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So a yr ago or so i bought a Red Top. The last few months is been getting weeker and weeker, I pulled it from my XJ after driving and ideling for a good hr or so. 11.2VDC. after a few days about 10. I originally though i had a open circuit in the XJ...nope! Going to Autozone in the morning to swap it out....i REALLY hope they dont give me crap about it, it's got to be a bad cell...i think.
So a yr ago or so i bought a Red Top. The last few months is been getting weeker and weeker, I pulled it from my XJ after driving and ideling for a good hr or so. 11.2VDC. after a few days about 10. I originally though i had a open circuit in the XJ...nope! Going to Autozone in the morning to swap it out....i REALLY hope they dont give me crap about it, it's got to be a bad cell...i think.
cliffs notes for the lazy: NEW OPTIMA BATTERIES ARE COMPLETE GARBAGE- DO NOT BUY ONE unless you have hundred dollar bills to light on fire!
[rant on/]
Red Tops made in the past 5 years suck donkey balls. I have a theory that the advance auto parts are lower quality than what you get from Interstate (the manufacturer). Optima's made ~pre '05 were great I have a red top in my DD that is over 6 years old.
Optima will give you some Bullshit reply about you have to charge them a special way, but it's a crock. The last one that failed on me, I called the local Interstate distributor directly to request that they warranty it and they asked for the serial number. The first 2 characters of the S/N tell them that it is an Advance / Vato Zone Optima and they tell you to pound sand and take it up with the retailers.
I have now had the last 5 Red tops I have owned fail within 2 yrs and they never hold a charge after the first year or so, in an occasional use vehicle. One of these, I had a battery disconnect in so I know if wasn't a short.
If you get a replacement under warranty, sell it immediately and go buy something else. (your replacement is only under free replacement for 3 years from the ORIGINAL PURCHASE DATE of the first one.) I had my replacement fail less than 16 months after warranty replaced it the last time and they wanted me to cough up $120 for the prorated replacement. :flamemad:
I did some research and I'm not alone in my experiences. I finally bought a Deka directly from their local rep and it starts my Waggy every time even after 4-6 wks of sitting. The red top in it before wouldn't last 10 days when it was 9 months old.
I definately recommend selling the replacement red top and getting a different battery. Check out sears' die hard platinum they're re-badged odyssey batteries, and the vato-zone die hard gold batteries are pretty good too.
Well good news and bad news...good news, it's not a bad cell...bad news, ITS NOT A BAD CELL. I was hoping to get away with a new battery...good ideas above ^^ TO SELL IT!! O well, live and learn, these Batteries sux. Dude at Advanced said how old is the car "Its a JEEP...not a car and it's a 91" I said. Guy said, O.... you have an electrical leak, all cars have them, the older the worse they get. "so i've had it about a year and now the electrical leak is there? Its wasent there till the past month or so". The battery just needs to be charged he said. I said "I drove it for an hr or so the day before and i know the Alt. is good".
They wont/cant do anything unless the little "ticket" below as a return Auth code on it. I have it on a 2amp trickle charge now, leaving it on all night. I'll disconnect it in the morning and check voltage everyday and write them down. I wont be driving the XJ for at least 2 weeks...busy with work, so we'll see how it looks in 2 weeks out of the XJ on the bench.
Sorry to rant, just pissed i didnt listen to other who have had the isses with Optima.
I'll end this b/c it could start sounding a little like Tech Talk which doesnt belong here :wave1:
BTW: i'm not AT ALL bashing Advanced, they're doing what they're required to do, test the Batt. Also i'm not bashing Optima...or i'm I!! I'm just pissed b/c i didnt listen to everyone else on the "new" red tops. O well live and learn. Might be time for a cheap "Battery Tender". Cheaper than a new battery!
Why not throw in another temp batt. and take that red top back to them to have them bench test it. If it's bad it'll show them right there that it's bad, and if it doesn't show it's bad they can throw it on their charger for an hour or two then re-test it.
I too run one of the Deka Dominator AGM batteries. I bought mine through the Co-op in TN. 785 CCA, 120 Reserve capacity minutes and retail is about $140. I have had two that sat around alot in their early life and now one is in Mark's XJ and one in mine. I need to see how old they are as I don't even remember when I got them (it's been a while). They are still going strong. Made in the USA too in Lyons Station, PA.
Why not throw in another temp batt. and take that red top back to them to have them bench test it. If it's bad it'll show them right there that it's bad, and if it doesn't show it's bad they can throw it on their charger for an hour or two then re-test it.
Thats what they did...says it's good just needs a charge. I had it on a 2 amp trickle overnight. I'm leaving it out of the XJ for a couple weeks, i'll see if it holds.
Its not my DD
thanks
So what is the best battery since I have now learned that optimas suck, I ran 2 yellow tops in my diesel for over 3 years with a bad alternator, but they were over the 5 year mark old
I am building a tray to run a dual battery setup under my hood and was going to go with optima again, but if so many people are having a hard time with them....I'm out on that
I’m sorry to hear you’ve been having trouble with your RedTop and I’d like to help. If you think your battery is gradually getting weaker, it’s a good idea to do some basic diagnostics, to try to locate the source of your problems. This video explains some basic battery and charging system diagnostics- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yPlx4MBNRU
Idling a vehicle or operating it at low speeds may not allow the alternator to replace the energy used to start a vehicle and can discharge any battery over time. I should also mention that our RedTop battery is not intended or warrantied for deep-cycling applications, including winching and welding.
Maintaining voltage of at least 12.4 volts in your battery will help extend battery life, regardless of brand. If any battery is allowed to sit for extended periods of time in a partially or fully-discharged state, it will begin to sulfate and battery performance will diminish accordingly.
Under normal circumstances, our batteries don’t require any special charging procedures and can be charged just like any other lead-acid or AGM battery. However, our batteries are not gel batteries, so charger settings for “gel” or “gel/AGM” should be avoided, as they will not fully-charge an Optima and could damage it over time.
Optima manufactures all of our own batteries in our own facility and we never re-spec or re-brand them for any retailer. WTF is correct regarding battery warranties and original purchase dates. Unless a manufacturer specifically offers a “lifetime” battery warranty, replacement warranty periods generally start from the original date of purchase and do not renew with subsequent exchanges. The person working behind the counter may not always handle this correctly, but this policy does prevent people from intentionally damaging their batteries and renewing warranties every few years, which would drive up the cost of batteries for everyone. Steve, please keep me updated on the status of your battery. Thanks!
I bought my red top from advanced when I put the lift on (3 years ago I think...maybe 2 and a half) Jeep sat for a month with a blown trans and started up when I needed it to. Sure it was slow to start but it did. That's good enough for me.
Pretty impressed that Optima is doing active social media sniffing/search to address issues.
I have ran optima batterys for years started in Car Audio back in the early 90's and up until my last Yellow Top died. (kept leaving my rock lights on) I really liked them. My personal perception is I could run the older batteries hard and not have much if any effect on the performance. The last yellow top Bought in 2008 seamed to be impacted more by the use then my old Yellow tops/Red tops.
What I would do is take it back to Advance and have them charge the battery there. They've got a quick charger that will charge it for 35 minutes, or you can leave it over night on the slow charger. They will test it again after they charge it and see if it took the charge.
The reason I say this is I work for Advance, and we see this often with the "newer" Optimas. When they don't take a charge and still show "good - recharge" on our tester we can usually find a way to warranty the customer a new battery (however it's usually done by the store manager since they know all the tricks). Keep in mind the handheld battery tester we have is 96% accurate, so there is 4% error in there.
Hahahah..all cars develop electrical leaks over time? Yeah, right.
