Optima Batteries

[Wnc3]

One thing is for sure: people love them or hate them, no middle ground.

What I like the most is no spills...no corosion.

 

[rsewill]

with the 1912 Model T when I bought it.

Finally a comment on repair shops...

Had my Model A in for some touch-up
...
just have to realize most in the trade have little knowledge of classic cars...

Isn't classic something out of the '50's and '60's? Isn't yours an antique? ;-)

 

[5030]

Over all, I think the purpose for this thread was for me to decide if I wanted to try the Optima battery.
I have heard positive and negative comments, and I did not add up the totals of each, but the negatives to it sure seem to be sky high for such a expensive battery.
I would really liked to have tried one but it is way to expensive a battery for what seems to be such a worthless warranty.

:confused2:

You can buy a whole raft of flooded cell or even AGM batteries for the price of one optima, keep that in mind. Keep in mind roo, that Optima Ed or whatever his name is, is of course positive about Optima batteries, he works for them. I completely discount any of his comments, all worthless.

My BT that crapped the bed and they refused to replace, was replaced by a good old Exide Flooded Cell and it's been chugging along for 4 years now.... at 1/5th the price. Live and learn They are junk and if they aren't but you have an issue sometime, the warranty is junk to.

No brainer for me.

 

[5030]

One thing is for sure: people love them or hate them, no middle ground.

What I like the most is no spills...no corosion.

You can run a Hawker upside down, sideways butt over teakettle, don't matter and they stand behind their product. Go ask a Marine.


..........and , the Optima is vented just like any AGM so it does gas off, I went and looked at the dud in the garage.............

The Hawker is hermetically sealed.

 

[daugen]

Twice I put Optima batteries in my small Scout outboard with a 60 hp Yamaha.
Neither time they made it past one year. I think I know why but this is only a semi-educated guess. I think these batteries are sensitive to charging rate and thrive on modern charging systems that are well regulated. Maintain one of these batteries on a high tech charger, or a good built in system, and if not run all the way down constantly, I bet they will earn their stripes.

Problem is my little outboard has poor regulation, and probably fried the thing when running hour after hour. So the poor performance I believe was due to charging issues and I'm sure at times simple lack of use. But you pay all this money and you think the thing was going to be miraculous and in my experience I burned through two of them faster than I did their predecessors. I paid for one, the other one was a free replacement. no gripes about that, course that means I spent triple the cost and got two years usage. No gripes, just said no more.

Went back to a Deka gel cell and get about three years out of them in the boat, more on land. I try to put a high tech charger on most of my batteries over the winter, when they aren't used much if at all, to get them anti-sulfated and basically fully charged at least once during the winter. Can't always get to all of them, but when I have them inside working on them, I almost always put the charger on. I think the Optima is very high performance but like a Ferrari is a demanding mistress. But that's just my two cents and I'm not a battery engineer for sure. I've reverted back to trying to find the biggest battery that will fit in the space, with the best cca rating and warranty. So far I've been pretty happy with the Napa batteries, but I always buy their best. I see the pretty blue batteries on the shelf and just pass them by now. Wonder if they would be good for solar.

 

[ultrarunner]

Isn't classic something out of the '50's and '60's? Isn't yours an antique? ;-)

Yes... Horseless Carriage and Historical are the two official designation for plates in my State...

Model A's are not really considered classics... just to common. Although, there are the classics of the 1930's... Duesenberg, Peirce Arrows, Cords, Packard, 16 cylinder Cadillacs...

 

[FredH]

Thought about putting Optima's in my Semi , but at the cost and the abuse they suffer from while driving , ( Rough roads like between Sacramento and Stockton or Going over the Grapevine on I-5 ) , I just can't legitimize the expenditure or the risk . My Ram 2500 has one in it , was there when I bought it , still no problems .

My current batteries are similar to the yellow top commercial battery in regards to size and available CCA's . I have used Alliance brand ( freightliner ? ) , Interstate , and Les Schwab house brand , ( regional tire company here in the northwest ) . By far the best success was and has been with the Les Schwab brand made by ??? .

Interstate Batteries : 4 purchased , 2 went bad in less than 8 months .
Highest Priced .

Alliance Brand : Purchased once and previous Truck came with new one's installed . Lasted average of 15 months between 2 sets . Middle priced .

