Thread: optima Battery

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Ok guys battery is dead, its 8 years old, thinking of going optima, pros / cons anybody have opinions.....

A few of us here are Odyssey battery fans. Dry cell rather than gell cell. Lighter, smaller (very nice feature), can mount in any position, and will deep cycle better than the Optima will. To get 8 years you must have been good about keeping a charge on it. They are notorious for not coming back if allowed to become significantly under charged for any length of time.

Another vote for Odyssey, for all the reasons Uncle Bob mentioned.

Mike

I was a bit hesitant to part with the dollars for an Odyssey (sp) but now I have one I will never own a wet cell again. Sits under my dash and never complains just goes and goes and goes. Its a 975cca tin case. Turns over a SBC for ages, via a modern starter of course.
my2c

never tried the odyssey but i do have the optima red and grey. excellent battery. have killed it down several times before i found out i had a bad wire. it came back every time.

Optimas seem to run hot and cold........some people have great luck with them, others don't. My Son Don has an Optima in his T bucket and has to keep a trickle charger on it constantly or it goes dead. I had the Odyssey in my 23 (the smallest they make, 7 x 7 x 3 inches) and it could sit for months and still cranked the 350 Chevy like gangbusters.

I heard a story that Optima moved their plant to Mexico without letting their American employees know they were not training the guys in Mexico to set up a second plant.......it was their jobs they were training them for. Don't know if that is true, but it is enough to keep me from buying one.

Don

i have two optimas they start engines that sit way more then i drive them two times a year and they takes less to start them from sitting more then any other batterys i had over the past 20 years in both cars .both engines are over 500 cid . there may be better batterys out there.but there far from the worst out there . i take one out of the cars in use it in my every day truck in the winter to keep battery happy. i not a big fan of trickle chargers i help take care of the battery room at the boat yard 100s of batterys .it seamed a big joke the ones that were not junk were bad in the spring any thing you want to do they only lasted two years to 3 years if lucky .my optimas are past that with no trickle charger . my cars there on load on them when sitting. but most of the time i unhook them when sitting

I went to optima years ago because the cells were round--the flat plate batteries would fail because of the tire shake and accelleration forces in my drag cars--the round cells solved this issue

And Like Pat, altho not a boat yard I spend some days on battery room duty at United Airlines taking care of battery charging--big deal--lots of acid and current---and the damn door opened inwards instead of outwards so you couldn't get out with acid in your eyes---oh, did I tell you about the acid and your clothes?? even with the rubber aprons, gloves and face shields????

Years ago I worked for a company, food processor, I maintained their batteries for the forklifts, yyyyea, old time chargers, the supervisor then said just keep them charged, they would just cook the 3,000 lbs batteries, acid everywhere...:not to mention the hydrogen gases... LOL:

Back to Optima's - the one in my car is 4+ years old but I do keep a Battery Tender Jr on it when I'm not using the car. I'll probably look at Odyssey's when this Optima goes.

i use a napa brand orbital been in the car since 2001 goes dead winter, charge it up good for spring/summer.

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

I went to optima years ago because the cells were round--the flat plate batteries would fail because of the tire shake and accelleration forces in my drag cars--the round cells solved this issue

And Like Pat, altho not a boat yard I spend some days on battery room duty at United Airlines taking care of battery charging--big deal--lots of acid and current---and the damn door opened inwards instead of outwards so you couldn't get out with acid in your eyes---oh, did I tell you about the acid and your clothes?? even with the rubber aprons, gloves and face shields????

we would up load all them batteries out of the boats then up on racks check owners name look at them so they were not dry hook them all up and run like hell never had one blow up but there were big white spots on the floor and water was 1/4 mile a way at that time the we knew who made good battery and who did not at that time the marine ac delco were the better of many

Pat

so in a marina---take the batteries out of the boat, put on a rack and hook up a charge????This I guess was in around November???How cold was that water after a 440 dash???? and did you jump in head first? or feet first????

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Pat

so in a marina---take the batteries out of the boat, put on a rack and hook up a charge????This I guess was in around November???How cold was that water after a 440 dash???? and did you jump in head first? or feet first????

no most of the time you needed the batterys to fog the engines up so it was on trailer or on a lift.if your asking if i was in the water that would be yes . no we started to rack and stack boats at the end of july by november we were just about done .it been some time but a two man crew i think we prep out over five boats a day EZ.one of the last thing was put the batteries away

As pops stated, the Optima redtop in my t bucket was constantly found dead after sitting 30 days or so. I do have a small battery tender on it and never ever have a problem now. I just installed an Optima Redtop in my ZO6 Vette 2 weeks ago. That car sits under a cover alot and so far so good. I think the key is either driving them as much as possible OR keeping a tender on them at all times.

My boat has 3 batteries (2 group 24 starting and 1 group 27 deep cycle) I keep a tender on them at all times and they are good to go EVERY time I hit the key now (including the deep cycle house battery) These are all flooded, old style batteries.

I say drive them or put a tender on them.
Don Jr.