Optima

[bronco-billy-66]

I bought a "reconitioned" yellow top from the local Interstate battery store. I don't know what "reconditioned" means, other than they pulled all the stickers off, but it was only $20. I'm not sure how old it is but Ive been running it for about 6 years. Zero problems.

 

[Bituman]

Red top, no issues.

Bob

 

[DirtDonk]

Interesting to hear the several comments here on how fast their Optimas discharge, even when just sitting disconnected. I've never experienced anything like that. Newer Optima or old.
I've had 3 Blue Tops sitting on my garage floor for over three years and, with no re-charge, each one started the car right up when finally installed.
Friend has a 10 year old Red Top he just put in his Bronco after the EFI conversion and, after a quick top-off charge, has been cranking away faithfully for over a month now, while we test the new electrical system and mess around with things.
Another friend had the same experience with a pair of Yellow Tops. They sat in his Bronco (disconnected but in the Bronco still) for 2 1/2 years while the Bronco sat. No charging, no maintenance, not even opening up the hood in that time. When we hooked up the main to start the engine, we thought we'd have to at least charge it first. Nope. Had just enough to crank and start. Granted, it was down slightly and cranking semi-slowly, so any more than a minimal start time might have taken it below the threshold, but they were still high enough to work.
I know all batteries discharge while sitting, so theoretically they should not have lasted that long, but so far I'm 7 for 7 with Optimas not only holding their charge, but a couple of them have even come back from the dead too, with just a little finesse.

Yellows were purchased about 3 years go, so should be the "new" versions. Blues about 5. Reds back in the stone age. So I'm considering myself lucky, and crossing my fingers. I'll buy again until I run afoul of the problems that many seem to be facing.

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

I bought a "reconitioned" yellow top from the local Interstate battery store. I don't know what "reconditioned" means, other than they pulled all the stickers off, but it was only $20. I'm not sure how old it is but Ive been running it for about 6 years. Zero problems.

Now THAT's some bang-for-the-buck!
Maybe "reconditioned" simply meant it was past it's shelf-age and couldn't be sold as new any longer? Don't know, but a similar thing happen to me once, when they forgot to rotate one of the Exide spiral-core blue-tops at a Kragen store. Got that sucker for 24 bucks and it worked great till I sold the truck.
Been keeping my eyes open for a similar deal ever since.

Paul

 

[bronco-billy-66]

Now THAT's some bang-for-the-buck!
Maybe "reconditioned" simply meant it was past it's shelf-age and couldn't be sold as new any longer? Don't know, but a similar thing happen to me once, when they forgot to rotate one of the Exide spiral-core blue-tops at a Kragen store. Got that sucker for 24 bucks and it worked great till I sold the truck.
Been keeping my eyes open for a similar deal ever since.

Paul

Well I know it wasn't new. It had been used. The post had been clamped on,hell I remember them giving me a 30 day warranty too;D.Somebody probably brought it back dead, thought it was a bad battery but had another issue. Been a good one for me.It just sits,allot.. I would buy another one, IF this one ever dies

 

[JW]

got a red top, no issues in three years...

has another red top in piece of equipment that went forever..

we'll see what happens. got good pricing on the odysseys jic

 

[matt w]

I have a Red Top Optima that is WELL OVER 10 years old!...No problems ever;D

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

Dollar for dollar the Deka Intimidator is the best value in AGM batteries by a long shot. The Odyssey PC1500 (Also relabelled Sears Platinum) is the best battery though. It is just a lot more expensive for a little bit better.
In 6 years of Intimidators I have had less warranties totalled than in any one month of selling Optimas. I would never recommend one to anyone.

 

[Apogee]

I agree with Ray. Bang for the buck, the DEKA Intimidator is a great product offered by a great company. Hawker, the manufacturer of the Odyssey batteries is also a great company, but slightly more money. I went through 3 Optima red tops in almost as many years (kept getting free replacements) and finally decided it wasn't worth it and bought an Odyssey PC1500 through Sears and haven't had a problem since.

 

[OptimaJim]

Hello, I noticed your conversation regarding our batteries and wanted to offer some assistance. The quality of our batteries has always been excellent and has continued to improve, since Johnson Controls acquired Optima in 2000. We still manufacture all of our own batteries in our own facility and they are the only batteries made there. We never re-brand or re-spec our batteries for anyone.