Les Schwab brand : Lifespan between 2 trucks over the last 11 years , ( not counting when other brands were installed ) has been no less than 23 months and high of 37 months in looking back through maintenance records .

Ditto to whoever wrote about getting the biggest battery that will fit . I no longer let anyone sell me " This Battery " since that is what the book says . I measure the battery space and tell them I want this size . My old '84 ford p/u with a 460 gas motor sits for months before I may use it . Go to crank it and it turns over like you just shut it off . It has the same size battery as my Semi does , something like 1000+ CCA's at 32 degrees .

Semi's are extremely hard on batteries mainly due to road conditions , they get the tar beat out of them . But like my Dodge , when the battery goes in my New Holland , I may well look into a Optima .

Fred H.

 

[daugen]

my old boat took 8 8 volt batteries, making up two 32volt banks. Each battery was similar to a 8D and weighed about 160 pounds. It got to be I couldn't lift them any more and had to pay for help. The longest lasting batteries I ever bought were also the heaviest, and I think that's because they were made for trains, to take the constant shaking a train gets. Apparently train diesels have historically used 32V systems to get their big engines started. Very heavy duty connectors, and they weren't much more expensive than Interstates. Which lasted 3 years, maybe four. The train batteries lasted seven years. But I was careful with water levels and all the batteries were charged and maintained by modern chargers.

The real issue is weight. Every pound costs something to haul around. Google Rolls Batteries if you want to see some serious stuff. 10 year life expectancy, but at a big price. So there's some pretty good conventional technology batteries out there that makes we leery of changing.

Though I'm utterly delighted by the improvement Li-Ion tech has made to cameras and rechargeable tools. Wonder what a big Li-Ion battery for the truck would cost? We all spend a great deal of money on batteries in our lives, though at least now we recycle them. I think I remember seeing a
"mil-spec" battery in one of the listings, that likely is built pretty well. Sure hope it's not a double price standard one with a buff job and fancy carry handles...

 

[Tollster]

So what type of charger do I need for an optima battery?

I asked a week or so ago and neverf recieved a reply....i have three...a red top on the tacoma, a blue top in the boat for the troller,and a yeller top in the jeep cj as it sees minimal use...any ideas sine I have close to 600.00 in optima?

I am looking for a specific charger to maintain all of them.

 

[FredH]

This link is to the optima website . Scroll down to review questions and answers about chargers and when or how to charge .

Optima Battery FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions



Fred H.

 

[marcomjl]

Had two red tops on my 2000 F450 when I got it. New about them and thought they were cool. Had charged them a few times not realizing regular charges screw with them and you need a charger that can condition them while charging. This winter they were weak as **** after my truck sat over 24hrs in the cold, had to jump start many times. Two high cca gold batteries from advance autoparts, 3-5 year warranty, for the same price as one red top with 200less cca is good enough for me. Optima's are ok but for my truck, these regular batteries out power the most powerful Optima's.

 

[brokenot]

Had charged them a few times not realizing regular charges screw with them and you need a charger that can condition them while charging.

You shouldn't need a *special* charger according to Optima. From their site:

under normal vehicle starting applications, most regular automatic lead acid battery chargers will properly charge an OPTIMA.

Optima does say if one is deeply discharged, then a different procedure should be used and it's described on their website.

If an OPTIMA is deeply discharged (below 10.5 volts) most basic chargers will not supply a charge.

At any rate, why did the batteries in your F450 need "to be charged a few times"?

I think the charging information Optima provides on their site is valid and appropriate, but once again....having said that....I've never seen one outlast or outperform a traditional battery at anywhere NEAR the rates they claim, other than in the vibratory roller application I mentioned earlier. And with a few hundred pieces of equipment and vehicles in the fleet, we would have noticed.

 

[marcomjl]

You shouldn't need a *special* charger according to Optima. From their site:



Optima does say if one is deeply discharged, then a different procedure should be used and it's described on their website.



At any rate, why did the batteries in your F450 need "to be charged a few times"?

I think the charging information Optima provides on their site is valid and appropriate, but once again....having said that....I've never seen one outlast or outperform a traditional battery at anywhere NEAR the rates they claim, other than in the vibratory roller application I mentioned earlier. And with a few hundred pieces of equipment and vehicles in the fleet, we would have noticed.

