battery choice

[ed]

i know personaly of 3 optimas with the same problem, and have 'heard' of similar/same problem with odyssey. and no, not chumps with no clue about how a battery works.

there is clearly *something* not good about the shelf life of charge in some of these gel batteries. and in my case, the distributor agrees that its even weirder that the cell fails to even take a charge after an idle period and its subsequent discharge. hence the warranties without issue. i do not recommend these batteries for the above concerns. my 2c based on my experiences.

you werent talking to me though? thats cool, ill take my vehicle out of the 'any car' category

cheers
ed

[TRD-12A]

If you leave a car sitting around for a long period of time i would recomend running a trickle charger on it and you should'nt have a problem, i've had a few issues with optimas aswell but only cause they were siting around and they went flat, once there dead flat they never come back to life as ed suggested.

Trickle charges are the way to go i would'nt recomend disconnecting the battery the trickle charger will keep it at 12.5- 13 volts constantly that way it will never go flat.

[toymaz]

well happy thats all sorted. cuts car just shows odysseys are good if there is no drain.
2c v 13years.

[YGT04A]

Cheers for the info guys
I was leaning towards the odyssey
The car will probably only be driven about once per week or so and I don’t have a problem with running a trickle charger on it have been running one for a while now anyway.
ed what would you suggest instead?
and cuts what model is yours? Running it under the seat sounds good

[Cuts]

i was afraid you were going to ask that, it involves removal of the seat from memory to get information off it. I might have some info at home, if i remember ill have a look tonight.

[ed]

well happy thats all sorted. cuts car just shows odysseys are good if there is no drain.
2c v 13years.

ah, chew on my ass with your 13yrs. optimas have issues. full stop. great battery when working, but die, sulphate, discharge, whatever blah blah blah... you expect more with a $400 battery.

id be giving dekka a try next

oh look, google's "im feeling lucky" spat this out first hit... haha

"Rarely do I feel the need to flame a manufacturer, but this time I've just had it. I had 2 optima yellow tops completely die in 2 seperate vehicles a month apart. No sign of cranking problems, they both just stopped holding a charge. I've trickled charged them over night, the whole 9 yards and still nothing. And the bad news is both were made in 2002 and are just 2 years old so no warrenty :mad3:

So are there any other good spiral cell batteries out there? Odyessy, Exide are they any good???
blk87K5
11-09-2004, 02:05 PM
I have also had two die within three months. One was still under warranty, and when I took it to the Interstate dealer, they charged it and told me nothing was wrong. Next morning the Jeep was dead again. Put a Pro Comp battery in and havent had a problem yet. I have yet to take the other in. It is still under warranty also, and I am anxious to see what kind of BS story the cranky ass old man will give me this time.
zjmikey
11-09-2004, 07:54 PM
I had the same issues with a few yellow tops, after speaking with Optima's customer "dis=service" department, I shitcanned the whole idea

and went with Odyssey Batteries, IMHO, they are the best, a single PC1200 which is smaller than a yellow top is equal to almost 2 yellow tops, and I have 2 PC1200s on my rig. they are lighter, take abuse much better, have more CCA's and Higher reserve.. what more could you ask for..

Go Odyssey.. you will not be dissapointed
Tim84K10
11-09-2004, 07:58 PM
Optimas are crap. I have seen customers have nothing but bad experiences when I worked in the parts stores, and the lack of free acid means that they're junk if discharged (they sulfate quickly).

They have a 5 year warranty. A 2 year free replacement--yes, but they're warrantied for 5 years total."

[toymaz]

you and others have had troubles with optima i read that
im sure others on google would have had trouble with odyssey too... but a couple of us agree odyssey are great.
If you have so many troubles with optima, why can't you change for a different brand of battery? most battery suppliers sell multi brands.

[The Witzl]

Speaking to a great number of people in the industry, Odyssey batteries are indeed complete junk.
They are only expensive because they build the warranty and expected replacement costs into the price.... so you arent paying for a superior product, you are paying for the fact that it is highly likely they will have to replace the battery for you at least once.

I would not use an odyssey battery

[Casey-G]

Regardless of what has already been mentioned by Witzl, I have had an odyssey bat for 8 months now, 3 of which it was disconnected and had no use, placed it in my seca and it still had enough charge for me to crank the motor over for quite a while.
It doesn't seem to have any problems holding charge either.

just my 2C

[The Witzl]

Odyssey have an expected return rate of over 20%.

To me that just screams DODGY.

[Casey-G]

Odyssey have an expected return rate of over 20%.

To me that just screams DODGY.

Well i will take that into mind when i buy my next battery then, thanks its these facts that help you not get fucked over by retailers..



Question to you though, what battery manufacturer you buy from?

[The Witzl]

I dont buy that particular type of lead acid battery.
I buy standby type and deep cycle type lead acid batteries, which are not for automotive applications... so who i buy from doesnt help you much sorry.

I cant remember the names of the good brands of battery though... which also doesnt help you much