Optima Yellow Top 34/78: Voltage Low

OptimaJim said:
Hello, I apologize for chiming in so late on this conversation. SEMA is right around the corner and that is keeping us all pretty busy. I'm glad so many folks indicated 12.05 volts for a 12-volt battery seems normal, because that is a common misconception. The fact is, any lead-acid battery that is discharged below 12.4 volts and allowed to sit in that state will begin to sulfate, which diminishes both performance and lifespan. That makes a quality battery tender or maintainer an excellent investment for any vehicle that is not driven daily. Fully-charged, our RedTops should measure approximately 12.6-12.8 volts and our YellowTops should measure approximately 13.0-13.2 volts.

joe_peters is correct, you can charge our batteries at up to 10 amps (13.8-15.0 volts), but we do not recommend high-amperage chargers, as they can damage a battery and we certainly do not recommend intentionally dropping any battery. If a battery has sulfated, a 10-amp charge for up to two hours can help break up that sulfation, but if the battery begins to vent or gets hot to the touch, charging should be discontinued immediately.

Talontsi_95, if you have deeply-discharged your battery below 10.5 volts, many chargers will not recognize or charge the battery. The parallel charging technique described by Andy in Pa. and explained in this video can recover deeply-discharged Optimas.

Since CumminsJeep mentioned the “g” word, I should clarify that Optima batteries are not “gel” batteries, they are lead-acid, absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries in a Spiralcell design. Most chargers will work just fine on an Optima, but “Gel” or “gel/AGM” charger settings will not fully-charge an Optima battery and could damage it over time.

sbxj, although some companies outsource their battery production or produce their batteries in China, we do not. We do not outsource our production to third-party manufacturers or modify the specifications of our batteries for any of our retail partners. We still use 99.99% pure lead in all of our batteries and they are assembled in our own state-of-the-art facility in Monterrey, Mexico and they are the only batteries produced there. While the quality of the batteries produced in our Colorado facility was excellent, the degree of automation in our current production process has resulted in even more consistency and reliability. More importantly, we still stand by the same quality standards that were in place in Colorado.

The free replacement warranty on all new RedTops and YellowTops is three years. If a battery fails because of a manufacturing defect, it will likely do so well within the first year, if not the first week. While other warranties may be pro-rated or exclude batteries deemed to be “overdischarged,” ours does not. If anyone has any questions about our batteries, I'll do my best to answer them.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries
Click to expand...

The first batteries that died were returned for warranty replacement. The second one is somewhere in the trash. All the batteries were charged with the VERY highly recommended (by an Optima rep and numerous reputable vendors) CTEK battery charger which is specifically designed to work with Optimas. My brothers battery was maintained with an identical charger. My batteries were both apparently drained. The first one was in the car when it went the second was in the car but disconnected from its cables. My brothers was never left more than a week without being on the recommended battery charger/maintainer. Thank you for your time in answering everyones questions/comments. I love to see this kind of commitment from companies. Unfortunately, I will not buy another Optima. I am not sure why they die from sitting. Whether it is in the design of the cells or a quality issue is beyond me. At almost 200 a pop I would expect it to be able to be drained to damn near 0V and be revived. One thing I do know is that the cheapo $50 batteries have no problems being drained to the point of not even barely illuminating an interior light but can still be revived with any standard battery charger.

EDIT: I returned the first two batteries to my buddy at Batteries Plus. We left them over night and he tried whatever methods they have at their disposal to revive them but they still wouldn't take a charge. I would imagine they have some tricks up their sleeves to try to revive batteries.
 
Last edited:
OptimaJim said:
Hello, I apologize for chiming in so late on this conversation. SEMA is right around the corner and that is keeping us all pretty busy. I'm glad so many folks indicated 12.05 volts for a 12-volt battery seems normal, because that is a common misconception. The fact is, any lead-acid battery that is discharged below 12.4 volts and allowed to sit in that state will begin to sulfate, which diminishes both performance and lifespan. That makes a quality battery tender or maintainer an excellent investment for any vehicle that is not driven daily. Fully-charged, our RedTops should measure approximately 12.6-12.8 volts and our YellowTops should measure approximately 13.0-13.2 volts.

joe_peters is correct, you can charge our batteries at up to 10 amps (13.8-15.0 volts), but we do not recommend high-amperage chargers, as they can damage a battery and we certainly do not recommend intentionally dropping any battery. If a battery has sulfated, a 10-amp charge for up to two hours can help break up that sulfation, but if the battery begins to vent or gets hot to the touch, charging should be discontinued immediately.

Talontsi_95, if you have deeply-discharged your battery below 10.5 volts, many chargers will not recognize or charge the battery. The parallel charging technique described by Andy in Pa. and explained in this video can recover deeply-discharged Optimas.

