Optima Red Top (again)
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,384
Likes: 87
From: Horncastle Lincolnshire, England
2023 C5 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
If your battery is discharging that quickly you have a drain which you need to find. There are some common problems which cause it. So many problems here are the car not the battery. Even dormant the C5 pulls 20MA.
Take a look at this recent thread. I offered some thoughts at post # 10 about how to track down a parasitic drain. It may help.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...goes-dead.html
The Red Top is an AGM battery. Many of us chose them when there were problems with the OEM batteries leaking as they are virtually leak free. Thankfully those days are gone as the early OEM batteries have all died a death. The down side is, as you say, they dont tolerate discharging so they need to be looked after on a car like the C5. I'd always recommend a battery tender for a non daily driver. There's no reason why a Red Top won't give you years of service if you top it off with a tender regularly. I have a Yellow Top and it's going strong after 4 years in my weekend car but it gets hooked up to a tender if the car sits for longer than 2 weeks.
Ultimately a battery is a battery, AGM or lead acid. If you dont look after it and understand its strengths and weaknesses it will die. Our car unfortunately eats batteries.
Take a look at this recent thread. I offered some thoughts at post # 10 about how to track down a parasitic drain. It may help.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...goes-dead.html
The Red Top is an AGM battery. Many of us chose them when there were problems with the OEM batteries leaking as they are virtually leak free. Thankfully those days are gone as the early OEM batteries have all died a death. The down side is, as you say, they dont tolerate discharging so they need to be looked after on a car like the C5. I'd always recommend a battery tender for a non daily driver. There's no reason why a Red Top won't give you years of service if you top it off with a tender regularly. I have a Yellow Top and it's going strong after 4 years in my weekend car but it gets hooked up to a tender if the car sits for longer than 2 weeks.
Ultimately a battery is a battery, AGM or lead acid. If you dont look after it and understand its strengths and weaknesses it will die. Our car unfortunately eats batteries.
Last edited by DeeGee; Jan 2, 2011 at 05:28 AM.
Pro
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 660
Likes: 16
From: Tustin California
You guys are scaring me!! I put my red top in 1-5-05. 6 years of good service and it's still working great. If I only get one more day out of it then it's been good for me. Sorry for your bad luck though. I think in this day of "No pride of workmanship" no matter what we buy, there will be good ones and sh&t ones. Have a Happy New Year guys!! Rod
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 750
Likes: 0
From: Port Saint Lucie Florida
Racer
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 301
Likes: 3
From: Marysville ohio
Get rid of it NOW..... ANY battery you have to coddle this much is CRAP. My OEM lasted 9 YEARS! My Optima in my DD Vette lasted 35 Months. In reality it started to fail in the spring of 2010. I hate the battery so much that I would not even sell the new replacement to another Vette owner b/c I did not want to pass along that kind of garbage.
Racer
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 301
Likes: 3
From: Marysville ohio
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Race Director
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 18,681
Likes: 47
From: Reno is so close to Hell you can see Sparks , State Of Confusion
St. Jude Donor '12-'13-'14
Get rid of it NOW..... ANY battery you have to coddle this much is CRAP. My OEM lasted 9 YEARS! My Optima in my DD Vette lasted 35 Months. In reality it started to fail in the spring of 2010. I hate the battery so much that I would not even sell the new replacement to another Vette owner b/c I did not want to pass along that kind of garbage.
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 131
Likes: 0
From: Bath PA
OK after reading all this about dead batteries, I had to go out and try mine. Its hasn't been started in 2 1/2 to three weeks, my autozone battery fire right up.
The only time I have ever had issues is when I had a loose terminal. No hassles at all from Autozone about changing the battery out in warranty.
The only time I have ever had issues is when I had a loose terminal. No hassles at all from Autozone about changing the battery out in warranty.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 1,189
Likes: 4
From: Freeport, FL
OK after reading all this about dead batteries, I had to go out and try mine. Its hasn't been started in 2 1/2 to three weeks, my autozone battery fire right up.
