Just HOW tough is an Optima battery?

[sled_dog]

for me it was about the battery falling over, when the old style I had fell over it leaked out the acid and bam I had lost a lot of battery power. Now when I run one in the S10 it will be so I can roll it, put it on its side, or climb big hills and have no worry of whether my battery acid leaked all over the ground and lost me power.

 

[ntsqd]

When discharged, they never take a recharge. With no free acid inside, they sulfate quickly and they're junk.

Interesting. I'm going to start watching for that trend.

My two plate and acid type batteries offer more current capacity than two Optimas, and won't fail on me when I need them most.

Only real advantage I see to an Optima or any other spiral type battery is an economical battery with good resistance to vibration. Are your wets of the off the shelf car type, or of the Ag type? I was told a long time ago that part of the reason Ag and OTR truck batteries are more spendy is b/c they have conductor straps on both the top and bottom of the plates, as well as thicker plates. The top and bottom straps better resist a vibration induced shorted cell. At the time, batteries from Catapillar were reportedly the best. I do not know if that is still valid info.

 

[Quaddawg]

When discharged, they never take a recharge. With no free acid inside, they sulfate quickly and they're junk.

I suppose they're fine if you never discharge them, EVER, but I have a winch, and I'm not taking that risk.

My two plate and acid type batteries offer more current capacity than two Optimas, and won't fail on me when I need them most.

Being able to physically hold one battery upside down on top of the other one to jump start a vehicle is pretty cool, but not worth the massive expense and liability of having a product that fails as often as the Optima (or any other AGM battery) does.

Were you buying red tops? If so, then that is why, Red Tops are not made to be discharged all the way.... Now, if that is happening to Yellow tops, then Optima will replace them.

I would never buy anything but a yellow top, or a blue top, for any vehicle I own.. especially after this episode. I love em..

To blatantly say that Optimas are trash, is a pretty silly statement.. If you are misusing your red top by discharging them... then you are buying the wrong kind of battery. Red tops are not made for winching, JUST starting....

 

[84_Chevy_K10]

Were you buying red tops? If so, then that is why, Red Tops are not made to be discharged all the way.... Now, if that is happening to Yellow tops, then Optima will replace them.

I would never buy anything but a yellow top, or a blue top, for any vehicle I own.. especially after this episode. I love em..

To blatantly say that Optimas are trash, is a pretty silly statement.. If you are misusing your red top by discharging them... then you are buying the wrong kind of battery. Red tops are not made for winching, JUST starting....

No starting battery is made to be completely discharged....but if you discharge an Optima, it is garbage.

 

[eclipse]

I'm not sure if I completly agree. My friend has a redtop in his 86 supra with his stereo system. His battery kept dying and he couldn't figure out why. Well it turned out that part of his stereo was malfuctioning and draining the battery. Fixed the problem and his battery recharged and has been holding up since. But hell I'm no battery expert

 

[Quaddawg]

No starting battery is made to be completely discharged....but if you discharge an Optima, it is garbage.

AH, so you did use a red top with a winch... why would you do that?

As a matter of fact, I might agree with you the the red-tops aren't that great in 4x4's or other applications that might discharge them, but I wouldn't know, I knew mine would get discharged, so I bought the correct battery.. and I have had it so discharged it wouldn't light a dome light.. several times.. well, many times actually, as we used it to play stereos in the wee hours quite a bit...

SO, you might have cause to say the a red top is garbage, but what do you have to say about the yellow tops? just curious...

 

[sled_dog]

I had a Red Top discharged down to about nothing and charge back up, its in my daily driver and hasn't failed me once in the past 2 months. It had been in my dad's street stock car, hooked up, sitting there for a long time with a crappy charging system when it did run. I pulled it out, put it in the Burb, not even enough juice to sound off the ignition buzzer. Trickle charged it for a long time, and there she sits in my burb.

 

[surpip]

No starting battery is made to be completely discharged....but if you discharge an Optima, it is garbage.

I have discharged the red top in the MINI by leaving the Rad. fan on till it no longer ran(pretty shure it was all the way discharged) twice and each time i jumped it drove it home, and it has been fine for over 6 months now.

 

[justinf]

I agree, I have a red top in my jeep, with a winch. It has been discharged a couple of times now that I know of. Both times, I jumped it, let it run for a while, and it has been fine. Starts the jeep right up.


