Thoughts on a Battery...

[t4r4life]

sears die hard is the only battery i will buy. they are not that expensive consider how good they are. you can buy a turd at 69 bucks or you can get a gem at 220 its your choice lol

 

[TNRunner99]

I'm on my second optima yellow top. My first one lasted for years with running PIAA fogs. It only died cause my starter was going bad and draining it. New one is running strong.

 

[beerstash]

Heard that about the red top Optima's but I've got the yellow top for 3.5 years now no issues whatsoever. Before that, I had the NAPA equivalent of the yellow top and ran all kinds of accessories- 5 100W lights, and a slew of audio equipment with no issues in my full size Bronco.

 

[OptimaJim]

Hello, I noticed your conversation involving our products and wanted to offer some assistance. BrianSD_42, you are absolutely correct. Not everyone who sells our batteries online is authorized to do so. Unauthorized retailers may not offer any warranty service on any batteries they sell and some sell a wide variety of brands, so it is good to find out what a retailer's warranty service policy is before buying any battery.

kball, if your friend replaced three batteries in as many years (the original and two Kirkland replacements), he probably had a non-battery electrical issue causing his problems, which could've been something as simple as a poor ground connection or a parasitic draw that was discharging his battery. The chances of anyone getting three legitimately bad batteries in a row in that timeframe from any reputable manufacturer are so remote, they might as well spend their money on lottery tickets.

While many folks use the terms “gel” and “AGM” interchangeably, they are in fact two very different technologies. As such, “gel” or even “gel/AGM” charger settings should not be used on non-gel batteries, as they may not fully-charge them and could damage them over time.

The quality of our batteries has always been excellent and the batteries we are producing today are the best we have ever made. We still manufacture all of our own products in our own facility and they are the only batteries made there. We never re-label or re-spec any of our batteries for our retail partners and even though more AGM batteries are now using recycled lead, we have always used 99.99% pure lead.

Many of the “bad” batteries returned to us under warranty now are just deeply-discharged and work fine, once properly-recharged. This is not an issue unique to Optima. In fact, other brands have dealt with it by simply voiding their warranty if their batteries are found to be discharged below a specific voltage level. We didn't do that with our warranty, but we did create this YouTube video, which explains how to recover deeply-discharged batteries- Tech Tips 3: How do I recover a deeply-discharged battery? - YouTube

We now have so many of these batteries, that we've started an adOptima program, where we recharge them and give them away to racers in the Chumpcar World Series. If anyone has any questions about our products, I'll do my best to answer them.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
OPTIMA® Batteries (optimabatteries) on Pinterest

 

[kball]

kball, if your friend replaced three batteries in as many years (the original and two Kirkland replacements), he probably had a non-battery electrical issue causing his problems, which could've been something as simple as a poor ground connection or a parasitic draw that was discharging his battery. The chances of anyone getting three legitimately bad batteries in a row in that timeframe from any reputable manufacturer are so remote, they might as well spend their money on lottery tickets.

While many folks use the terms “gel” and “AGM” interchangeably, they are in fact two very different technologies. As such, “gel” or even “gel/AGM” charger settings should not be used on non-gel batteries, as they may not fully-charge them and could damage them over time.

Thanks for jumping in Jim.

My friend had two bad Kirkland batteries. These were after his original lasted a normal amount of time. He may very well have had an issue though. All I know is he hasn't told me his Optima died yet so...?

I use gel and AGM interchangeably because I'm not aware of an AGM battery that does not use gel inside. Is there one? I was just trying to differentiate between regular juice/water/slosher/ corroding batteries and gel, don't corrode types.

 

[bikerjosh]

Late to the party

My SO gave me a diehard platinum for my bday(when my 3yr old red top crapped out)-awesome so far.
Put a Duralast Gold in my miata (when oem one died at 8 years-panasonic) good CCA, warrenty, and reviews.\
Josh

 

[Ol'Blue]

Man, my simple question sure started a S-Storm. I just need good advice. :lol:


Drive On and Stay Thirsty My Friends.....:driving:


Blue

 

[Satter]

I got 7 years off my factory Panasonic. Wish they sold those in the US.

My Runner came with one back when I bought it brand new in Oct 97. Lasted over 7 years. It was the best battery ever. I see them selling Panasonic car batteries at my dealership. But I'm not sure they're as good as the original.

I've got some cheap POS battery from NTB. I should really stop going there. Their "techs" are utterly clueless.

 

[OptimaJim]

Thanks for jumping in Jim.

My friend had two bad Kirkland batteries. These were after his original lasted a normal amount of time. He may very well have had an issue though. All I know is he hasn't told me his Optima died yet so...?

I use gel and AGM interchangeably because I'm not aware of an AGM battery that does not use gel inside. Is there one? I was just trying to differentiate between regular juice/water/slosher/ corroding batteries and gel, don't corrode types.

I just checked with one of our engineers to be sure and he's not aware of an AGM battery that does use gel. Wet and dry is one way to differentiate the two, which allows "dry" to describe both gel and AGM technologies. They are both spill-proof (which in the battery world is not the same as being "Non-Spillable") have a low self-discharge rate and can be mounted in a variety of orientations. I've never come across a gel battery in an automotive application, although they are more common in stand-alone power applications. The problem comes into play when someone uses a battery charger that has "gel" or "gel/AGM" settings on non-gel batteries. Those settings may not fully-charge non-gel batteries and could damage them over time.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
OPTIMA® Batteries (optimabatteries) on Pinterest

 

[kball]

I just checked with one of our engineers to be sure and he's not aware of an AGM battery that does use gel. Wet and dry is one way to differentiate the two, which allows "dry" to describe both gel and AGM technologies. They are both spill-proof (which in the battery world is not the same as being "Non-Spillable") have a low self-discharge rate and can be mounted in a variety of orientations. I've never come across a gel battery in an automotive application, although they are more common in stand-alone power applications. The problem comes into play when someone uses a battery charger that has "gel" or "gel/AGM" settings on non-gel batteries. Those settings may not fully-charge non-gel batteries and could damage them over time.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
OPTIMA® Batteries (optimabatteries) on Pinterest

Okay thanks Jim, I guess I was just confusing my technologies then. So AGM is just regular electrolyte absorbed not gel. Gotcha.