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I have a red top and my jeep has sat for long periods of time. A few times the battery was dead so I just jumped it and the battery charged right up. I have done this about 5 times and the battery allways charges right up.
I had had a red top optima for 10+ years no problems, then switched to yellow top that only lasted a few years. Had another car with an orbital (yes I know it isn't a optima) and it only lasted a couple years as well. a battery tender would be a good idea.
When the last one went I swapped in a couple of odysseys. After running these I don't see ever going back to a optima.
Optimas are crap. My yellow top went belly up after a little more than a year. (Don't get me started on Autozone and there BS warranty policies.)The red top in my wifes nissan xterra is a piece of crap too. It started to struggle at less than a year old and it gets driven daily. Also had a red top put into my work truck and it has to be taken out and charged every now and then because it will just decide to stop working.
Biggest rip off on the market. I won't ever pay for another! Everyone says maybe you had a bad one. Yeah right, whats the chances of getting three bad batteries.
Biggest rip off on the market. I won't ever pay for another! Everyone says maybe you had a bad one. Yeah right, whats the chances of getting three bad batteries.
Don't know but I ran one for 8 years. I constantly left stuff on in my jeep. CB radios, flashlight chargers. I didn't drive it very much so quite often I would find it dead. Even several times throughout the winter it would be dead for long periods of time. Every time this happened I would put a charger on it for a bit and it would work just fine.
There is no way in hell a regular wet cell batt would hold up to this.
I had an optima red top thats lasted me 3 years and 150K+ miles that was on 2 cars. The only reason i got rid of it was because i thought it finally went bad and it turned out to be the alternator. To think a battery outlasted and alternator. how sad is that,.
Optimas are crap. My yellow top went belly up after a little more than a year. (Don't get me started on Autozone and there BS warranty policies.)The red top in my wifes nissan xterra is a piece of crap too. It started to struggle at less than a year old and it gets driven daily. Also had a red top put into my work truck and it has to be taken out and charged every now and then because it will just decide to stop working.
Biggest rip off on the market. I won't ever pay for another! Everyone says maybe you had a bad one. Yeah right, whats the chances of getting three bad batteries.
I posted the same question on a farm website an hour ago and got this:
I say keep away from Optima batteries. They have good marketing thats about it.
I used a dozen of those yellow tops in a project Hybrid vehicle some years back in Univeristy, and they were the worst perfroming battery we ever used, they were very finicky, and did not take well to being discharged past their nominal voltage and very quickly became junk. You'll have better bang for the buck with any standard plate configuration deep cylcle battery on the market. And still you should use a battery tender if not using the vehicle on a weekly basis.
Also disconnect one terminal when not in use, it will prevent any "leaks" from draining the battery, as a well charged battery has a long shelf life as long as there is nothing draining it.
I'm at work so I can't check, but I think there is a fuse marked "IOD" in the PDC that can be removed? It stands for ignition off discharge and will stop the powering of all the little things that are always on from draining the battery
Here's the problem, from my experiences the yellow top batteries die on the 12th month everytime, which happens to be the time the warrenty is up. Yes with all my optima experiences my cars would sit up to 2 months at a time in between uses, but I don't have any of the headache now that I switched to a regular sealed marine battery.
And optima batteries never hold a charge well after they start to lose charge, they seem to always have a dead cell...
Here's a little nugget of info that most don't think of.....you know how the top of the battery is seldom nice and clean and shiny....a little bit of dirt and dust laying there??? rub your finger thru it and it feels a little sticky??? ok...now take a DC volt meter and touch the probes to the top of the battery NEAR the posts....bet you read voltage....there is a drain across the gook that will run a battery down....Learned that one at the Delco school a while back....now I keep my battery top clean...
I run a pair of optimas. Diesels don't like optimas from my experience (my 6.5L kills the optimas and I have a 200A alternator), so I'm probably going with a pair of lead acid RV batteries instead.
UPDATE...
I brought the battery back to the Interstate battery disributer where I bought it. 50 miles round trip. They hooked it up on their tester and it flashed "Replace Battery". It printed out the results and I took the paper to the front and they said it was just at 12 months old and they gave me a new crappy Optima yellow top battery. The dude that tested it said he gets tons of Optimas returned but mostly he sees red tops. Well they must sell a lot more red tops. I bought the float charger for it but dang I thought I was buying the worlds greatest battery so I wouldn't have battery problems. These things suck. I bought the Jeep with an old walmart battery and put that battery in a diesel truck that also sits. After a year in it I put it back in the Jeep and it worked great all weekend. The worst part was I had to drive by 4 wheel parts wholesalers and you know what happens in that candy store! $$$.$$ Thanks for the advice on keeping this thing charged.
