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OPTIMA BATTERIES SUCK MAJOR NUT HOLES

F

FireFly

NAXJA Forum User
Location
socal
sorry i must rant. i put in a new red top about a week ago, the damn thing wont work now. turns out the manufacturer only put half the gel in. i spent 200 bucks on half a battery basically. what cheap punks.
 
my red top let me down the other day also.. kinda weird situation, i wake up in the morning to go to school, and its completely dead, so i try to jump it, let it charge for a while, still nothing at all, so i take the battery out of the car that i tried to jump it with and put it in my jeep, drove to school and after school i got the optima checked, and it read 11.8v without him putting a load on it.. so i took it home and put it in, and it was like nothing ever happened. still works good so far.
 
Are they going to make it right?
 
I have heard of them lasting 9 years in a truck, I have one in my P-car. The only thing I have heard is you don't want to let them sit without a battery tender for any extended period of time. Any battery can go bad, take it back.
 
Don't they have a full replacement guarantee for the first two or three years?

(but for $200 they should provide some other services as well!)
 
Last edited:
With any NEW battery if you just bought it, you should get a brand new one. Take it back and jsut go to Costo and get a 1000ca battery. Cheapest place I have found good batteries.
 
I just had to change my red top also.....after nine years and three vehicles. Actually, I just wanted a new one, so the old one is in the MJ now and still working....at least every other week or so when i start it.

I have heard the newer optimas are not as good as the ones prior to 03-04 era. But like everyone said....any company can have a bad one, take it back and get over it.
 
when i gave it back to them they put it against the other ones, its half the weight and the weight is from the gel. so i figure half gel. nope im gettin Exide Orbitals. Family works for them and i can get one for 30 bucks or so.
 
FireFly said:
when i gave it back to them they put it against the other ones, its half the weight and the weight is from the gel. so i figure half gel. nope im gettin Exide Orbitals. Family works for them and i can get one for 30 bucks or so.
Click to expand...

why didnt you just do that in the 1st place then? 30 bucks... seems kinda like a no brainer to me :dunno:
 
FireFly said:
when i gave it back to them they put it against the other ones, its half the weight and the weight is from the gel. so i figure half gel. nope im gettin Exide Orbitals. Family works for them and i can get one for 30 bucks or so.
Click to expand...

So does that mean the rest of us can get batteries for 30 bucks or so ?
 
My yellow top got drained due to me leaving the inside light on for 2 weeks. Took it to a gas station and they said it would'nt hold a charge. I read some stuff on JU and here that said if you drain one down you have to trickle charge it for a long time. Told the station to trickle charge it overnight. Been kicking ass ever since.
 
paulhead said:
My yellow top got drained due to me leaving the inside light on for 2 weeks. Took it to a gas station and they said it would'nt hold a charge. I read some stuff on JU and here that said if you drain one down you have to trickle charge it for a long time. Told the station to trickle charge it overnight. Been kicking ass ever since.
Click to expand...

That's really the way to recover most batteries. If I had the time, I'd hook a headlamp up to one overnight to fully drain it, then trickle charge it for 48 hours or so (trickle <=2A. Lower is better, longer is better.)

High-rate charging merely results in a "surface charge" that gets you a few cranks, ends up overloading your alternator, and then you've wrecked both the battery and the alternator.

It doesn't often pay to be in a hurry...
 
cant really say my battery took a dump on me, but it would go dead after 30 minutes of the headlights being on... it was a walmart special everstart, and it was about 2-3" shorter in length, it looked like a honda battery or something. it let me down when i was camping, i didnt close my hatch all the way and my dome lights were on all night, every other car i had it would of started in the morning, but not this one, it was beyond dead =/ so i went and bought a vatozone duralast gold 800cca/1000ca 105 reserve battery, starts good and holds between 12.7-12.8 when its off, and 13.8 when running and warm, mid 14's on a cold morning.
 
I got a sealed dual cycle from Sam's club. Made by Orbital and from what I read about them they are the exact same thing as the regular Orbital dual cycle just relabeled. I left my lights on for 10 hours a few different times and it started right up like nothing was wrong. And according to Orbital's web site they are the only ones you can run in any position without having a leak. The Optimas use the gel and they said that their design there is a way it could leak.
 
Lets get back to a 'group buy' on these Orbitals. I just bought one for $100 new (big sale) and would be interested in buying a couple (or a few) if I can get them at $30!
 
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