Optima Yellow Top 34/78: Voltage Low

Installed this 5-years ago with HD cabling from Jeepers & Creepers. Never a problem.

Among tests (several problems being checked) found that the battery is now at 12.05V on DVM. Vehicle running at 2k rpm, headlights on, 14.16V so I figure alternator okay. Accessory drive belt is original (10-years, 130k) so it'll get replaced (though no squeals or noises).

Recharging an Optima YT seems to have a few "methods" out there. I was thinking of borrowing a charger and just letting it sit on 2A overnight and then checking again.

Anyone else have one run low -- not dead, just low -- and what solved the problem?

Have done searches here and Google.

Thanks for advice or links.

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What is the problem?

umm car batteries are 12V

Voltage seems normal to me..

It is a little low should be about 12.5+ at a minimum. Typically you should replace battery every few years anyways. Time to upgarde.

This battery is fully-charged at 13.00V. 12.05V is about a 40% charge.

State of charge 12V
100% V > 13.0V
90% 12.80 < V < 13.00
80% 12.65 < V < 12.80
70% 12.50 < V < 12.65
60% 12.35 < V < 12.50
50% 12.20 < V < 12.35
40% 12.05 < V < 12.20
30% 11.90 < V < 12.05
20% 11.75 < V < 11.90
10% 11.60 < V < 11.75


And five years on an OPTIMA is not a replacement point. It might be. The OEM ones in my truck are 170k and over seven years.


The question is about charging method.

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Better charge table with ambient temperatures:

http://www.buchanan1.net/lead_acid.shtml

As for charging method, I believe Optima species a 10 amp charge rate with a voltage stabilized charger. You really should go to their website or call their tech support for the best advice.

Optima site says D34 open circuit fully charged voltage is 13.1. At a glance this appears to differ from the Buchanan tables. What am I missing?

Is it true the Optimas are now made in China and are crap?

When my last TWO Optimas were operational and healthy they read 13.1V. Both batteries sat for about 3 months in the vehicle and when I returned they were trash and would hold no charge.

sbxj said:

Is it true the Optimas are now made in China and are crap?

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optima's are now made in mexico, im rocking a mexican optima, going on 4 years. 100% reliable imo.

in the past, it's taken me up to THREE days on a slow charge to bring redtops back from the dead. (on a friends silverado, with an electrical draw + sitting parked = unconscious optima

xcm said:

optima's are now made in mexico, im rocking a mexican optima, going on 4 years. 100% reliable imo.

in the past, it's taken me up to THREE days on a slow charge to bring redtops back from the dead. (on a friends silverado, with an electrical draw + sitting parked = unconscious optima

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I tried to bring both of my red tops back and after almost 1 week on the charger I got no more than 9V. Both of the batteries were only drained once. My brothers Optima was on the recommended battery tender EVERY day for 4 years when the car wasn't driven. End result, we pulled off the tender one day and didn't have enough power to turn the engine over, hooked the charger/tender back up and never wanted to hold a charge. I personally think they are complete garbage(atleast the red tops, I have no experience with yellow or blues). My $50 Wal-Mart battery has sat and lost charge 4 times now in different vehicles and it still comes back when put on my charger.

Ditto on crappy Optimas. I gave up after they crapped out just after their (very short) warranty period. I'm running an Exide now and so far so good.

If they were so damn good like they claim, maybe the should warranty them that way. They claim to be the best battery, but they have the crappiest warranty.

Well they claim to be the best battery because they arent lead plate batteries like normal ones. they use a gel instead of fluid and use coils instead of the lead plates. this allows for a deep cycle and you can beat the shi* out of them and they wont break apart inside and short out. They also hold charge much longer than normal batteries. they can also be mounted upside down. I havent had any problems with mine so far.

but as they said above, 12.05 is very low for a battery. i usually use 12.6 as a guideline that it is in good shape. and anything below 12.4 needs to be tested or re-charged.

I recently killed my 5 year old Optima yellow top by leaving my OBA switch on for a week (oops). It read 5 volts....:dunce: I put it on my charger (2A charge, and used the gell cell charging mode on the charger too), and the charger would not continuously charge it (it kept "aborting" the charge). I had to fool it by putting another battery in parallel with the YT. I left it that way for 5-6 hours and checked the YT. It read 11.5V, so I disconnected the parallel battery and just charged the Optima . It fully charged (around 13V), and is back in good shape again.