As bronco-billy-66 probably found out, many of the “bad” batteries returned to us now are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly recharged. Many battery chargers will not recognize or charge any battery that has been discharged below 10.5 volts and some manufacturers will void the warranty on batteries discharged below 10 volts. Optimas can be recovered with those chargers, by using the parallel charging technique described in this video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIoaL3DWWEg

Although RedTops offer plenty of cranking amps, they are not designed or warrantied for deep-cycle applications. So, if you are running a winch, fridge or other significant accessories, a YellowTop is a better option.

bad 68, if your dual YellowTops are discharging in about a month, you might have a parasitic draw, that is discharging your batteries. They typical key-off load on a vehicle is about 25 milliamps. If a key-off load exceeds 100 milliamps, we suggest reviewing the electrical system and wiring, especially the grounds.

If your vehicle is not driven daily, a battery tender or maintainer is a great investment, which will help extend the life of your batteries, regardless of brand. Batteries spend their entire existence either charging or discharging. When they are allowed to sit and discharge for extended periods of time, sulfation begins to diminish both performance and lifespan. Maintaining voltage of at least 12.4 volts at all times, will go a long way toward extending useful battery life. If you have any questions about our batteries, I’ll do my best to answer them.

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

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

OptimaJim,
I have a couple of questions for you, and they are very biased as I was once a Distributor. But you have made the insertion that the quality of your batteries have always been excellent. so here you go:

1.) Why do your advertisments no longer promote your batteries having 99.9% pure lead? Was there a change? What is the difference between using pure lead and not using pure lead?

2.) How much weight was reduced in the Red, Yellow, and Blue Top batteries between prior to JC owndership and now? I think it was 6lbs, but I could be wrong? Where did that weight reduction come from? What does that mean to the performance of the battery?

3.) What was your warranty return rate in 2001, 2005, and 2009? What was the conclusion as the root cause of the warranty return rate increase?

4.) Where is your manufacturing facility located? Do your batteries have NAFTA certificates?

Hope you dont take these questions totally wrong. I hope you have started to improve your product like Interstate did. I am not a big fan of that type of business model. But if you improve your product, then it will keep others from slipping quality. So it woiuld be a good thing.

 

[Steve]

Well that's interesting. There are far too many stories over the last few years of bad Optimas and Optimas not lasting nearly as long as they used to for it to be completely untrue. I'd have a lot of respect for a manufacturer that admitted quality had dropped for whatever reason, but that it had been recognized and was being fixed. To simply ignore all the stories and say there's never been any kind of drop in quality? Nope, I don't believe it for a second.

 

[willtel]

Interesting to hear the several comments here on how fast their Optimas discharge, even when just sitting disconnected. I've never experienced anything like that. Newer Optima or old.
I've had 3 Blue Tops sitting on my garage floor for over three years and, with no re-charge, each one started the car right up when finally installed.
Friend has a 10 year old Red Top he just put in his Bronco after the EFI conversion and, after a quick top-off charge, has been cranking away faithfully for over a month now, while we test the new electrical system and mess around with things.
Another friend had the same experience with a pair of Yellow Tops. They sat in his Bronco (disconnected but in the Bronco still) for 2 1/2 years while the Bronco sat. No charging, no maintenance, not even opening up the hood in that time. When we hooked up the main to start the engine, we thought we'd have to at least charge it first. Nope. Had just enough to crank and start. Granted, it was down slightly and cranking semi-slowly, so any more than a minimal start time might have taken it below the threshold, but they were still high enough to work.
I know all batteries discharge while sitting, so theoretically they should not have lasted that long, but so far I'm 7 for 7 with Optimas not only holding their charge, but a couple of them have even come back from the dead too, with just a little finesse.

Yellows were purchased about 3 years go, so should be the "new" versions. Blues about 5. Reds back in the stone age. So I'm considering myself lucky, and crossing my fingers. I'll buy again until I run afoul of the problems that many seem to be facing.

Paul

My experience has been almost the opposite.

I started using Optimas about ten years ago because I liked the packaging and the fact they can never spill. I guess about 5-6 years ago I noticed that they became very needy and would discharge unless they were used often. In the past three years I have replaced two. One was a red top that was in my Porsche when I bought it that died 4 months after I bought the car. I replaced it with an Odyssey and I haven't thought about it since. That car is picky with power and won't start unless the battery is really fresh.

