Anyone can buy from our local warehouse. I paid about $120 for a battery to suit my VR. I nearly did buy another SC but started hearing neg reliability issues so opted for a Delco.
Sounds like you're in a fortunate situation when it comes to batteries. That is dirt cheap for a good quality brand. And smart move to avoid the SuperCharge. As per the whole theme of the original post, wish I had just not been so impulsive - there is
no way I would have touched it if I'd first seen all the one star reviews in Product Review. In all the years of cars, have owned at least 13, have never had a battery fail before it's well due time; always at least 8 years old, often longer. `
However the story is still pending, as I took it into Battery World for an independent check and they still have it, doing a discharge/charge cycle full load test with written report, all for only $20.
Initial test on the brand new 550CCA SuperCharge was inconclusive, with it showing CCA readings of 145, 630, 720, 215. And that's also with the fellow (who was very helpful) going back in to get another hand-held tester to compare readings. As previously mentioned, the condition indicator is more often white and only occasionally green and the other day showed some red which might support those erratic readings. I have to do some more research on these indicators, maybe the indicator itself is faulty. I'm not even sure how they work, as they are not actually a light, as they don't glow in the dark, they need some ambient light in order to be viewed. Are they connected in parallel to the whole set of cells or just represent one cell...? Will do some more reading.
They also suggested there may be a drain in my elec wiring, as Skylarking above mentioned, so that's another thing to try and eliminate. May have to get an auto elec to do some tests.
Anyway, appreciate all the interest and experiences put forward in this thread. Looks like there's a page 3 now, so will have a look at that.