The only time I have ever had issues is when I had a loose terminal. No hassles at all from Autozone about changing the battery out in warranty.
The only time I have ever had issues is when I had a loose terminal. No hassles at all from Autozone about changing the battery out in warranty.
I don't have personal issues with Optima batteries, and for the sake of having a "cool" batter in my car I'd love to use one. But, I have had trouble with the 3 Optima batteries I've owned and have seen many of them get returned for being defective. I don't think they are junk by any means, I feel that they are unique batteries and simply require special care and maintenance. If they become drained, you want to avoid high amp charging as this appears to be a source of failure.
AC Delco OEM batteries seem to fail consistently at the 2 year mark (on DD cars). But, I have seen the replacement Delco's last many years.
Good luck on the battery trouble, let us know how things turn out.
Last edited by manley845; Dec 31, 2010 at 12:50 PM.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 763
Likes: 0
From: Murfreesboro TN
If your battery is discharging that quickly you have a drain which you need to find. There are some common problems which cause it. So many problems here are the car not the battery. Even dormant the C5 pulls 20MA.
Take a look at this recent thread. I offered some thoughts at post # 10 about how to track down a parasitic drain. It may help.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...goes-dead.html
The Red Top is an AGM battery. Many of us chose them when there were problems with the OEM batteries leaking as they are virtually leak free. Thankfully those days are gone. The down side is, as you say, they dont tolerate discharging so they need to be looked after on a car like the C5. I'd always recommend a battery tender for a non daily driver. There's no reason why a Red Top won't give you years of service if you top it off with a tender regularly. I have a Yellow Top and it's going strong after 4 years in my weekend car but it gets hooked up to a tender if the car sits for longer than 2 weeks.
Ultimately a battery is a battery, AGM or lead acid. If you dont look after it and understand its strengths and weaknesses it will die. Our car unfortunately eats batteries.
Take a look at this recent thread. I offered some thoughts at post # 10 about how to track down a parasitic drain. It may help.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c5-t...goes-dead.html
The Red Top is an AGM battery. Many of us chose them when there were problems with the OEM batteries leaking as they are virtually leak free. Thankfully those days are gone. The down side is, as you say, they dont tolerate discharging so they need to be looked after on a car like the C5. I'd always recommend a battery tender for a non daily driver. There's no reason why a Red Top won't give you years of service if you top it off with a tender regularly. I have a Yellow Top and it's going strong after 4 years in my weekend car but it gets hooked up to a tender if the car sits for longer than 2 weeks.
Ultimately a battery is a battery, AGM or lead acid. If you dont look after it and understand its strengths and weaknesses it will die. Our car unfortunately eats batteries.
I looked at a new 2008 Z06 a couple of years ago that was in the showroom and the salesman went to turn the key and it was DEAD.
He even looked under the hood to make sure the battery hadn't been disconnected. The car had sat for ~40 days in the showroom without starting and the battery was completely dead.
My point is that these cars are hard on batteries and the owner of the car has to buy the battery that suits how often they drive the car or put a Tender on it like I do.
I've had my Optima Red top since this spring and if the car sits for 2 or more weeks. I put the CTEK tender on it as a precaution.
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 3,640
Likes: 83
From: . New York
This comes up so often I just dont have the strength to type it out...again
The short version:
We started using Red Tops because of a leaking problem on the oem delco's. That went away, forget about it, no battery you can buy today is going to leak.
The original spec for the C5 stated a 90 RC, time and experience has shown that to be on the low side of what works, you will do a lot better (and have many, many fewer headaches) if you select a battery with a 120 RC.
All batteries (even from the same manufacturer) are not the same and the C5's we put them in and the way each car is used and stored vary just as wildly. This accounts for the disparate stories we hear of people getting great service from their red top while others have nothing but problems.
Bottom Line:
The Optima Red Top is probably not the best battery for a C5.
