Optima 34r Red Top question

[DavidAlexander]

Hi all,

I recently went to get my 97 out of storage and I realized I didn't disconnect the battery before storing it. It sat for around 3 months and wouldn't start. I checked the battery (a Colorado made Optima 34R that's at least 4 years old) on the multimeter and it came up 6.48 volts. I pulled it and hooked it up to my automatic charger at home and after a few cycles at 6 amps and 4 amps it hasn't got above 7.28 volts.

So the question is, has anyone had success hooking a charged wet battery in parallel (I can pull it from my DD) and then charging to bring the Optima back to life? (At least to 10.5v) Or is it time for a new battery?

I found this technique on the Optima web site and also came across it on a couple sites. It is supposed to work for a severely discharged Optima but I wanted to make sure it was kosh to try.

Thanks!

 

[TheDurk]

Probably toast. My Made in Colorado Optima 34R RedTop only lasted from 7/'06 to 3/'11. And it was never in storage.

So what have you got to lose by trying it?

 

[flatboy]

The only luck I've had bringing a optima to life was using one of those C-tech chargers. I've seen them on the optima web site as well.

 

[kball]

The problem is since the optima is so low the charger doesn't realize the battery is there. That's why hooking up another battery with it allows them both to be charged since it sees the other battery. You might try getting one of those cheap trickle chargers. I doubt it's looking for anything and will just charge whatever you hook it up to.

 

[DavidAlexander]

So far so good

First, thanks for your responses

I hooked up the fully charged battery from my DD in parallel with the 34R, charged it at 6 amps for about an hour and a half, and was surprised to see it at over 11 volts.

Yeah!

Then charged the 34R for another couple hours and it finally read 12.5 volts

Installed the optima, drove for about a half an hour at 50-60 and it was at 12.65v later that day when I checked it again. Started right up the couple trips I have made since so at least for the time being it saved me from buying an odyssey or die hard platinum.

I will make sure to keep the maintainer on it when it sits for more than a couple days at a time.

Will update if anything more happens with this battery but I think it is at least temporarily brought back from the dead.