tom falco

Just me could be wrong??? But hydrogen gas in the passenger compartment KABOOM. A photo is worth a thousand words. Here is my PHOTO!!!

spinya

I have had nothing but good luck with optima. My last red top was given to me for free and I loved it. It was used in my buddies vintage race car for a couple years then he left it sitting under his bench in the garage for a couple years (in texas heat I might ad) then I used it in my truck for 2-3 years before it finally gave up. It wasnt really dead even at that point it just didnt like to sit and not be used. I only drove my truck when I needed to do truck stuff so if it wasnt driven at least once every couple of weeks it would need a jump. Bought a new optima and no issues, and I expect it will serve me well for many years. I think one issue is people dont buy the right one for their personal application. If you are killing the battery completely all the time red top isnt for you, get the yellow top and I bet it would work fine.

notnilc20

OptimaBill or anyone else who may know. My car will have to sit for a little while so I was wondering is it safe to use a regular Battery Maintainer on the RedTop Optima?? Thanks.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Well, this is the first thread that popped up with reference to Optimas, so I'll resurect this one.

My red top optima stranded me again yesterday. My car is listed below, and is a weekend toy. Yesterday was decent, so I decided to take it for a quick sping to pick up a few things at the store. I took off the battery tender (Deltran's), started it up, let the car warm up for 2-3 minutes as I backed the car off the lift, put the ramps in the garage, etc. Then took a 10 minute drive.

Come out of the store 10 minutes later and the car turns over once and the battery is dead. I called my wife, she came and I jump started the car, and drove home. Nothing like sitting in a Kmart parking lot with the hood up to make you feel great.

So I check the voltage when I get home, and it says 12.4V. With the car running, the alternator puts out 14.4-14.6 to the battery, so I know my charging sytem is fine.

This morning I go back out to the garage, check the voltage, and it's 12.3V, go to turn the key, and the motor turns over 1-2 revolutions slowly, and then it's dead.

Like I said, this is the second time in the past month that this has happened to me. I'm not real happy that a battery that is close to $200 has failed on me.

The battery has a 'born on date' of April 2008, so it's less than 5 years old, and has spent it's entire life in my temperature controlled garage. It never gets below 50 degrees or above 80 degrees in there, and again, the car sits with the battery tender attached to it.

I emailed Optima this morning, but I'm certain I'm going to get a 'sorry, we can't help you reply'.

Needless to say, I won't be buying another Optima battery, nor will I let anyone I know buy one either.

OptimaJim

Hey guys, I apologize for the slow responses for this thread. Bill has been staying busy making sure no one is faster than him and his Redneck friends-
joecar, to answer your question, connect a known charged battery in parallel with your deeply-discharged battery and connect either battery to your charger. As Bill mentioned previously, we suggest avoiding “gel” or even “gel/AGM” settings, but any other setting- regular, deep-cycle, AGM, etc... is fine and you can charge at a rate up to 10 amps for about two hours. By that point, your deeply-discharged battery should have been charged enough to disconnect the other battery and charging can then be completed with just the one battery.

tom falco, you are correct about the gas batteries can vent in extreme situations- they are both toxic and flammable. If the battery is in the passenger compartment, it should be properly-vented to the outside air. notnilc20, it is absolutely fine to use just about any lead-acid battery charger or maintainer on our batteries. We don't void our warranty if a pre-approved charger isn't used or anything like that, we just suggest avoiding any setting with “gel” in it.

Brien, I'm sorry to hear about the problem you had with your battery. The voltage you measured when you returned home was likely a surface charge, although if your battery settled at 12.3 volts and you didn't hook it back up to your battery maintainer, that may be where the voltage is resting at this point in the age of the battery. Batteries do tend to sulfate as they age and at 12.4 volts, your battery is more than 40% discharged. Cycling your battery a few times down to about 11.5 volts and fully-recharging it (about 12.6-12.8 volts) at 10 amps may help break up some of that sulfation and restore some performance.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Hey Jim, sorry for the rant. I was more than a little annoyed to say the least. I've done quite a bit of reading, and went ahead and purchased a desulfator, and will see what that does. I'll try your suggestion and drain the battery down to roughly 11.5 volts and then recharge it and see if that helps as well.
Brien

1badWS6

iTrader: (32)

I just lost my red top after 4 years. Took it out of the car to start/finish my build. Put in on charge as soon as I was going to put it back in the car and no dice. Wouldn't hold a charge at all. Not sure what happened but looking back on what I paid in 2007 and the prices now - there's not a chance I'm spending over $200 on a damn battery.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

I'm right there with you 1badWS6. It's discouraging that I spent over $175 on it, and kept it on a battery tender, yet it's dead.

