Optima batteries

I'm a little surprised nobody has mentioned Odyssey batteries - gel filled, mount them any way except upside down, way smaller than Optima and I have had great results with them. I do however make sure not to let them completely discharge.

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/

 

I had one but It didn't live up to the hype. Sorry just my thought. Hearing good things about odessey though.

 

Sears Platinum I Battery. Checked all the other brands but when it got down to Specs, Cost, warrantee and the fact that there's a Sears close to anywhere I'm going to be, this was the winner.

Terry

 

I have had Optimas for about 10 years now.The 1st lasted 5 years.The 2nd about 2 years.Advance covered it 100% under warranty.Got new one home would not even turn lights on.All of this on the eve of Columbus Goodguys.Brought it back got another and it lasted 1 year.I'm Done.Switched to Power Gen XS batteries.So far so good.I mainly use AGM batteries for paint protection and non-corrosive properties

 

got two in my tow rig going on 12+ years now and one in my camaro for about the same amount of time. I keep a battery tender (from k-mart) on them when they are parked and have yet to have a problem. just have to properly charge them if they go low from use or sitting. anything under 10 volts and you will have to attach a lead acid battery to them with a regular charger to get them back up to par.

 

I had one in my 40 ford for 9+ years. It failed just over a year ago after I killed it by leaving the dome light on for 3 days. I replaced it with a new Optima, so far so good. I'll keep you posted......

 

I think the Optima batteries are just to big and never fit my battery trays. After reading this thread, I think I'll stay with the good old acid batteries. I use a Battery Tender on my cars and it keeps the charge up great. I believe battery Tenders are good insurance and a good product. My regular batteries with the Battery Tender will last from seven to ten years, batteries don't close that much so, I can't see the extra money for the Optima battery.
O.k., time to charge up that dead battery.

CRUISER

 

We use optimas in our dirt track cars. They survive without an alternator for the entire race night. The only ones we have had fail were crushed from race contact or have exploded from being overcharged (Brother-in-Law). I have one in my daily and my model A. Work well but definitely not what they used to be when we first started running them. The 6 volts are about the same. I got a 6V paperweight in the shop right now.

If they go dead they can be brought back. A shop I utilize for the oilfield equipment I used to service brought one back from beyond dead somehow. It was dated 2000 and this was back in 2008. It was dead about a month. Had another dated 1998 that sat in an old retired race car for 7 years. I had to torch the bolts on the holddown because they rusted solid. Took it in to the shop and charged right up. We got another 2 seasons outta it until it was crushed in a rollover.

I am looking for an aternative now though since the last new one exploded on trickle charge overnight. We have had the same battery charger since we started racing in 1991 and this is the first Optima to ever explode. It was new a year ago then it just popped one night.-Weeks

 

i have had good and bad luck with the 12-V but i will tell you this i bought a 6-v when they first came out and that thing thing sits on the shelf for a very long time and all i do is throw it on the charger when i need it and it charges right up. i just used it last week on my brothers 47 chev with 6-v and it fired right up.

 

I have had the same experience.

We ran them in dirt modifieds with very hot MSD ignition, and they would last through a 25 lap feature and still have plenty of juice to crank a hot 19:1 race engine if I happened to loop the car.

We replaced them every season (just as a matter of maintenance), so consequently, most everything around here that uses standard sized automotive 12V batteries has one in it.

Sometime around 2002 or so, the local Interstate Batteries guy started stocking an Interstate brand coiled plate gel cell (just like the Optima, looks like a shrink wrapped six pack of soup cans). They were about 30% cheaper than the Optimas, and boasted a few more cranking amps (I want to say 975 amps, but I could be FOS on that, it's been a while).

The Interstate's worked just as well, so I have several of those in service around and about too.

I've had both Optimas and Interstates go stone dead on me, and a single good charge always brought them back to life.

Now that I think about it, I have never had one of them go bad on me, in near 15 years of using them. I'd estimate I have between 15 and 25 of them around here, about evenly split between the Optima and the Interstate, and they're all still running strong.

The gel cell is something you can't really go without in an oval track car, especially on the dirt. The vibration will kill a wet cell battery in 3-5 races. I actually had a brand new Exide wet cell short out on me in the middle of a race. Wet cells just won't stand the vibration. They seem to like vibration even less than they like being frozen. The gel cells don't seem to care much about either.

 

Another thing I noticed is that the case sizes have changed over the years also. They have gotten smaller out here on the west coast. I do not know about anywhere else, this might be a POS California law restriction or something as to size. I do not know but found it interesting none the less.-Weeks

 

FYI the interstate battery was just a re-labeled optima. johnson controls is the parent company for both.

 

I had a red top in my race car, it ****ped out after 6 months. I figured is was defective. They gave me a new one. That lasted 4 years and suddenly ****ped out in the staging lanes right before a final round last season. Cost me a chance at a win. Repalced it with a yellow top. That ****ped out in the lanes after one year during the first round at the Funny Car Reunion. I got a jump to make the round but the car got too hot and ran slow and I lost. The store did get me a full refund and it was 2 months out of the warranty, was 14 months old. My hat's off to the store. Bought a $75.00 Wal Mart battery with 925 cold cranking amps. So far so good and it has a 3 year warranty. I think I'm just going to buy a brand new Wal Mart battery every spring and be done with battery issues. I will then have fresh batteries forever for my street rod and Nova wagon. I will however never buy an Optima again.

 

kid is 100 percent correct.
i work for a parts store and optima sent us a bulletin telling us this is the correct method of recharging an optima battery.
once it gets below a certain voltage a conventional charging method wont work

 

1) Johnson controls makes this battery?


2) Can anyone recommend a good deep cycle battery for an unrelated, non-automotive project of mine?