Has anyone had any problem with their Optima yellow top battery discharging from lack of use. I use my vette maybe once every two or three weeks, while it sits the battery discharges and I have to recharge.

 

I read somewhere that the Yellow top is needed in cars that draw a lot of juice and constantly are being used - they also require some sort of constant charging thus they are not good in cars that sit for a period of time. The Red Top would be your choice unless you have a lot of stereo equipment or something else drawing power....

 

The difference between the red-top and the yellow-top is in the design to withstand "deep-cycling" for the yellow and standard cycling for the red. Deep-cycling means that the battery can withstand substantial discharges and still recover effectively through charging. Folks with lots of audio or video that are run while car is off find the yellow works better as it is designed to be run down more. If your battery (irregardless of red or yellow) runs down from a couple of weeks of sitting, then you either need a new battery or there is some type of parasitic drain on the battery that needs correction. ALL C5's have VERY MINOR drains, but nothing that can't be handled by a good battery over a few weeks.

 

I have gone through one Blue top and two Yellow tops all with in the past year on my differant cars!! I don't think they are being made the same way anymore because now all the sudden, all my buddies are having problems with Optima line also......Looking into air craft batts now...a friend of mine told me about the differant air craft batts that are great replacements instead of the Optima crap.

Shahram

 

I switched to a red top and 4 months later my 02 Z06 (which I drive daily) was dead! I was out of town and the wife was driving the car. She got a jump and drove it to the dealer (warrenty) They laughed and charged her $33 diagnosis fee and told her that the battery was dead. She went back to Autozone where we purchased it and they gave her a new one.
I hope this is NOT a bad sign.
The car has been sitting in winter storrsge and has not had a problem. I've taken it out twice this winter and the battery is fine.


Bill

 

I had a new Red top in my car for about four months, when I put it away for the winter I hooked up my battery tender and thought I was set. Went to start car yesterday battery dead, checked it with volt meter 11 volts. I wonder if they are not making them as good as they were

 

I made some calls because I was planning on changing over to an Optima battery. I called a local battery shop to inquire about price. The guy there told me that he was seeing a lot of Optimas coming back and suggested I go with an Orbital instead. He thought that the Optimas were not being made like they used to. The Orbital is cheaper also. After reading this thread and with what he said, I think I'll go with the Orbital.

 

Just great! And I was about to switch to an Optima Red battery.

I was under the (false?) impression that Optima batteries were superior. What's the scoop guys?

Ciao,

Rick

 

This is the first real Optima "bashing" thread. Most members that have them swear by them, not at them. I've had mine for a year without a problem.

 

I'm on my way now to buy an Orbital from Sams Club.

Seen them there earlier today. The model DT-34 (I believe) is the proper size for C5. They are selling them for $95.

 

I would try the new Orbital battery of just go with a good Walmart Everstart I've had them last 5-6 years! Cant go wrong with paying $60 for a battery that will out last one that cost $110.

 

Mike, I believe that the size you need is the DT-78

 

I just got back from Sams Club. Their two sized Orbitals are DT-34 and DT-35.

According to Orbitals web site, the DT-34 is the 78, and the DT-35 is the 75.

The book at Sams said to use the 78 for the Corvette , but on the Exides site it said to use the 75.

Both are the same heigth and depth. One is 1 inch wider than the other. They'll both fit.
All the ones at Sams has MFGR DATE stickers on them. The newest I found had "July 04" on it... so that's the one I purchased. Then when I got home I noticed a second sticker with a mfgr ship date - and that was October '04.

.

 

Go to costco.... $34 + tax. 3 year warranty and full money back if it dies within the first 3 years.... cant beat that price..

 

HOW MUCH??? For a CORVETTE battery??? $35!!!!

An OTPIMA is 3X that!! WTF?

Bill

 

Red Top here.. no problems.

 

My uncle owns a marina and had previously stocked the Optima's. We were very surprised to learn that they were no better than other marine brands. After sitting idly for a few weeks, they died. We figured that they were too expensive to perform like other marine batteries. I needed a new battery last week and went with an AC Delco 78DT-6YR. Love the dual terminals and the local gas station charged me $110 with the installation.

 

Wow I'm glad I read this post!!! I went to take my car for a spin today because its 60 today turned the key nothing but clicking!! The optima red top was bought in july of last year and the car had been setting since Nov!! I just thought it was me!!! I'm going to call optima tomorrow because I thought they had a start warranty for 3 years !!! Called part store were bought it at they said it needed tested before they could do anything !! Another question is there any special way to charge them !!! I thought i read somewhere there was ???

 

Without getting into the argument about whether Optima is still a good battery, I'd be very hesitant about putting either a yellow top or a blue top in a Corvette.

The blues are marine batteries. I have no idea why someone would put one of those in a car. The yellow tops are, as stated above, a "deep cycle" battery. What they're designed for are applications like an Motorhome. Motorhomes have two different battery systems, one is the normal battery like you have in your car to start the Motorhome. It serves the same function that your battery does. The other(s) are deep cycle batteries like yellow tops. They're designed to give power to all the appliances in a motor home when it's not hooked up to "shore power". In other words, they'll put out power for a long time before needing recharging but they take a long time to recharge (so unless you do lots of highway driving, your altenator won't get them back to peak in city driving) and they don't put out the big amps needed to start your car when it's cold. The only time I'd think about using them in a car would be if I lived somewhere very warm year round and played a high-power stereo for long periods when the car was shut off. Otherwise it makes no sense and is bound to cause problems. One particular case would be slowly losing its charge because it never gets a chance to fully recharge. As I recall, that was the problem posted earlier.

 

Had my Yellow top almost a year. The stock Delco must have committed suicide, died on its fourth birthday. Since I live in sunny California, the coupe starts after sitting for 2-5 weeks in about 1 second.

BTW - I left the interior lights on in my Tahoe, drained the Red Top. I charged it for about 20 minutes at 10 amps, is started, and pegged the volt meter. I drove the 'Hoe, but killed the 100 amp alternator trying to recharge a big Red Top. Ended with my pulling the alternator for a rebuild at $100. The Red Top took 24 hours at 10 amps to recharge.