Optima Batteries worth the cost?

Bennyt said:

In the past I've had good luck with Optima batteries with them lasting over ten years. I used to go to a battery warehouse that sold "blems" with scratches and other finish issues. They were less than half the price of a pretty one. Optimas have more than doubled in the last 10-15 years. I don't think I'd pay the $200 plus they are now.

Academy sports sells an AGM starting battery that some friends have used for right around $100.

I like AGM's for their safety properties. If a battery leaked or outgassed would it be an issue? If not save some money. If its an offroad vehicle that vibrates, in the trunk or on a show car where you have to worry about underhood paint I'd go AGM. I've seen lots of batteries leak and explode, especially in car accidents, but never an AGM.

For cars that sit, I use a solar charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter that's less than $20 at HF that charges them at 0.5 amps. Always keeps them fresh.

Click to expand...

$100 is cheap for an AGM. AGM is good so long as you keep it above 50% charge according to the sales rep at Batteries Plus. He claims AGM is all that and a bag of chips, but once they get to 50% the next step down is 0%. They either stay above 50% charged or they're dead.

AuroraGirl said:

my cars northstar agm rated 950cca instead of 780 or whatever the label cclaimed. 1000+ cranking amps. its been 3 years discharged heavy 3 times and still turns it on fast i can also use the battery for hours depending what im using wasting juice on. worked great sub -20 with 10w30 it was slower yes but you could tell it could crank for minutes

good and nice quality brass posts so you dont have corrosion. pair with brass connectors to truck and it would be golden.

Click to expand...

One good thing about absorbent glass mat batteries is that as long as you dont cycle them down below 20-30% voltage and produce sulfates in the glass mat you can recondition them with the right charger. Once a lead acid is "sulfated" the lead sulfate has dropped off the plate and collects in the bottom of the case shorting the battery out . They charge faster than lead acid, and the ability to deep cycle. AGM has a depth-of-discharge of 80 percent but lead acid is 50 percent DoD if you want them to last. agm's have lower specific energy and costs more to produce than the lead acid, but still cheaper than gel batteries.
With lead acid its the ions moving around in the electrolyte that create the current flow, but as the cell gets weak the ions in the electrolyte decreases and the lead plates becoming coated with sulfate so there is less surface area to bond to. Also when lead acid battery "fails" hydrogen is released from the plates...this is why lead acid batteries will overheat and explode. its "sucking" in too much juice
AGM batteries were not produced and designed to be better than lead acid...only safer. The better depth of discharge rate is a byproduct of the matt having thinner "cells" and therefore it can release sulfates at a lower energy level. Lead acid will produce more amps for initial startup at the cost of having a higher(not as good) depth of discharge.

My 2 cents;
I'd go with the lead-acid and use the saved $$ to buy some NEW cables.

HotRodPC said:

Johnson Controls which is now Clarion, Exide and Interstate all make batteries. JC now Clarion is who makes Die Hard and IMO have always been the better batteries. All Walmart batteries used to be Exide unless it was an Interstate branded battery. Now the most of the Gold batteries are made by Clarion and are cheap compared to everyone else. I used to say avoid Walmart batteries like the COVID, now days I say get the Walmart Gold. Look on the label, it'll say Mfr by Clarion. That's the ones to get now days for the money IMO.

Click to expand...

Yes sir. Used to sell actual Clarion batteries BACK IN THE LATE 90'S... right with the amps id install.

My buddy has several Optimas that have lasted forever and still going strong.
Me? Couldn’t give me one for free, because I don’t like walking home....
Early to late 2000s I had more than a half dozen different Optimas.
So many because 2 different batteries got warranty multiple times because they were junk. I almost didn’t believe they could be that bad my self. However the very last one made it about 8 largely neglected years in my old Jeep.
And 2 others I sold the diesel truck before they had a chance to **** me. So idk how those did. (Ps I didn’t sell it because of the batteries...)
So that makes it 50/50 for Optima success imo.
If you want high $ AGMs that work, I’ve had great luck with Odyssey. 9-11 years out of first pair. Bought 2 years apart.
Second pair is 7 years old now and still going strong. Knock on wood.

Personally I generally don’t buy high $ batteries except where needed like my Snowbike lifepo4 or the boat that cranks 2500W of tunes 25 miles from the boat launch.
Jeep has had a Napa battery for about 6 years now maintained and rarely driven that is strong and I also have had good luck so far with cheap Exide batteries from Home Depot but time will tell on those.
And you can’t go wrong with interstate in general I believe.

^Didnt know about Johnson/clarion. Thx.
Also can’t go wrong with Dekas but not personal experience

Stopped by Napa on the way home to pick up some fuel line. Had a optima red top sitting there. So I asked how much $200? He said almost. So no thanks. Guaranteed huh?

My grandfathers 72 has the everstart that was in my 76 when we purchased it, its dated 2011, still starts the 72 fine, which is 6 months to a year between starts (both cables disconnected when sitting), the 76 has an oreilly auto battery in it, no problems since late 2016 when installed. Bought a durastart from the farm store for my dart, no problems with it either ($54 battery).

I only trust napa legend in my truck, its like 850 cca and its lasted me over 7 years reliably. Its about $180 but ill bite that bullet for a great battery. Ive got one in my square, s10 and gfs traverse.

I've got the Duralast Gold in all of mine (03 Silverado SS, 02 Duramax, 07 Suburban, 87 R-10) and they have always held up well. I always used the Red Top in my 04 Suburban, but the price went up and the quality went down.

I can say from todays experience at the bank of having to shut my truck off every time we moved forward( cause its loud)
after about 2 cranks my Advanced auto battery will just barley crank my truck. and its 2 1/2 months old (oct 22nd)

Swearbody said:

I can say from todays experience at the bank of having to shut my truck off every time we moved forward( cause its loud)
after about 2 cranks my Advanced auto battery will just barley crank my truck. and its 2 1/2 months old (oct 22nd)

Click to expand...

Fuckem! Let it run if you don't have to talk to them and if it doesn't overheat. But, that's me lol

To the best of my knowledge, Interstate does not manufacture batteries. Exide, Clarion (If that's the former Johnson Controls) and East Penn (Deka) are the actual manufacturers of all the battery brands.

Now that we got that out of the way, I find it hard to justify the price of anything other than a lead-acid battery unless it's a specialized application. I can ruin batteries at a professional level. At least I used to. Now that Harbor Fright sells $5 maintainers I've pretty much mended my ways. However I've had two of those maintainers malfunction and ruin a couple of 8Ds on me too.

My point is, whether I ruin them myself or the maintainers do it for me, it's way too expensive to have to replace an AGM battery for that. And if they survive, lead-acid batteries tend to last between five and seven years with the maintainers. So when you amortize the cost, and factor that no special equipment is required it's really tough for me to justify the investment in a fancy battery.

If I wanted the best AGM, I'd get an Odyssey; Enersys is a serious battery manufacturer of all types (I used to work for a competitor of theirs). That said, I don't see the point of anything more than a Duralast Gold in any of my cars.

So it looks like Sams Club has a Deka/East Penn Made in USA battery for $103, which is a LOT cheaper than everywhere else, if that's not junk...Walmart is only $88 (both 3 year batteries) but I can't find out the manufacturer of it. From more and more poking around it seems like Deka is better than Johnson Controls at this point? Also seems like Optima has quality issues, and wouldn't be a great fit for the 1987 charging system anyway...which is good for the wallet...