Dead battery and oil life question

[mountainbiker]

My 06 H3 doesn't get much use due to my schedule. I bought it in Aug 06 and haven't even broke 3000 miles on it. The battery issue isn't helping. The original AC Delco had to be chucked as soon as I get it to Germany as it wouldn't even take a charge. I couldn't get an AC Delco replacement, so I went with the Optima Red Top. Unfortunately, it won't hold a charge beyond about 10-14 days. If I drive the H3 about once a week, it seems to keep enough juice; unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of driving it once a week.

The H3 is sitting next to a 97 Explorer. It goes weeks and weeks at a time with out running. I was recently away for 6 weeks, and it still started like a champ.

Therefore, I am scratching my head. Can the H3 actually have 2 bad batteries: AC Delco and Optima? Or, is there some sort of parasitic drain (no PIAAs, no new stereo, no alarm ...)?

Consider using a "battery maintainer", plugs easily in the cigarette lighter. Porsche sells them for about $80 (US dollars).

[cdmintmi]

i can save you all a bunch of headache and belly aching. You bought a Hummer right? So get your ass in it and go wheeling. It looks good in the driveway but it looks a thousand times better out playing in the dirt, mud, and rocks. Get the things dirty and have some fun. I have 45,000 miles on my H3, a power converter for charging cordless tools at work, a detachable XM radio, TomTom GPS, phone charger, and 17.5 mil cp spot light charger in mine on the original battery and no problems. Ive gone camping and listened the XM radio all night and still cranked in the morning. Listen to your dealers, drive em, get em dirty, its what they were made for!!!

[cmeinck]

I did plenty of 8 wheelin'. The four wheels of my HUMMER + the four wheels on the tow truck. You're right, what a pleasure.

[SandT_H3]

I only had a battery problem once and after having to get a jump twice in a week I took it in and they told me that it was because the battery was getting too hot since it is sealed in that case. This was last summer when we were in the 100s for a couple weeks. Since they replaced the battery I have had no problems. Not even not that I only live a couple miles from my work so I don't really commute but 5 min each way. I have a backup camera and gps plugged in and I never turn them off. My wife and I even watched a couple movies the other day with the engine not running and it cranked right up.