Best EFB Battery (UK Reviews)

EFB Battery UK Reviews

The best brands of EFB batteries in the UK are the following:

Varta

Varta EFB batteries are, for our money, the most reliable and best-performing on the market.

They’re also manufactured in Europe, in various facilities, ensuring high manufacturing quality and construction of the internal components.

Varta were one of the first companies to release EFB batteries and their technology is the most advanced on the market.

That’s largely due to their grid construction, which allows for better electrical flow. What does that mean? It means it can deliver more power than other batteries. And it also means better cycle durability, so it’ll last longer.

As you’ll have seen on our table above, their batteries, their batteries for the 005 size and the 100 size EFB battery are the best for those sizes.

Bosch

You’ll know Bosch for all kinds of electrical products, no doubt.

Their batteries are very high quality as well, in fact, they’re very similar to Varta batteries (and in fact, they’re reputedly made at the same factory!).

You’ll find that a Bosch EFB battery has excellent charge acceptance. That’s because they have a special additive in their battery plates that reduce the shedding of active material.

The result? The battery can better handle states of partial discharge, and particularly regular high discharge. Which makes it best equipped to handle start-stop systems.

Bosch’s 027 EFB battery and 096 car battery are the best EFB batteries for those sizes.

Exide

The EFB batteries produced by Exide aren’t quite as high quality as those of Varta and Bosch but they’re still really good quality.

Exide EFB batteries, then, are a great mid-range option. They’re likely to last as much as 2-3 times as long as an equivalent lead-acid battery.

Their technology is very well-equipped to deal with a car’s start-stop system, with a high quantity of very thin battery plates. That means it can deliver plenty of power, enough to start an engine again and again, in short succession.

We say Exide’s batteries are the best value on the market, and their EFB batteries are no different. They can be as little as half the price of Bosch and Varta’s batteries, and they’re likely to last a lot longer than half the time.

Exide have the best 110 EFB car battery on the UK market.

Lion

Lion don’t make EFB batteries for all sizes but they do for a few, namely sizes: 110, 100, 096, 027, 158. You can see them here.

Their quality is not bad, at all – certainly the best budget brand. As with all EFB batteries, they’ll last longer and provide more power than an equivalent lead-acid battery.

Their prices are often a lot lower than the rest of the market. For that money, it certainly can make sense to get a normal Flooded lead-acid battery from Lion.

But if it’s for a stop start system (ie. an EFB or AGM battery), it may make sense to go with the more established brands. That said, you’re not likely to get an EFB car battery at those prices from any other maker, so you can take the risk if it makes sense to do so, for you.

How popular are EFB batteries?

EFB batteries are fast becoming the most popular type of battery in the world.

Here’s a graph showing the increase in the number of times “EFB battery” has been searched on Google from 2019 to 2022.

They’ve been around for a while now, but with more and more positive long-term results for reliability and performance, they’re becoming increasingly popular.

Many car makers are now including EFB batteries as standard in their cars. That’s in large part because of the increasing number of cars being made with start-stop systems.

Do I need an EFB battery?

If your car has a stop-start system, then you MUST get either an EFB or an AGM battery.

If your car does not have a start stop system, you can choose an EFB battery as long as it’s the right size to fit your vehicle. It represents an upgrade on a traditional Flooded lead-acid battery.

What is an EFB Battery?

EFB stands for Enhanced Flooded Battery.

A standard lead-acid battery as has been sold for decades now is a Flooded/wet type. The EFB battery is also Flooded (since it also has a liquid electrolyte inside the battery casing).

However it has several major improvements that make it superior to a standard Flooded battery.

The major structural improvements are a polyester scrim that better holds the electrolyte and allows it to stay mixed; carbon additives in the battery plates for superior charge/discharge abilities; improved grid structure and thinner battery plates improving power output.

It was developed for a couple of main reasons:

1. To fix the major issues that cause standard Flooded batteries to fail and ultimately die.
2. To meet the needs of modern cars with start stop systems and increased power demands.

AGM batteries were developed to solve the same problems. EFB batteries represent a more cost-effective solution than AGM.

Advantages of EFB Batteries

Compared to traditional Flooded batteries, EFB batteries have several major benefits:

• Better charge acceptance – coping better with regular high discharge and charge cycles.
• Deliver more power – thinner battery plates and improved grid structures allowing for more contact between the plates and the electrolyte (mixture of sulphuric acid and distilled water).
• Longer lasting – EFB batteries last longer for several reasons:
  • the improved charge acceptance allows for more engine starts;
  • the polyester scrim lessens acid stratification (a major reason for the failure of batteries);
  • better ability to deal with partial discharge means less sulfation (the no.1 killer of lead-acid batteries).

EFB vs. AGM

Both EFB and AGM batteries can be used for cars with start-stop systems.

But, is one better than the other?

AGM batteries solve the same issues that EFB batteries solve; they’re both comfortably better than traditional/standard Flooded batteries. They have greater performance, longevity, power and cyclic durability.

All lead-acid batteries, including AGM and EFB batteries, work using the chemical reactions produced when the positive and negative lead plates interact with the electrolyte (which is a solution of sulphuric acid in distilled water).

We’ve got a whole article deep diving on this topic of AGM batteries versus EFB.

Why are EFB and AGM batteries better than normal Flooded batteries?

To ensure the most power can be stored and then delivered to provide power, there must be as much contact as possible between the battery plates and a well-mixed electrolyte.

Standard Flooded batteries fail because:

1. the battery plates develop sulfation (the build up of lead sulfate) due to being left in a discharged state; and
2. the acid becomes more poorly mixed over time (this is acid stratification).

EFB batteries solve these problems with carbon additives that improve the battery’s ability to cope with being a partially discharged state and a polyester scrim that keeps the sulphuric acid and distilled water better mixed.

AGM batteries are even better at solving these problems – greater pack pressures prevent active material shedding, which means even more ability to cope with discharge than EFB batteries can provide. This also means they suffer less from sulfation.

And since AGM batteries have the electrolyte absorbed onto glass mats (AGM = Absorbed Glass Mat), it completely solves the problem of acid stratification – the electrolyte simply cannot become more poorly mixed, as it’s not in liquid form.

AGM batteries are, however, considerably more expensive than EFB batteries.

Best EFB Battery Summary

Hopefully, you’re now much better acquainted with EFB batteries. We talked about how they’ve become very popular in recent years and are showing signs of far superior lifespan compared to normal Flooded batteries.

We looked at the best EFB batteries in the UK, revealing the top battery for each different size category. That was for the most popular car battery sizes: 005, 027, 096, 100, 110.

We reviewed the best battery brands that sell EFB batteries, discussing the relative merits of each one.