Since CumminsJeep mentioned the “g” word, I should clarify that Optima batteries are not “gel” batteries, they are lead-acid, absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries in a Spiralcell design. Most chargers will work just fine on an Optima, but “Gel” or “gel/AGM” charger settings will not fully-charge an Optima battery and could damage it over time.

sbxj, although some companies outsource their battery production or produce their batteries in China, we do not. We do not outsource our production to third-party manufacturers or modify the specifications of our batteries for any of our retail partners. We still use 99.99% pure lead in all of our batteries and they are assembled in our own state-of-the-art facility in Monterrey, Mexico and they are the only batteries produced there. While the quality of the batteries produced in our Colorado facility was excellent, the degree of automation in our current production process has resulted in even more consistency and reliability. More importantly, we still stand by the same quality standards that were in place in Colorado.

The free replacement warranty on all new RedTops and YellowTops is three years. If a battery fails because of a manufacturing defect, it will likely do so well within the first year, if not the first week. While other warranties may be pro-rated or exclude batteries deemed to be “overdischarged,” ours does not. If anyone has any questions about our batteries, I'll do my best to answer them.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
[URL="http://www.facebook.com/optimabatteries"]www.facebook.com/optimabatteries[/URL]
Click to expand...

Yes, the same quality standards. We do however pay a fraction of the labor and operation cost in mexico!!
 
Hi talontsi_95, I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a good experience with our batteries. If you do continue to have issues, this video explains how to measure a vehicle's parasitic draw. A typical draw is about 25 milliamps or less, but if a vehicle has a draw of 100 milliamps or more, we suggest a review of the electrical system.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries
 
OptimaJim said:
Hi talontsi_95, I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a good experience with our batteries. If you do continue to have issues, this video explains how to measure a vehicle's parasitic draw. A typical draw is about 25 milliamps or less, but if a vehicle has a draw of 100 milliamps or more, we suggest a review of the electrical system[/COLOR][/URL]
Click to expand...
X2 a good check for any jeep that battery goes dead quick or has short battery life.

My BIG problem is that red top can not be jumped once well draned.
With my Die Hard even with less then 6 volts all you needed to do was. Hook up jumpers (well). Kick up the idle a bit. Have a ciggy. Turn the key and your off.
Not with the red top. 5 weeks old, 1 drain down and she would not stay running once cables were removed or you needed to keep her rev to 2500 to better then 9 volt on the gauge. I just don't need this problem for a few more crancking amps.
EXTA amps may help with a winch or tons of light that are USED. But for me they are good for little more then braging rights and with the drain down problem. It's a deal killer.
 
OptimaJim said:
Hi talontsi_95, I'm sorry to hear you didn't have a good experience with our batteries. If you do continue to have issues, this video explains how to measure a vehicle's parasitic draw. A typical draw is about 25 milliamps or less, but if a vehicle has a draw of 100 milliamps or more, we suggest a review of the electrical system.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries
Click to expand...

A parasitic draw was what was first suspected on my car. That is why the second battery was never connected to the cables when the vehicle sat. No idea why that battery went bad. My brothers battery was always on a battery tender so there should be no reason for his going bad either.

I have always suspected a QC problem with the red tops(again I have never ran a yellow top) because the issues I hear with them go way beyond my experience with them.
 
badron said:
X2 a good check for any jeep that battery goes dead quick or has short battery life.

My BIG problem is that red top can not be jumped once well draned.
With my Die Hard even with less then 6 volts all you needed to do was. Hook up jumpers (well). Kick up the idle a bit. Have a ciggy. Turn the key and your off.
Not with the red top. 5 weeks old, 1 drain down and she would not stay running once cables were removed or you needed to keep her rev to 2500 to better then 9 volt on the gauge. I just don't need this problem for a few more crancking amps.
EXTA amps may help with a winch or tons of light that are USED. But for me they are good for little more then braging rights and with the drain down problem. It's a deal killer.
Click to expand...

All my red tops were not in a Jeep but a DSM. Only ONE was connected to the vehicle while it sat for a while. There really is no other explanation for the death of the other two IMHO other than poor quality. Your experience with a red top is nothing new. Google it and you will find 100's of pages on this crap. More so than any other brand battery I have Googled. Something is up with them. Like I posted earlier whether they have these issues because of their design or QC problems we will never know. Anyway, enough about my experience, I think the OP got the info they needed.
 
One thing that is “up” with us is the volume of batteries we sell, which correlates to the number of conversations about them, both good and bad. While some brands may have thousands of batteries to sell, we have thousands of retailers selling our batteries, making it the most widely-available AGM battery on the market.

We have failures from manufacturing defects, as do all our competitors. However, our percentage of manufacturing defects is exceptionally low, while the number of good, but deeply-discharged batteries returned to us because they were incorrectly thought to be “defective,” is higher than we would like it to be. That's why Optima produced YouTube videos on proper battery maintenance and sent me out to help people with their battery-related issues. “Optima” is also somewhat difficult to spell incorrectly, which helps enhance our presence on search engines.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.powerpacknation.com
 
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