Optima can only take 400 or so. Point goes to Odyssey.

Being gel cell, the Optima does require a deep cycle charger; however, most chargers can perform that function now. Point still goes to Odyssey though.

Optima takes almost an hour to fully charge 100%. Not sure about a 95% charge. Point to Odyssey.

Optima can sit for over a year without a charge. Point to Odyssey.

Both Odyssey and Optima are sealed batteries. Point to each.

The Optima can be used inverted, the Odyssey can not. Point to Optima.

Optima comes in both top and side mounts on the same battery making for easy aftermarket electronics connections. The Odyssey only comes in top mount and you have to purchase the mounts separately. Point to Optima.

Optima comes in easy to install sizes, ready to drop in a car. Odyssey comes in odd sizes and may require special mounting hardware to install, possible modification in some cars. Point goes to Optima

Ease of acquiring battery/Ease of returning battery. The Optima can be picked up at any corner Auto Zone, Pep Boys, online and most any car audio shop. The Odyssey must be purchased online or at a specialty battery shop. point goes to Optima

Price of battery for comparable models. Point goes to Optima.

I wouldn't say the Optima isn't even close, that's a big statement considering all of the criteria. However, the Odyssey does look like a very good battery and I think I will check into them more closely.

 

Optima can take between 350 to 400, close but.... Point goes to Odyssey.

Being gel cell, the Optima does require a deep cycle charger; however, most chargers can perform that function now. Point still goes to Odyssey though.

Optima takes almost an hour to fully charge 100%. Not sure about a 95% charge. Point to Odyssey.

Optima can sit for over a year without a charge. Point to Odyssey.

Both Odyssey and Optima are sealed batteries. Point to each.

The Optima can be used inverted, the Odyssey can not. Point to Optima.

Optima comes in both top and side mounts on the same battery making for easy aftermarket electronics connections. The Odyssey only comes in top mount and you have to purchase the mounts separately. Point to Optima.

Optima comes in easy to install sizes, ready to drop in a car. Odyssey comes in odd sizes and may require special mounting hardware to install, possible modification in some cars. Point goes to Optima

Ease of acquiring battery/Ease of returning battery. The Optima can be picked up at any corner Auto Zone, Pep Boys, online and most any car audio shop. The Odyssey must be purchased online or at a specialty battery shop. point goes to Optima

Price of battery for comparable models. Point goes to Optima.

I wouldn't say the Optima isn't even close, that's a big statement considering all of the criteria. However, the Odyssey does look like a very good battery and I think I will check into them more closely.

 

Frustrating, I’m sure. Just hoping it does not happen to me. There are so many electronic gizmos that could cause the drain if they get hung-up and your baby suits for 2-3 days. A more powerful battery can provide some amount of insurance. But the best protection would be a device that prevents battery drain should something get hung-up. My 96 Lincoln had such a device that shut the electrical system down after 75 minutes of drain. Wondering if we could put one of them on the C6. But that may also shut down the window-indexing feature as well, causing us to use the key/rear hatch cable entry.
Can any smart gals/guys out there help on this?

 

JFTaylor, I'm pretty sure I read in the manual that the c6 is supposedly equipped with just such a devise...which makes the issue all that more confusing.

 

Unlike cars which use keys, the C6 can't shut all the way down to zero battery drain. It has to keep alive the circuitry which detects the approach of a fob. So there is always a current drain on the battery.

To see how much drain there is, disconnect the negative battery cable and insert your multimeter (set to amps) between the cable and the negative battery post. The drain should be small, less than 10 mA. At that level, the battery should lose 1 Ah every 100 hours. If you measure a larger drain, *something is wrong*, and you need to find out what's drawing the excess current. You do that by pulling fuses, one at a time, while watching the current draw. When you pull the fuse for the subsystem causing the excess drain, you can then do detail troubleshooting to find the exact culprit.

A *starting* battery can safely lose up to 10% of its Ah capacity without damage. That means a 10 mA drain is sustainable for up to 650 hours. That's 27 days. What this means is that with a properly working car and a healthy battery, starting with a fully charged battery, you need to then start and run the car for at least 30 minutes at least once a month or you will suffer irreversible battery damage.

