I have an Optima Red Top that is about 2-3 years old.
During the winter it was in a warm basement and kept about 2 feet off the ground on a block of wood with a trickle charger. It failed to start the car in the spring without going on the real charger for an hour or so. The car that it is in sits around a lot in my garage - it is still on its first tank of gas for 2010. I drove it about 2 weeks ago and it started up just fine. Went to move it two nights ago and it barely had enough juice to click the starter solenoid. Registered 8v on my digital voltmeter. Not impressed! I've had plain jane lead acid batteries do much better and sit much longer than this Optima and crank right over when I need it. So can this be brought back to life? I put it on a 12v 2amp charge for a few hours last night but was leary to let it charge overnight in case it is damaged and shorts out. I put the trickle charger on it this morning before work. Is this nearly $200 battery junk? Having a tough time finding locally a sealed group 75 battery. This car has the battery trunk mounted so no fumes is important. Would also like to find a sealed battery for the Vette to replace the leaky ac delco in there now.

 

Depending on the chargers you used you may have fried this battery. For storage these require no more than a float charge. Lots of variables here on this rear mounted battery, If it ran out of charge in days you may have a short in the cabling or discharge somewhere in the system or even something simple like you left the visor vanity lights on. At this point you need to take the battery into a store and get a load test done on it. Could be an interal short at this point.

 

my .02:

drop the Optima in the nearest waste receptacle (actually please recycle). pony up for a Sears Platinum plus or an Odyssey.

In the past 10 years I have had to replace an Optima 3 times in one car (warranty or it would have been gone the first time). I have a Platinum plus in both my others and not one failure in the same time frame. I know others with Odyssey's that are running strong as well.
Yes I am rough on Batteries.

sears platinum:
Power Ratings:
Cold Cranking Amps (CCA at 0 deg.F): 880
Reserve Capacity (RC): 135 min.
Amp Hours at 20 Hour Rate: 68


Odyssey
MODEL Voltage
34-PC1500 12
CCA 880
Reserve Capacity minutes 135

Optima
12v
Cold Cranking Amps @ 0F 800
Cranking Amps @ 32F 1000
Reserve Capacity 100
Capacity (C/20 Rate) 50
Internal Resistance (ohms) 0.003


you do the math...

 

I used a small trickle charger for the winter and the 12v 2amp setting on my regular charger to bring it to life in the spring. In the past few months it was a bit weak to start the car but it would always start and successive starts on the same day were strong. I think it may be internally shorted but last night after I pulled the charger off (had been charging for about 5 hours) it read 11.9 volts rather than the 8v it read earlier that night - I did not attempt a start. I'll charge it on the low setting a bit more tonight and give it a try tomorrow. If it fails again it is getting replaced. I won't get another Optima, just not worth the money. Are the Odyssey or Sears batteries sealed? I don't want leaking acid or hydrogen fumes in my trunk.

 

yes they are sealed.

 

I have a charger and it fried a battery two years ago. I dont trust them to be a fully dependable piece of equipment.

 

I just read this about AGM batteries like the Optima.
Maybe it will help you.
"Once a batteries voltage falls below a certain level, the charger can no longer sense the battery's presence and will refuse to deliver the current. In some cases this can occur at any point below 10.5 volts." They recommend connecting a decently charged battery in parallel with the problem battery and then charge normally. This is from Sept. Hot Rod magazine. Also, sealed is something of a misnomer--lead-acid batteries are generally capable of venting when necessary.

 

In short....probably yes. The Optima in Marco was less than 2 years old, and wouldn't hold a charge. My charger was set to AGM, and it detected a fault in a cell and wouldn't continue. I swapped it out for a Wal-Mart Everstart, life is good.

In your case, you could consider rear mounting a conventional battery in a sealed case that is vented to the atmosphere and not the inside of the car. I understand why the Optima was selected....I'm just not a fan of their reliability, or lack thereof.

 

Concur which is why I would use a Battery Tender float charger

 

(almost)

My .03 is to Pony up for an Interstate...

Optima batteries are garbage. I went through 4 of them in a 3 year span between 2 Corvettes. Since I switched to Interstate not a single problem. I have a Sears battery in my old Yukon for 4 years with no issues as well. No experience with Odyssey but I've heard they are similar to Optima in that people either love them or hate them.

A friend of mine who has been a high end mechanic and racer for 30+ years was looking at my '96 when I got it. I kid you not, the first thing out of his mouth was "Nice car other than that piece of **** battery (Optima)"

 

Your Optima battery is at the end of its alledged life! You can tell the state of charge in a lead acid battery by measuring its no load terminal voltage. 12.9 v and higher, fully charged. 12.0 volts and below, discharged. That you measured 8 volts, indicates the battery was severly discharged or its plates are severly sulfated. Also, charging the battery for 5 hours and it only came up to 11.9 volts indicates a battery that is defective and cannot be recovered by anything other than recycling.
You cannot do any harm to a lead acid battery by storing it on ANY normal surface!!!!!! This old tale just will not die a natural death. You do not have to support the battery with insulators, wooden strips, or pay someone to hold the battery off the floor during storage.