I bought a yellow top for my Bronco because I was planning a winch and despite the Bronco never being driven with it I have replaced it once. All I used it for was to test the wiring harness and the initial startup of my engine when I got it wired. Any time I try to use it I need to nurse it back to health with a charger before it will do anything, one day it wouldn't even take a charge so I had to return it for a new one. The replacement is no different, I don't leave it connected and it still needs to be hit with a charger before it will even think of turning over the engine. My Bronco is nearly on the road now and I will give the yellow top a shot but at the first sign of it being anything but perfect I am dumping it and I will get another Odyssey. I'm done with Optima and their constant need for nursing, I shouldn't have to leave a trickle charger connected just because it isn't used daily.

OptimaJim posted these instructions on another forum for charging a discharged Optima, this isn't something I want to deal with when I just want to start my car with my $100+ battery.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/pors...echarge-deeply-discharged-optima-battery.html

 

[hartbronco]

I had dual red tops that lasted ten years. Then swiched to yellow tops. They do have more reserve.
Opitimas will discharge from just sitting. And it only takes about a month. Thats my biggest gripe. But if you use them regularly they pack a lot of amps and never leak all over your nice engine compartment.

DiDo on that . Got two Reds and I love them . I can winch all day with no problems ,going on 5.5 years now .

 

[76 bronco J]

>>>>> OptimaJim the e-care manager is on many websites providing "techinal information & assistance"....... maybe another reason for being everywhere is the head honcho's of the Johnson Controls marketing department noticed a growing lack of consumer confidence in the product & sent him on a mission to join every website.............

 

[Apogee]

Ray's questions are all valid ones deserving answers, but good luck with that. I can say that my old Red top weight about 5.5# more than my new ones did. My old Red top lasted about 11 years and while it didn't want to hold a charge near the end, I couldn't have asked for more from a battery manufactured over a decade ago.

Regardless of the quality arguments either way, I'll make another argument to run a standard rectangular cell battery like the DEKA Intimidators and Hawker Odyssey products versus a spiral cell. Power density. If you're running winches, lights, accessories, etc, the more power density the better. Volumetrically speaking, you can only pack a six-pack so tight with round cells, so all of the voids between the cells is just wasted, unused space since the size of the battery is determined by various automotive battery standards. That said, a more conventional design AGM battery only has the inter-cell dividers in the battery box dividing adjacent cells and the only "voids" in the battery are for the straps and inter-cell welds at the top of the battery case under the lid. Just my $.02 for what it's worth.

 

[sprdv1]

All comes down to a matter of opinion.. good or bad, I reckon

 

[RRRAAAYYY2]

All comes down to a matter of opinion.. good or bad, I reckon

Some opinions are based on one or two applications/batteries. Others are based on 100's, 1000's, of batteries and applications.

 

[StnePny]

Since I'm working on my truck & battery shopping I learn quite a bit and I think I know which way I'll go.

But, like everything else on a forum it's always apples to oranges

You will always have, "I like this' or 'I had good luck with this"

RRRAAAYYY, has some good points, hopefully we will get the answers to those questions, since they are to Optima Jim, I will let me take care that

Doing ' my homework ' I have many of the answers to those questions and the others I needed to make my choose

Why do you buy a battery are you buying the name or the performance of what it does. Are you buying it for the high CCA's vs the high Deep Cycle, the high CCA's vs the Recovery or the high Deep Cycle vs the Recovery Time. Most Battery's offer one or the other not both or all.

Doing some homework it seems AGM batteries do need a different or added help for recharing. Odyssey's work better with their brand charger. Just like RRRAAAYYY says OptimaJim tells you how to charge an Optima (fully - charge)

Is Optima a bad battery - No.

Does Optima use Virgin Lead - No

Is Optima made in the USA anymore - No

Is Optima as heavy as it was before - No

Do all AGM Batteries cost the same - No

If everybody is on the Sprial-Wound Gel-Cel wagon how come nobody talks about Exide ?



How come price was never brought up, does the one that cost more any better ?

Does the one that weighs more are better (way do the weigh more) ?


Does anyone remember Faradane ( the first Epoxy-Plate Gel-Cel Battery ) before the Optima came out ?

 

[broncobliss]

I'm running a blue top in mine, bomber through the summer, but it does loose it's charge during the winter. Had it for 4 years now without complaint.