Any battery with a 120 RC (even the cheapest one you can buy) will probably do better.
With this car, a float/conditioning charger is always a good idea and will not only save you aggrevation on starting, but will aslo keep the battery/electrical system in a state where you will avoid a whole host of other (colum lock, Active Handeling, DIC) issues.
Just my .02 c.
The short version:
We started using Red Tops because of a leaking problem on the oem delco's. That went away, forget about it, no battery you can buy today is going to leak.
The original spec for the C5 stated a 90 RC, time and experience has shown that to be on the low side of what works, you will do a lot better (and have many, many fewer headaches) if you select a battery with a 120 RC.
All batteries (even from the same manufacturer) are not the same and the C5's we put them in and the way each car is used and stored vary just as wildly. This accounts for the disparate stories we hear of people getting great service from their red top while others have nothing but problems.
Bottom Line:
The Optima Red Top is probably not the best battery for a C5.
Any battery with a 120 RC (even the cheapest one you can buy) will probably do better.
With this car, a float/conditioning charger is always a good idea and will not only save you aggrevation on starting, but will aslo keep the battery/electrical system in a state where you will avoid a whole host of other (colum lock, Active Handeling, DIC) issues.
Just my .02 c.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 6,868
Likes: 770
From: Kelso Washington
St. Jude Donor '09, '13, '15
My car had an Optima red-top in it when I bought it well over three years ago. My car lives outside and has seen snow and 25 degree temperatures and a couple of weeks between drives at times.
Not one single problem.
Not one single problem.
Pro
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 671
Likes: 1
From: Kansas City Missouri
Had a yellow top on my 99 FRC. Very happy. I have a factory battery in my 08 vert, going to replace after 4th year with yellow top. I have heard some bad reports on a red top, if you don't drive a lot, and run a maintainer, get a yellow top.
Race Director
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 11,117
Likes: 671
From: SE Pennsylvania
St. Jude Donor '03 thru '26
Oldtimer
Red top Batteries ?
But I know from past experience if you leave a battery on the cold concrete it'll go dad in nothing flat. Put a rubber door mat and hook up a 1.5 amp charger and it'll be fully charged in a few hours or overnight.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 5,520
Likes: 5
From: Long Island NY
I've read many posts on this forum who have had many problems with Optima batteries. So when it was time for me to get a new battery I went with a Duralast Gold from Autozone. I've had it in for about a year now and it has performed perfectly, from the heat of the summer to the bitter cold it provides a steady 14+ Volts and my Vette starts stong even after sitting for two months with no problem at all. I paid about $80.00 for it and it has a 5 year warrantee. I Don't mean to sound like a commercial for it but I am very happy with it and it didn't cost me a lot at all. I don't think that a battery that costs over $100.00 should require a battery tender sitting unused for a month or two, that to me is unacceptable for what should be a premium quality battery. Just my .02
P.S. Have a Happy New Year Folks!
P.S. Have a Happy New Year Folks!
Race Director
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 18,681
Likes: 47
From: Reno is so close to Hell you can see Sparks , State Of Confusion
St. Jude Donor '12-'13-'14
I've read many posts on this forum who have had many problems with Optima batteries. So when it was time for me to get a new battery I went with a Duralast Gold from Autozone. I've had it in for about a year now and it has performed perfectly, from the heat of the summer to the bitter cold it provides a steady 14+ Volts and my Vette starts stong even after sitting for two months with no problem at all. I paid about $80.00 for it and it has a 5 year warrantee. I Don't mean to sound like a commercial for it but I am very happy with it and it didn't cost me a lot at all. I don't think that a battery that costs over $100.00 should require a battery tender sitting unused for a month or two, that to me is unacceptable for what should be a premium quality battery. Just my .02
P.S. Have a Happy New Year Folks!
P.S. Have a Happy New Year Folks!
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 5,520
Likes: 5
From: Long Island NY
Anyhow Have a Good One Mr. Bill, and you really do look like that guy from American Chopper!