Westinghouse Terminal F1 6V 4Ah Battery (WA640N-F1)

Today I have a relatively short review, but it’s needed as background for another review. Still, I’d also like to tell you a little about one of America’s oldest companies. I hope you’ll find it interesting.

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This story began almost a month ago, when my neighbor stopped by with a small problem: a 6 V battery. He’d bought it to replace the old battery in his kid’s ride-on car—the kind the child drives, not one that drives itself.
He’d actually come to me with a similar question quite a while ago, and I sent him to a friend who could find a replacement battery for him. The new battery didn’t last long, and in fact it hadn’t worked properly from the start, so I decided to test it first.

This is a 6 V 4 Ah WA640N-F1 battery from Westinghouse. We’ll talk about the company and its connection to this battery at the end of the review. First, though, I’ll test the battery—that’s why it was brought to me in the first place.


The battery’s markings and rated capacity.


I have no doubt this isn’t some counterfeit copy made in a basement: it has a relatively recent production date and a barcode that identifies the model.


I couldn’t find a datasheet, although to be honest I didn’t look very hard. But I did find a collection of information on all the lead-acid batteries the manufacturer makes. Here’s a screenshot of part of the description, since there are a lot of them. I also found information that the company makes lithium batteries, which I’ve come across online quite often, especially on the Rozetka website.


The description gives an internal resistance of 23 mΩ at 15 degrees, but there are a few caveats. First, the temperature: I’m more used to seeing figures given at room temperature. Second, since it specifically says resistance, it’s probably a DC measurement. In AC mode, the impedance was about 20 mΩ, though I measured it quite a bit later, after several tests. I think it was higher when the battery was first brought in.


The car originally had a Reata battery. They’re actually pretty decent batteries, and according to the owner, it worked quite well.
The Reata was manufactured on 08 08 2020. Also, note the terminal size: the Reata’s terminals are noticeably wider.



I’d also received another similar battery from the same person earlier, but it was completely unbranded. One of its cells had shorted, so it’s now a 4 V battery.
Out of curiosity, I weighed all three batteries. The Westinghouse and Reata weigh about the same, around 660 grams, while the unbranded one is noticeably lighter at 600 grams.


And now for a few tests. I hadn’t originally planned to write a review, so these tests were mostly improvised.
First, I ran a charge/discharge/charge cycle. At a current of 0.2C, I got 1659 mAh or 10.17 Wh. Here and below, C = 4 Ah.

Yes, that’s not much at all. For comparison, I recently reviewed 18650 4000 mAh cells, and even those delivered about 14 Wh in the same test. But compare their size and weight: 660 grams versus 50.


Next, I ran another discharge cycle, this time at a higher current, followed by a charge. During charging, the battery took 1536 mAh, which is comparable to the result of the previous test.


The tests that followed were done differently from usual—or rather, not in the usual order. There was also a “conditioning” effect.

Yes, I know a capacity test should be done at 0.05C, or over 20 hours, but honestly, I couldn’t be bothered to wait that long. So the lowest discharge current was 0.1C, or 400 mA. At that rate, the battery delivered its maximum of 2415 mAh or 14.9 Wh. At 0.2C, capacity was about 2300 mAh. The “conditioning” effect made a difference, since you saw a very different result above.

The tests were run in this order: 0.5, 1, 0.1, 0.2C. That’s probably why the 0.1C and 0.2C tests showed noticeably higher capacity: the battery had “woken up” a little. Although these batteries themselves show a noticeable drop in delivered capacity as the load current increases.
I think that if I had run it for a few more cycles, I would have got even more, but it probably still wouldn't have reached the claimed 4 Ah.


Charging was done at 600 mA. Below are a couple of screenshots of the charging process after discharging at 0.1 and 0.2C.


Now let's get back to the manufacturer, Westinghouse. Strange as it may sound, this is a fairly large company, founded back in 1886 and in existence until 1997.
Yes, you read that right: until 1997, even though the catalog lists 2017 and gives the company name. I have a strong feeling that the name was bought by the Chinese, who are now simply churning out products under this brand. I won't claim that's definitely what happened, but we've seen similar cases before.
The company is now called CBS Corporation, although the division responsible for nuclear reactors was reorganized into a new company, established in 1998 under the name Westinghouse Electric Company. But batteries are hardly related to nuclear power.

So what makes this company interesting? Well, first of all, it's quite old.


Second, it was founded by the inventor, industrialist, and entrepreneur George Westinghouse


Of course, you might say, some guy founded a company almost 150 years ago—so what?
Well, it gets more interesting. Remember people like Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla? They were the ones who, many years ago, invented all sorts of useful things like light bulbs, phonographs, electric motors, generators, and so on. The familiar light-bulb base was named after Thomas Edison, for example, and the well-known Tesla company after Nikola Tesla.
That's why the base type designation starts with the letter E (E10, E14, E27, E40).


The point is that Edison and Tesla began promoting two different power systems. The former championed direct current, while the latter advocated alternating current. Both had their advantages and disadvantages, of course, but as you can imagine, the latter option prevailed mainly because it was easier to convert.

In fact, M. O. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky also played a part in all this. Thanks to him, we use three-phase induction motors today.


Tesla also worked extensively on motors, but he's best known for inventing the two-phase motor. You can still find them in the modern world, and there are probably several similar ones running near you right now—but only similar ones.


This whole rivalry led to the famous "War of the Currents." A good movie about it came out not long ago. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend downloading and watching it.


You may be wondering: wait, what does Westinghouse have to do with any of this? Well, he had a lot to do with it.
During the "War of the Currents," when things got tough for Nikola, Westinghouse was the one who effectively backed him. Perhaps he saw a chance to make money; perhaps it was because Westinghouse was an inventor himself. Either way, the result was the same.

Incidentally, while working at Westinghouse, Tesla proposed 60 Hz as the standard industrial frequency, which is still used in the United States today.



Edison continued selling his light bulbs and phonographs, among many other things.


Unfortunately, a crisis hit, and Thomas Edison's company merged with Thomson-Houston & Co., giving rise to another well-known company, General Electric. The company didn't just make electrical equipment; over time, it also began producing various turbines.


So, what about Westinghouse Electric? But things went badly with this one. It operated for a long time, but after 1990 problems began: mergers, breakups, and today we have Westinghouse Electric Company, which is involved in nuclear power, and CBS Corporation, which is in the telecommunications business.




Speaking of history, Westinghouse Works has a whole series of short films on the subject, which I also recommend watching.


And now, why exactly I have my doubts that these batteries really have anything to do with Westinghouse, and why I think they simply sold the trademark.
The thing is:



So perhaps back in 2017 these were indeed Westinghouse products, but it's unclear who makes them now.


Conclusions.
In general, batteries sold under this brand are usually quite good. I'd describe them as solid mid-range products, but in this case there may have been a defect. Still, I don't have enough data to draw any conclusions.
I'll also say that, in my opinion, lead-acid batteries are a thing of the past, having given way to lithium batteries. Yes, they're still being made and will continue to be for a long time, but experience shows how far they fall behind modern solutions. They're probably still produced mainly because of their low cost and the sheer inertia of existing production lines.


But that's not the end of the topic of batteries for kids' ride-on cars, so a follow-up is planned soon. That's all for today. I hope this was useful. And one more question: does anyone have anything to say about products under this brand, or any statistics? That would be very helpful.