Easy question, just wondering where I can find a good (low cost) supply for an FRC battery. Where do most people get them?
I’m in the upstate NY area if anyone has any potential local suppliers, but online is fine as well.
We buy direct from MK, they have FRC discounts and great customer service.
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I’ve just been buying them off amazon…
The site batterysharks.com has Sigma(s) brand. Pay attention to the order quantity options since it may be cheaper to buy two-pack(s) with free shipping OR multiple batteries with paid shipping. Just run the shipping calculator and compare the total price. They are $23 each before shipping for individual batteries and shipping is not unreasonable, especially when you get multiple batteries.
Contact Information for Dan at MK, you can also just call their direct number.
Daniel Rivera
BMED Product Specialist
MK Battery
714 922-2024 (Direct)
800 372 9253 (Customer Service)
Ordered last year right before championship and they were $44.50 with free shipping.
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We have been trying to document them here: http://findrobotparts.com/batteries/
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548 bought the BatteryMart SLA12V18 batteries for about $38 each including shipping and had no problems. Previously we were spending about $55 each including shipping from AndyMark for the MK batteries.
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We buy directly from MK as well. I paid $36 per battery this year, free shipping.
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Ditto! Great deal and customer service. They initially were going to charge for shipping, but I had them verify the FRC discount.
MK Battery hands down.
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Tim,
We bought 4 from them this year and found that their performance is far below our expectations. I don’t have the test data in front of me, but all four performed poorly; worse than our older (used) batteries.
We can also tell the shorter life during robot testing. We are looking for alternate batteries at this point.
Edit: We have 2016 Sigma batteries (used 2 seasons and various practice/demos) that went under the same test and performed better than the new 2018 Sigma batteries.
That’s rather disappointing, Tim. 
I don’t know if we bought any this year, but last year’s seemed to be ok. Were yours all in the same batch?
See if there are any date codes on the batteries. The batteries you purchased in 2018 might have been sitting around for some time, leading to degradation.
Our four 2018 batteries have “170915” on the black cap (terminal end). The 2016 batteries have “091815 - JP” on the black cap.
We actually purchased the new (2018) batteries on November 2, 2017 for the 2018 season. The old (2016) batteries were purchased at a similar time in 2015.
My guess is these are date codes; I did spend 5 minutes trying to look up the sequence/code, but no luck for SigmasTek. The date sequence appears to change format between the two orders.
My interpretation would be:
New -> September 15, 2017
Old -> September 18, 2015
If these are not date codes, I’d guess they are lot numbers; and all the new ones are from the same lot…
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It may be necessary to call the manufacturer/reseller to decode the date code/lot code. Unfortunately, not all companies use “human readable” coding systems.
I just called MK, Daniel no longer works there.
I was connected with Lisa and had a great experience ordering batteries - $33 each with free shipping.
Bought 4 more for ~ $36 each with free shipping.
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Do you have the name of who you worked with? We’ll be reaching out to MK today to place an order.
You can call the main number and say, “ummm hello … I’d like to order batteries for the FIRST Robotics Competition?” and they’ll know exactly what you want.
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I called the main contact number and spoke with Martin. And what Nate just said…
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