Optima batteries

Commonly known as yellow top spiral AGM. Group 31


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Batteries should have been put on a charger before being installed. I have seen batteries with a sticker date of a month or 2 old need considerable charging. Yours were sitting for over 8 months.

 

Personally have had mixed results with Optima batteries. In the cold they work amazing but I've found when they start to fail they fail much faster than a regular lead acid battery.

 

I’ve been an optima user for all my classic cars since they first came out in the 90’s. I have 15 or so of them and at least three are almost 20 years old and a couple that are almost 10. The newest one is 4 months old. I have disconnects on them and charge them every 3 months or so. Or before we fire up the cars to play. We’ve got them in all our farm tractors, but I have never used one in a big truck. Saying all that I will also say Optima quality has since gone south within the last 3-5 years. I am getting less years use out of them as time goes by. They used to be owned and made by Johnson Controls and sold exclusively thru Interstate back in the day. Those older ones were bulletproof and lasted forever. The oldest ones I still have are those. Johnson Controls sold off their battery manufacturing to a German owned company 3-4 years ago and that is when I noticed the quality starting to slip along with price going up almost $30 over cost specially when Autozone started selling them.

 

The whole reason we went with Optima’s back in the day was no liquid acid to rot battery trays, inner fenders, core supports, etc. and having vettes, vw bugs, and other race cars with barteries in the trunk they just made since. They would have zero post corrosion or leak issues even if cracked. But i’ve noticed within the last few years we’ve had a handful of optimas corrode the cable ends and posts on the battery tops and eat the bolts. Never seen that before ever. Blueish green and yellow colored growth.

 

Definitely will help the batteries last longer. Although I've never used Optimas, when I get a new battery I fill the cells with distilled water, then put it on the charger. I repeat this process before winter. I usually get 4-5 years out of a 3 year battery.