Optima...YAY or NAY!?

[chicago]

Starting to think about WHERE and HOW to mount a battery for my 40.
Im considering getting a mohave heater, 86ing the stock heater MONSTROSITY and mounting my battery in its location on the fire wall.
Seems that optimas can be mounted in basically any direction cuz its a dry cell, but I was wondering what eveyone's opinion is on these batteries.

Good
Bad
Ugly

Lots of folks seem to use em, Ive heard some complaints re. longevity?

What say ye?

 

[fjfodee]

From what I've seen they are good batteries. I've owned an Exide brand gell cell for almost six years with no trouble. As for longevity, lots of variables in play there.

 

[woody]

I've got 3 in service right now, zero complaints...Red in the 40, and a Red primary/Yellow secondary in the 80.

my 40 was parked at a buddies shop over the winter...outside...had to stop by in mid-February to unload it off the trailer it was parked on...despite sitting for a couple months in WI cold, 3 flat tires and the interior full of snow, it started...not happily, but the battery did it's job.

 

[Taildragon]

I have a red top in my 4runner that is 8yrs old, doesnt get trickle charged during the winter and starts everytime! Just my experience so far.

hell it outlasted my 3vz, although thats not saying much

 

[fj40charles]

Personally, I will never buy an Optima battery again. I'm using Odyssey batteries now. More expensive, but should last much longer.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I have a 4 y/o blue top in my 60. Has been awesome, more than enough power to start the truck in 0* weather when there's still summer 20w-50 in the motor.

 

['74 UA FJ]

I've had a red top in my 40 for at least 7 years. It has been great. However, when I added a winch recently, it doesn't seem to be able to keep up. I'm probably going to go with an Odyssey next.

 

[Gumby]

I wouldn't buy another Optima for my wheeling rig. Too much time between good slow charges. They don't like fast charging and I end up having to jump it, move it , jump it, move it too often. Gets good and charged 8-10 times a year. The rest of the time it gets abused.

I park it in my shop and have to move it out of the way a lot. YMMV.

 

[js93cruiser]

i have a friend who works at batteries plus, and he said since they started making them in mexico, their return's have gone through the roof, there not made like there used to, he reccomends either odyssey, or the "x2" they only use odysseys in military vehicles so they have to be good!

 

[4rnr]

Both of my yellow tops worked pretty good for a year, then bit the dust. I still used the second one for a couple years....I just dealt with the fact that I couldnt roll up all my windows

My truck doesnt sit for long periods of time either.

I just did my battery shopping last week (I have a thread on Pirate about it). At first I wanted an XS power D925, but at the last minute had cold feet about the idea of a mail order/warranty battery. I knew the Odysseys were the best but I wasnt going to spend $250-350 on a battery, and still only have mail order support. So I ended up with a Die Hard Platinum P-5, which is an Odyssey (all the platinums are the same thing as the odysseys) but for $200 and a 4 year replacement warranty and then a 5 year pro-rate (9 years total). I grabbed it off the shelf at sears, plopped it in the truck and all kinds of things (windows especially) started working again.

Other batteries I was considering were:

-XS power D925 (great but see above)
-Exide Orbital (seems to be the same as an optima but with out the recent drop in quality, but hard to find)
-Deka intimidator (has a hard core following, and I found them rebadged at o'reilleys for 139 with a 3 year replacement and then pro rate, Id be running that but the post configuration is wrong me.)

 

[Gumby]

i have a friend who works at batteries plus, and he said since they started making them in mexico, their return's have gone through the roof, there not made like there used to, he reccomends either odyssey, or the "x2" they only use odysseys in military vehicles so they have to be good!

The military only uses things that are good? Have you heard of the HMMWV?

 

[2everest]

If you can find a good one. Seems like half of the optimas out there are bad. Plenty of returns for me, but the replacements have been fine. I have dual yellows in the sd, they went bad about six months later. Got replacements and they cranked the diesel perfect all winter. They also have decent warranties.

-J

 

[cruiser88]

The old ones was awesome, the 3 red tops I had blowed, all 3 came dead.

You cannot give them a high amp boost, you can only for the most part use a trikle/slow amp charge. They used(recent when everybody was pro-rating) to have the worst warrenty in the biz until last week when a whole line of Johnson control battery's went the same route. Johnson/Optima says they will not take back a battery under 10 volts(cough cough bull**** cause thy will) ...period I sent them back a whole damn display 2 weeks ago to my DC cause each and every damn one was under 10 volts if not dead.
They are great cause they can be moved/located in any postion, they are tough as far as the exterior.

 

[poor boy pulling]

i only run optimas for wheeling, had pretty good luck with them, my first red top died about 3 years old buy my cruiser had a slow drain so it killed it over winter, the others ive had have been good and they come with a 3 year free replacement and 72 month prorate. i can get you a deal if you go that route as well.

 

[jefishing]

I love that you are about 2 weeks ahead of everthing I seem to do. I was just looking at the 40 while I was sanding wondering the same thing as far as battery placement. I think I might try and pab up a mount where the orginal one kinda was. I will reuse the heater more than likely.

 

[js93cruiser]

The military only uses things that are good? Have you heard of the HMMWV?

yes....there great for absolutly nothing

 

[Gumby]

One nice thing about optimas is that they don't vent gasses like a liquid acid battery so they mount nice in the cab. Woody has his under the driver seat of the Raisin. Don't try that with a liquid battery. Rollovers will be unpleasant.

 

[js93cruiser]

One nice thing about optimas is that they don't vent gasses like a liquid acid battery so they mount nice in the cab. Woody has his under the driver seat of the Raisin. Don't try that with a liquid battery. Rollovers will be unpleasant.

x2 i will never go with another liquid battery after my roll over, the caps blew off and i got acid all over my face and clothes

 

[4rnr]

I think everyone is refering to AGM batteries in this thread. No tradional leaky lead acid batt's.

 

[Tapage]

Honestly I'm not a huge fan of optimas .. I loke Exide and AC Delco ( which IMOP it's the best battery that I ever had ) but if I need to buy a optima it would be a blue top light grey case ..

Funny, I'm running yelow top right now in my 80 and it's doing the job ..