 

There is a full article in this months Hot Rod magazine on how to bring an Optima back from the dead. You may even find the article online.

 

I see that JoeB bet me to this.......

 

 

Never,had an issue with an optima. Interstate and autolite are decent too. Never had luck keeping any of them right once they start going bad. Drive em

 

Maybe I am stupid, but I don't trickle charge anything.

My battery sits and gets low, I put a charger on it.

I have a garden tractor with a 12 year old battery in it, that dies over every winter; then I charge it in spring. (that is my record for a battery KNOCK ON WOOD)

This is the best charger I ever had.
http://battery-rechargeable-charger....y-charger.html

 

Seems they last longer in vars with electronics...one in an 02 chevy goes out once a yr no matter what brand it was...an 87 workvan with no power anything could sit foe 6 plus mos and fire right up?!

 

Hi jmgtp, I’m sorry to hear about the problem you had with your battery. First and foremost, if your battery is mounted in your trunk (or any other enclosed space), it does need to be vented to the outside as Frizlefrak indicated. Even though our batteries are “sealed,” all lead-acid batteries can vent gas in extreme situations and if they do vent, that gas is both flammable and toxic. jfb is correct about storing a battery on any normal surface. Stored batteries do best in cool, dry locations, but storing them on wood or any other kind of insulator has not been necessary for a long time.

Not all chargers are created equal either. Traditional "float" chargers provide a constant voltage with tapering amperage to the battery, even when it is fully-charged. These are OK, but not preferred. For float charging, we recommend 1 amp max, 13.2-13.8 volts. For regular charging, we recommend 10 amps max, 13.8-15 volts. Generally speaking, fully-automatic "multi-stage or multi-step" chargers, which monitor the battery and charge it as necessary, are the preferred option. Multi-stage maintainers will charge at varying voltages and varying amperage (rarely exceeding 2 amps) and some of these multi-step chargers are also capable of being regular battery chargers (7 amps or more).

The key to long battery life (regardless of brand), is to always maintain at least 12.4 volts whenever possible. When batteries are allowed to discharge below that level and sit for extended periods of time, sulfation begins to diminish both performance and lifespan. Maintaining a battery properly during winter storage is often only half the battle. If a vehicle sits for extended periods of time during the summer, it’s also a good idea to keep the battery maintained. As cuisinartvette noted, this is especially true on newer vehicles, where more complex electrical systems create a higher parasitic draw on batteries and can discharge them at an even faster rate.

I know many of you have watched this video before, but I do like pointing out the battery tenders and maintainers used in this collection. Even people who can afford to buy a new battery every weekend would rather properly-maintain the ones they already have- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMQMgwouKlU

Goldcylon offers excellent advice about checking for a parasitic draw or loose cables. The typical key-off load for most vehicles is about 25 milliamps, but vehicles that have significantly higher key-off loads can completely discharge any battery within a matter of weeks or even days.

The article Joe B. and powerpigz-51 cited and the YouTube link nassau66427 posted are both excellent resources for learning how to recharge deeply-discharged batteries. If batteries are deeply-discharged, many chargers will not recognize or charge the battery. This is a charger issue and is not unique to Optima. In fact, other manufacturers have dealt with this situation by voiding the warranty on any returned battery that has been discharged below 10 volts. We decided to make the YouTube video instead, which explains how to properly recharge these batteries.

Fully-charged, RedTops will measure approximately 12.6-12.8 volts. Batteries that measure 8 volts are often severely discharged (and sulfated), but they could also have other issues associated with them. If you are recharging your battery with low amperage, it is not uncommon at all for a battery to take several hours to go from 8 volts to 11.9 volts. An easy way to think of it is that the rated capacity of a battery (Ah) is the size of the battery’s tank for storing electrical power. If a battery’s Ah rating is 50 amps and it is completely discharged and being charged at a 2 amp rate, theoretically it will take 25 hours (50/2) for the battery to get fully-charged. This assumes 100% efficiency in the charging process, but most battery chargers do not provide a constant current through the charging process, with the current tapering off early in the process.

If anyone has any questions about our batteries, I’ll do my best to answer them.

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

 

so whats good for a car thats got a beefy cam that moves the car around a bit. i got a new battery last year and its leaking already from the top

 

Ralph, would this battery be for your GTO or another vehicle? If it's for your GTO, our direct-fit replacement is a group 35 battery, available in either a YellowTop or RedTop. The RedTop will have more cranking amps and the YellowTop will have more reserve capacity. If your vehicle isn't daily driven, I would recommend a battery tender or maintainer, as GTOs like to use electricity when the key is off.

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