I will get a yellow top when the red top dies, but for now, this one came in the jeep and has been working great.

 

[Quaddawg]

I agree, I have a red top in my jeep, with a winch. It has been discharged a couple of times now that I know of. Both times, I jumped it, let it run for a while, and it has been fine. Starts the jeep right up.


I will get a yellow top when the red top dies, but for now, this one came in the jeep and has been working great.

Well, then, looks like I don't have to agree about the red-tops.. seems like others have had plenty of luck with them...

Maybe your are jinxed 84_Chevy_K10 cause others here seem to like thier red-tops just fine, and I KNOW I love my Yellow.... even if it is all melted.... lol.

Peace. Opinions vary.

 

[84_Chevy_K10]

It is not I that are jinxed. I have never owned an Optima because when I used to sell them, I didn't like the experiences that my customers had with them.

BTW, I don't understand how your meter coud read, "high" and if it isn't as I suspect, that battery is overcharged. According to the reps at JCI, the easiest way to destroy an Optima is to overcharge it.

 

[BlueBlazer]

How many Optimas have you actually seen come back? Is this a case of you exaggerating things way out of proportion? When I see 100 people have good experiences and just you having bad experiences it kind of makes me doubt what you say. BTW, I have a pair of Optimas and I love them so far.

 

[Quaddawg]

It is not I that are jinxed. I have never owned an Optima because when I used to sell them, I didn't like the experiences that my customers had with them.

BTW, I don't understand how your meter coud read, "high" and if it isn't as I suspect, that battery is overcharged. According to the reps at JCI, the easiest way to destroy an Optima is to overcharge it.

Well, you seem like you aren't going to believe anything anyone says, so I am done with this conversation

Optimas are kick ass, I know that, I don't care what you think.

Also, you are insulting me, saying that I don't know that my meter is reading high. You can take a brand new 1.5 volt cell and it reads 2 volts. I can take an HP regulated power supply and it reads 25% high as well. Take my word on it, or don't... You obviously aren't listening, or believing...

I am going to load test the battery today........... course, you probably won't believe that either...


Peace.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

know how you feel

 

[JK5]

Tim

I've owned both...get one...you won't be sorry...GREAT BATTERYS!!!
(You'll save some weight too!!!)

 

[jarheadk5]

No starting battery is made to be completely discharged....but if you discharge an Optima, it is garbage.

I lost count of the number of times we killed the Optima redtop in our Perkins-diesel-powered aircraft tug when I was in the Corps (nightcrew bootcamps leaving the lights on over the weekend... ). 2 minutes of jumper cables with another Optima-started piece of gear, and it fired right up. Same battery, 19 months of this kind of abuse.
The Navy and Marine Corps have changed all their aviation support equipment (literally thousands of pieces of gear) over to Optima reds - I think they're pretty satisfied with the performance and durability of these batteries.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

84 K10: sounds like you had a lemon or somethin man....

 

[Jonny-K5]

my buddy had an optima, i think it was yellow, but might very well have been red. anyway it was in his S-10, sitting for a month while he was out of town. he had a slow drain in the elec. system and the battery went dead. trickle charged it, and it would start the truck, but wouldnt hold a charge after that. the battery was only 3 months old. tech guys at optima told him they cannot be completly discharged or they are trash. from the posts in this thread im assuming it was a redtop.


that being said i want to get optima's new group 31 yellowtop. that thing is massive. my amps dim the lights pretty bad right now with a premium battery and 1 farad cap. hopefully an yellowtop will give some added juice to the system.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

run a seperate one for the amps...

 

[84_Chevy_K10]

How many Optimas have you actually seen come back? Is this a case of you exaggerating things way out of proportion? When I see 100 people have good experiences and just you having bad experiences it kind of makes me doubt what you say. BTW, I have a pair of Optimas and I love them so far.

I would say that at least 7 out of 10 Optimas I have sold, have come back prior to a year with warranty issues.

That said, lots of batteries come back. Coming back isn't so bad.

Of all the Optimas that have come back, not a single one ever accepted a charge and was handed back to the customer. Every single one of them was replaced under warranty.

Plate/acid type batteries, I'd say 3/4 or so go back to the customer and the others of course get replaced.