jeepmanjr
New member
Old thread, but...
I have four yellow top dual-purpose Optimas. Two in my Jeep and one in my Rhino to run lights, etc. They're coming up on three years old and no problems yet. I have a fourth that I used to float charge with a large regulated DC power supply (as a backup for power outages) to run some communications hardware, but have since removed it. I plan on putting that in my FX24D tomorrow.
FYI, I use a Schumacher battery charger that has an AGM mode on all my Optimas every month or so. The charger will also automatically desulfate a battery if that's a problem.
Some fellas have complained about short life spans with the yellow tops. They are dual purpose batteries, but deep cycle nevertheless. Sometimes these batteries will appear to be totally dead and the charger will not even attempt to charge it. AGM's are susceptible to very deep discharge rendering them nonchargeable for regular ol' analog chargers - that's by design to protect the charger. Never deep-6 a "dead" AGM battery until you've first tried to resuscitate it with an AGM specific charger. If all you have is an analog charger, try connecting the "bad" Optima to a second good battery in parallel (+ to +, - to -). THEN connect your analog charger to the good battery. That should fool it into charging the dead one. Just keep an eye on the dead batt for rising temperatures. If the dead batt gets hot and/or vents, immediately disconnect. Once the Optima reaches about 10.5 volts or so you should be able to directly connect your charger to it.
I watched a friend regularly abuse a red top while running a winch in his Jeep. He actually smoked the cables on one occasion! That battery lasted for years. I love my Optima batteries. I hope this helps someone.
I have four yellow top dual-purpose Optimas. Two in my Jeep and one in my Rhino to run lights, etc. They're coming up on three years old and no problems yet. I have a fourth that I used to float charge with a large regulated DC power supply (as a backup for power outages) to run some communications hardware, but have since removed it. I plan on putting that in my FX24D tomorrow.
FYI, I use a Schumacher battery charger that has an AGM mode on all my Optimas every month or so. The charger will also automatically desulfate a battery if that's a problem.
Some fellas have complained about short life spans with the yellow tops. They are dual purpose batteries, but deep cycle nevertheless. Sometimes these batteries will appear to be totally dead and the charger will not even attempt to charge it. AGM's are susceptible to very deep discharge rendering them nonchargeable for regular ol' analog chargers - that's by design to protect the charger. Never deep-6 a "dead" AGM battery until you've first tried to resuscitate it with an AGM specific charger. If all you have is an analog charger, try connecting the "bad" Optima to a second good battery in parallel (+ to +, - to -). THEN connect your analog charger to the good battery. That should fool it into charging the dead one. Just keep an eye on the dead batt for rising temperatures. If the dead batt gets hot and/or vents, immediately disconnect. Once the Optima reaches about 10.5 volts or so you should be able to directly connect your charger to it.
I watched a friend regularly abuse a red top while running a winch in his Jeep. He actually smoked the cables on one occasion! That battery lasted for years. I love my Optima batteries. I hope this helps someone.
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