I'm really hoping that desulfating it will bring it back, but I'm not holding my breath.

destroyer1362

I've heard bad things about the red top, but I had one for 2yrs w/ no issues. I wrecked my truck before the battery could finish its life.

OptimaJim

1badWS6, the key in battery maintenance is often how the battery is left when it goes into storage. When batteries are discharged below 12.4 volts and left sitting in that state, sulfation begins to form in the battery, which can diminish both capacity and lifespan. It is possible your battery is just deeply-discharged below the point that your charger would recognize the battery and charge it. If that is the case, the parallel charging technique described in this video may be able to recover your battery-
Brien, please keep me posted on how things work out with your battery. If either one of you guys finds yourself driving to Milwaukee from Chicago (I know that is less likely for Brien), send me a PM.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

See Jim, that's my biggest complaint here. My car sits on my 4-post lift, attched to the Deltran Battery Tender Jr all winter long. During the spring, summer and fall months, I get's driven once a week or so and once it comes home, it's back on the tender. For the entire life of my RedTop, it's been cared for and maintained that way, which is why I'm more than a little dissapointed.

I will update this thread once I get the desulfator and hopefully it will be with good news.

DWake

iTrader: (1)

I am not too sure if interstate had kept the same quality but on my dd I have an 11 year old megatron mt75. It has died twice due to me screwing with my radio for too long without starting the car, but it was jumped and gave me no problems. I'm at the point of just waiting to see how long it will go for.

beyonddisturbed

iTrader: (5)

I have a red top in my t/a. No problems in the last two years and it sits over the winter with no tender. I just put a yellow top in my silverado and no problems so far. I bought them from advance auto with an online discount. The red was like $140 and the yellow was $160.

Bad28

I'm a fan of the red top

demonspeed

iTrader: (7)

I stick with ACDelco. More affordable and has a warranty. It's just starting the vehicle...

1badWS6

iTrader: (32)

I will have to say that my battery was not left on any type of charger. I am happy with how the battery treated me in the duration of its life. I've had it for close to 6 years but was only in the car for about 3 of those years. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new one but the $200+ price tag sways me way far away.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Well, I'm happy to say that I think I might have saved my battery. I picked up an inexpensive desulfator and connected it on Thursday night. As per Jim's instructions, I let the battery discharge down to ~11.48 Volts and hooked up a 10amp charger this morning to my battery. I let the charger sit on the battery for about 5 hours, after which the voltage was back up to ~12.62-12.65V, which it was never getting to before. Before this, after sitting on a tender, the battery would only show a charge of 12.40-12.45V. Might not sound like a lot, but from what I've read, is a good indicator of how many amps the battery is holding.

So I disconnected the charger, and went to start the car, and instantly upon key-on, I could hear my fuel pump kick in stronger. The car fired right up instantly. Ok, no big deal, it did that before while sitting on the tender. So I drove around the block and came back, parked the car in the driveway, shut it off, waited a few seconds, and started it back up instantly.

I put the car back in the garage and back on the lift, and checked the battery again, and it's reading 12.55'ish volts now. Still not where it should be, but it's a positive sign that the desulfator is working. From what I've read, people say it can take upwards of a week or two to fully desulfate a battery. So back on went the desulfator, and back on the battery tender and we'll check the voltage each day.

There may be hope after all.

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

^^^ This is great. I feel a lot better plunking down the cash for my Optima.

Bill and Jim - Thanks for your support here. Things like your participation here really set you apart from your competitors and commodity brokers.

OptimaJim

Thanks wssix99. I mean it when I offered to give you one of our adOPTIMA batteries if you found yourself driving between Chicago and Milwaukee. I'm in Racine, so just shoot me a PM if you're in the neighborhood.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

DeltaElite121

iTrader: (1)

Just bumping/posting for future reference. Going to give a Optima Red a shot in my Camaro. I see the thread is a few months old, but new feedback can't hurt any.