UPDATE...
I brought the battery back to the Interstate battery disributer where I bought it. 50 miles round trip. They hooked it up on their tester and it flashed "Replace Battery". It printed out the results and I took the paper to the front and they said it was just at 12 months old and they gave me a new crappy Optima yellow top battery. The dude that tested it said he gets tons of Optimas returned but mostly he sees red tops. Well they must sell a lot more red tops. I bought the float charger for it but dang I thought I was buying the worlds greatest battery so I wouldn't have battery problems. These things suck. I bought the Jeep with an old walmart battery and put that battery in a diesel truck that also sits. After a year in it I put it back in the Jeep and it worked great all weekend. The worst part was I had to drive by 4 wheel parts wholesalers and you know what happens in that candy store! $$$.$$ Thanks for the advice on keeping this thing charged.
Your learning the exact same way I did, optima's are the worlds best battery by far.... Any sealed marine battery will out perform in CCA, CA, and holding a charge a lot longer than the warrenty. I recommend any deep cycle sealed marine battery, fixed my problem, I'm never buying another optima!
I have a 10 year old and a 7 year old red top Optima and they have been great. Both have sat for over a year without any use and have had no issues. I know of many other people with the same experence with them that I have had.
If someone has a good product they tell a couple of people and if someone has problems they tell everyone they can from what I've seen...
Optima batteries suck.........yeah right!!:bs: Optima batteries are just like everything else made by man...flawed!! Why do ya think the auto parts stores make so much money!!!! Optimas are by far better than the average battery that is for shure!! I have two, yellow top(over a year old) and red top(over ten years old) both have been sucked dry several times and taken a charge just fine AND yes they still are going strong!!!
Now, go line up with all the other lucky bastards so I can hate you all at the same time.
Perhaps "Hate" isn't the right word. "Envy you to daepth unplumable with any line" would perhaps be more appropriate. Still, go join the others in the group.
On topic though, all I have is a teeny-weeny parts store battery that has been replaced 4 times under warranty. I don't have any fancy electrics, no chargers, no lights, no battery blanket (I really should get one though. It froze once...). All i have is the stock stereo (BLEH!). If I could afford a damn Optima, I would get one. I probably will once this one dies again seeing as how the warranty is expired.
I don't think that a red-top with the proper connections and a trickle charger should die on a DD...
Maybe some people don't know when to NOT use the side posts?
Optima batteries suck.........yeah right!!:bs: Optima batteries are just like everything else made by man...flawed!! Why do ya think the auto parts stores make so much money!!!! Optimas are by far better than the average battery that is for shure!! I have two, yellow top(over a year old) and red top(over ten years old) both have been sucked dry several times and taken a charge just fine AND yes they still are going strong!!!
Good to hear some positive results. Kinda like I when I bought it. Hey Raptor I'll be in Canon city tommorrow! Fine place! I just hope it's cooler than Denver metro.
Don't let them completely discharge. I don't care how many places they print "deep cycle" on the case. Run an optmia red,-yellow, -blue, or any other jel-cell flat and it is probably dead( my guess is at least 50% of the time). I've seen 6 of them die like that in less then 3 months(a friend of mine just won't learn) On the other hand, I have one in my DD that works without a hitch(1.5 year so far). We can't treat the Jel-cells like the old lead-acid jobs.
The aircraft industry is having the same problem. Any time a jel-cell in an aircraft sits for an extended period and dies, it stays dead.( Want to see an expensive battery? Price a jel-cell battery for any certified aircraft. They're about the size of a motorcycle battery, and make the yellow tops look cheap!)
The guys who suggest the trickle chargers are on the right track. The computers in our rigs are always on. Weekend rigs are hell on the bat. when they sit for a week at a time.
The batteries can sit for an extended period of time without damage, but they shouldn't be discharged.
Most people mistake the optima for an Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) or Gel celled battery, which is not true. Its spiral celled basically a standard lead acid battery, tightly wound and consists of more lead acid volume thereby creating larger cranking amps. They are standard car batteries on steroids. When charging an optima its best to use a trickle charge 2-4amps and plan on 6-8 hours. Tighter wound cells means they take charge slower than standard batteries, but the advantage being they hold charge better and do not discharge quiet as fast. The baffling used in the optimas have been a major concern since I started reatiling them. Optima has recalled some 73 batteries from my company alone due to poor internal baffling which keep the cores from touching and discharging or burning up. Optimas are a good battery, or at least a good idea behind creating a good battery...just have some issues....
