Granite Grinder, as our video indicated, our production facility is located in Monterrey, Mexico. Greg_B, I appreciate your comments and hope I am able to assist anyone who may have questions or concerns about our products.
Wheelingnoob, did you use any sort of battery tender or maintainer on either the Supra or Maserati? I cannot comment as to whether there is any mechanical benefit to periodically starting a stored vehicle, but batteries are generally better off if they are stored with some sort of battery maintainer or at the very least, fully-charged and disconnected. When stored vehicles are periodically started, unless the vehicle is driven for a long enough amount of time, the alternator may not be able to replace the energy used to start the vehicle.
Mat R., I'm glad to hear your new batteries are performing well for you. I wish I could climb into the heads of retailers and understand the reasoning behind some of the recommendations they make. I'm not familiar with your particular retailer (we have tens of thousands of retailers), but I know many of the “bad” batteries returned to us from retailers are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly recharged. I have heard about the Overland Journal article you mentioned and frankly, even from what you mentioned, I am disappointed to hear they would select a RedTop for their testing instead of a YellowTop, especially considering their readership and the other batteries used in their comparison.
RedTops are great starting batteries and are more than enough for the vast majority of vehicles on the road. However, as I previously mentioned, they are not designed or warrantied for deep-cycle use. It is my understanding that at least two of the other batteries used in that test were designed for deep-cycle use, which makes any comparison an apples to oranges comparison, just based on that fact alone. Since I don't have the article I cannot verify this, but from what I've been able to find online, it seems as if they didn't even use identical battery group sizes for their testing (we don't manufacture a Group 24 battery).
I would like to assume OJ sourced their batteries directly from unsuspecting retailers, although having worked in the magazine business for more than ten years, I know many of the products tested by magazines come straight from the manufacturer. We once tested a “bone-stock” 1999 Z28 that ran 12s. Our driver, Evan Smith, is one of the best shoes in the business, but that Camaro was from GM's press fleet and I never saw another bone-stock fourth gen F-body run 12s.
Perhaps the toughest thing for any magazine to test is long-term durability, but that might be the most relevant test for many readers. How does a magazine put batteries in identical, real-world conditions and see which one lasts the longest? Even if they figure that out, no magazine wants to wait on a comparison test that may go on for five to ten years and be a technologically moot point by the time it is concluded. It looks like you are getting into the magazine business and I hope that if you decide to do comparison tests, that you structure them carefully and fairly and without concern for advertising interests (either before or after the tests are published).
Testimonials like Brad R's are great news for any manufacturer, but the truth is, lots of people abuse their batteries (and vehicles in general). When a product stands up to the abuse, everyone is happy and great marketing is created. When the products don't live up to what can sometimes be unrealistic expectations, the complaints tend to focus on the effect, rather than the cause. One of the biggest challenges I deal with is trying to help the guy who thinks our batteries are garbage, because he went through three in a single day, especially when a dozen other folks have already responded and none have questioned whether there might be some other issue causing his batteries to fail.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
Optima Batteries | Facebook
. Equally impressive (and correct me if I'm wrong) is the fact that Optimas are manufactured in the US, this alone would sway me to buy Optimas again. 
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