I had bad luck with Red tops in other vehicles, but have not had any trouble with (two so far...) yellow tops yet.

Andy in Pa. said:

I recently killed my 5 year old Optima yellow top by leaving my OBA switch on for a week (oops). It read 5 volts....:dunce: I put it on my charger (2A charge, and used the gell cell charging mode on the charger too), and the charger would not continuously charge it (it kept "aborting" the charge). I had to fool it by putting another battery in parallel with the YT. I left it that way for 5-6 hours and checked the YT. It read 11.5V, so I disconnected the parallel battery and just charged the Optima . It fully charged (around 13V), and is back in good shape again.

I had bad luck with Red tops in other vehicles, but have not had any trouble with (two so far...) yellow tops yet.

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Hmm, I might need to try that parallel trick with a red top that I have that is showing about 6v and won't charge.

The single red top in my Waggy has been turning that diesel over without a problem for nearly 4 years now even in the Phoenix heat.

Pelican said:

Optima site says D34 open circuit fully charged voltage is 13.1. At a glance this appears to differ from the Buchanan tables. What am I missing?

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Good point, and IDK. Could be a AGM vs. lead-acid thing, could be that the 13.1 is stated as OPEN circuit or zero draw. You can't check the specific gravity of a sealed AGM battery.

I've seen the recommendation on doing two batteries at once, one of them the suspect OPTIMA. I've had mine on 2A for almost 24-hours now. Will go another day or so.

I've also seen "recommended" dropping them from one foot in height (tried that) so as to shake off any sulphation.

Have also seen blasting them with 100A for 15-minutes, cool 15, and another blast.

OPTIMA sez to be sure case top does not exceed 125F.

I, too, agree about warranty and free replacement period. I've seen some recommednations about the SEARS DIEHARD PLATINUM 2 as a slightly downmarket ODYSSEY re-branded for SEARS. Specs and warranty look good. As my truck needs two batteries, a pair of Grp 65's are close to $600 if ODYSSEY branded, the DIEHARDS (different Grp size) a lot less.

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Hello, I apologize for chiming in so late on this conversation. SEMA is right around the corner and that is keeping us all pretty busy. I'm glad so many folks indicated 12.05 volts for a 12-volt battery seems normal, because that is a common misconception. The fact is, any lead-acid battery that is discharged below 12.4 volts and allowed to sit in that state will begin to sulfate, which diminishes both performance and lifespan. That makes a quality battery tender or maintainer an excellent investment for any vehicle that is not driven daily. Fully-charged, our RedTops should measure approximately 12.6-12.8 volts and our YellowTops should measure approximately 13.0-13.2 volts.

joe_peters is correct, you can charge our batteries at up to 10 amps (13.8-15.0 volts), but we do not recommend high-amperage chargers, as they can damage a battery and we certainly do not recommend intentionally dropping any battery. If a battery has sulfated, a 10-amp charge for up to two hours can help break up that sulfation, but if the battery begins to vent or gets hot to the touch, charging should be discontinued immediately.

Talontsi_95, if you have deeply-discharged your battery below 10.5 volts, many chargers will not recognize or charge the battery. The parallel charging technique described by Andy in Pa. and explained in this video can recover deeply-discharged Optimas.

Since CumminsJeep mentioned the “g” word, I should clarify that Optima batteries are not “gel” batteries, they are lead-acid, absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries in a Spiralcell design. Most chargers will work just fine on an Optima, but “Gel” or “gel/AGM” charger settings will not fully-charge an Optima battery and could damage it over time.

sbxj, although some companies outsource their battery production or produce their batteries in China, we do not. We do not outsource our production to third-party manufacturers or modify the specifications of our batteries for any of our retail partners. We still use 99.99% pure lead in all of our batteries and they are assembled in our own state-of-the-art facility in Monterrey, Mexico and they are the only batteries produced there. While the quality of the batteries produced in our Colorado facility was excellent, the degree of automation in our current production process has resulted in even more consistency and reliability. More importantly, we still stand by the same quality standards that were in place in Colorado.

The free replacement warranty on all new RedTops and YellowTops is three years. If a battery fails because of a manufacturing defect, it will likely do so well within the first year, if not the first week. While other warranties may be pro-rated or exclude batteries deemed to be “overdischarged,” ours does not. 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

I had to blast my red top with 80a for 15 min to revive it. Two days of trickle charging did nothing to it and my computer comtrolled 10a charger wouldn't charge it and said it was bad untill after I blasted it.