All I know is before I used a regular float/trickle charger and regular battery charger, the batteries were fine. But afterwards they held less and less, I even checked it at times with my multimeter.

I don't care what they say if it is deeply discharged, that makes any type of battery lose life.

Batteries needed a charge cause they weren't holding enough power anymore in the cold, after they were weak from regular chargers if it got below 35 degrees they got the power sucked out of them.

Also they are not ideal for any large applications requiring high cca. Optima's max out at 800cca and I got cheap gold batteries for $100 each at 1050cca. Major difference.

 

[daugen]

AGM's seem to be specialized, special purpose batteries for any position, non maintenance, rough condition use. I wonder if they have been cross marketed for "premium" conventional applications where maybe they really don't provide enough added value for their higher price. There was a question about what charger to use. I had the same question myself two weeks ago when I lost confidence in my old Napa charger, which I used to charge my small boat battery and a whole slew of small equipment batteries. It started reading "the same" all the time, and that got me worried, no matter what I connected it to. Ok, time for plan B.

So I did my research and bought a BatteryMinder on Amazon:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Battery-Charger-Maintainer-Desulphator/dp/B000JFLSL6/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1332081392&sr=1-2]Amazon.com: BatteryMINDer Battery Charger / Maintainer with Desulphator - 12 Volt 2/4/8 Amp, Model# 12248: Automotive[/ame]

16 people gave it five stars. And I read all the reviews. Not a big sampling; these products come out with new models pretty often.

I wanted the desulphating process for some of my older batteries. Not even sure that's appropriate for AGM, but basically I bought one of their most expensive fully automatic units and hoped it was smarter than I am.

There's a caveat in the Optima fine print about not all Gel-AGM settings will work. Thanks guys. How about some agreed upon charging standards and build to them, if you can? So one person's high tech charger might work better on AGM and one might work better on Gel, both set the same. This is ridiculous.

So yeah, they have to say "most" chargers will work on their batteries, but how well? Should we really be buying their charger, they have a whole line of them, because the voltage and charging protocols are exactly what their battery needs? This is one reason I have stayed away from AGM; first I didn't need a rough service battery, except in the little boat, which can take a pounding, but a Gel works great. The Optima did not, and I'm sure it's owner error based on bad charging, cooking the battery, or letting it go dead. Second, I have reliably operating(I pretty much know how long they will last) alternatives that last long enough that I am satisfied with their cost/performance or value to me.

Many of us are "afflicted" with wanting the best battery, the best tire, and so forth. You can't trust most manufacturers with "good names" to always build a good product, in this case a battery, because they just don't. Goodyear makes some outstanding tires, and in my experience, some real turkeys in the past. I've found Michelin to be more consistent in overall quality, but I could start a endless back and forth on this that isn't the point.
Optima clearly is a very high quality product. I think in specific applications, and with good charging regulation, and reasonably constant use, they could be exactly what is needed. In this case, I'll pay less, watch the calendar, and at the four year or five year mark, start paying very close attention to the battery. If it's in something I treasure, like my pristine Gravely tractor, I'll buy it a new battery every five years just sort of as a "treat". I know it's stupid, but if you like machinery, you'll understand.


I don't have enough time on the new battery charger to make a comment, other than it was light, well made, and had good leads. Other than that it's an idiot light delight and I'm hoping green is good...

I still think they might make great solar battery banks, because the controllers on those applications are usually high quality and high tech. Most of the combo packages I see include AGM batteries.

 

[marcomjl]

From my experience is this:
Get a good traditional battery, (extra ca and cca doesn't hurt)
Get a cheap trickle/float charger (they are all the same)
Get a digital timer. Attach them all together and set the timer for an hour every day or a few a week.

Set it and forget it. Done. Specially for equipment that sits for months, you'll never have to worry about it.

 

[varmint]

I may be setting myself up for battery trouble, just by saying this, but my 80's Kubota B8200 came with a Walmart heavy duty battery when I bought it, used, in 2001 or so, and the tractor sits way too long between uses... a month would be normal, often longer, and other than hooking it up to a Harbor Freight $5 battery maintainer, nothing is done, and it has worked perfectly. Well, I do check the acid level a couple of times a year, and I have added distilled water if needed.