Most people who drive their cars easily meet this requirement. If you store a car, disconnect the battery, give it a topping charge, and store it in a warm dry place until you need to start the car again.

Note, if you make a lot of short trips, your battery will never reach full charge. It takes approximately 30 minutes of driving to bring a starting battery back to full charge after a 10% discharge. Remember that the starter is a *large* discharge source, so frequent short trips can leave you with a net loss of charge.

Note too that a deep cycle battery can give you about 15% more time than the calculation above, but deep cycle batteries have other characteristics which make them less than desirable as starting batteries, particularly for the driver who makes short trips and doesn't fully recharge the battery each time. Deep cycle batteries need to be fully recharged each time they are discharged or irreversible damage can occur.

One final thing. Batteries can self-discharge. A *good* battery will have a self-discharge rate at least 10 times less than the calculations above. In other words, it will hold a charge sufficient to start the car after being idle for up to a year. Batteries that are going bad will have much higher self-discharge rates. You can't easily directly measure the self-discharge rate. You have to *infer* it by the length of time before the idle battery is discharged. The battery factories don't do this since it would take too long for a good battery. So getting a bad batch of batteries right out of the box is quite possible, and appears to have been the case for at least some of the C6s experiencing dead batteries.

 

Great post, shopdog! docrings1 should add this info to the C6 FAQ. Thanks!

 

Good comparo, I know you like the Optima. And this is a great discussion. Remember I haven't tried the Odyssey, and I am going off of heresy and the web site. Although I know a couple of hot rodders that had the same problem with the red top and the Odyssey cured them all. No kidding a Optima commercial is playing right now.

 

What do keys have to do with a parasitic drain? All modern cars have a parasitic drain cause by the multiple number of computers onboard the vehicle. This includes modules such as the PCM, TCM, remote keyless module, BCM, radio, HVAC controls, etc.
The only thing unique about the C6 is that fact the FOB signals the computer without human intervention, and then you have a push button start.
Walking up to a C5, or any other car with a remote keyless entry system is similar to that on a C6, the difference being on the other cars you must manually hit the unlock button. However, the brain has been on all this time waiting for a signal from the FOB. If the battery goes dead, and the remote keyless module goes dead for a period of time, the FOBs must be resynchronized.
Therefore, the quoted statement is incorrect. No modern car can shut down all the way.
The parasitic drain depends on the number of onboard computers, and their drain while in sleep mode. The more the computer, the more complex the are, and the greater the parasitic drain will be. The greater the parasitic drain, the faster a battery will drain if the vehicle is not started.
A fully equipped C6, with magnetic ride, onstar, etc., will drain a battery faster than a base C6.

 

Correction, the way it works is the computer goes into an efficent loop waiting for an intrerrupt to happen. Such as someone touching one of the 3 touch pads, or a signal from the fob like any other car. Also security inputs are checked in that loop. If it detects someone pressing a touchpad it will then go look for the presence of a fob.

 

Battery tender.

 

Buy a deep cycle for starting your Vette if you like, but understand that you are using the battery for the exact opposite purpose for which it was it was intended: Extended periods of medium-low current draw. Will it start your car? Sure.

Buy a starting battery for your Vette and you are using the battery in the way it was designed to function: Short periods of high current draw.

Personally, I wouldn't take some yahoo's word on a message board for either side of the discussion. But bear in mind that there are a LOT of smart people in the auto industry, and I can't think of a single passenger vehicle world-wide that comes with a deep cycle battery. Surely there is a reason for this...

Oh, and BTW: ANY car that is draining an in-spec battery in a MONTH (much less 5 days) has something wrong with it. Get it figured out and fixed.

 

Thanks man expected something like this

 

I have always had good luck with the optimia gel cells

 

No, I am right, it says on the Odyssey website that the battery can not be mounted inverted. Here is a quote from the Odyssey website:
So according to Odyssey their battery can not be mounted inverted. Point remains with Optima.

No, again I am right, read what I said, my quote is right above your quote. I said the Optima battery has BOTH top AND side mounts on the SAME battery making it easier to connect aftermarket electronics to it. The Odyssey has only the one set of terminal mounts and you still have to purchase them separately. Point remains with Optima

Perhaps when you get an Odyssey battery you can write of a review of it and let us know what you think. I would be interested in hearing of some real world experience with that battery.