the battery packs in electric vehicles but the 12-volt battery under the hood of your gas-powered car. Nearly every vehicle you see on the road today uses a lead-acid battery to start the car and run basic electronics when the engine is off. So there has to be a better way, right? Not exactly. The motorcycle industry is an interesting barometer as it's enjoyed great success with lithium-ion batteries. Not only are these batteries much lighter than their lead-acid counterparts, but they also offer considerably more cranking power. So it sounds like everyone in the automotive industry would bite your arm off for one. Right? Not so, as these newer batteries experience a considerable performance drop in cold conditions and cost more than the "legacy" alternative. The best solution in the interim is what's called an Absorbed-Glass Mat Battery. It enjoys the reliability of a lead-acid battery while presenting impressive performance at a reasonable price. How Do They Work? Before we get any further, it would be slightly disingenuous to say lead-acid batteries haven't changed at all during their life span. That simply isn't true. The lead-acid chemistry is really all that's remained from day one. Nearly everything else has changed with Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) batteries taking the industry by storm. For a crash course on how car batteries work, check out this Youtube video. Invented in 1859, lead-acid batteries are brilliantly simple and capable. Just as the name implies, they use lead plates submerged into diluted sulphuric acid to sustain a controlled chemical reaction, giving the negative terminal a negative charge and vice versa for the positive terminal. When not in use, the electrons on the negative terminal inherently want to flow back to the positive terminal. They can't move…