zguy

Had my Optima red top on a battery tender throughout the winter. Yesterday I started the car with no problems. Today the battery is completely dead. WTF. I can not even hook it up to a battery charger. When I try, I get some major sparks. I have never had a battery go dead in less than one year.

The funny thing is that when I had the original AC/Delco I never charged it over the winter months and sometimes it ran completely down. Put it on the charger and she always came back to life. Even with that type of abuse it still lasted about 3 years.

I hope I have some type of warranty with this thing. I bought it at Pep Boys 11 months ago.

Anyone else have any problems with their red tops? I can help but think that these things are a POS...

Danno 2000

I just bought a red top about a month ago and was told it had a 3 year warranty. Hope this helps.

sweetcharity

I have never read a thread with bad news about the Optima's and then in 2 days or so I have seen 3!! I ditched my Delco (which was working fine) for the red top and so far all is well, but hmmmmm, well see what the future brings!

2KREDVert

I had them go dead too after long periods of storage. Then I switched to the Yellow Top deep cycle. They are made to hold up to long periods of storage. Also recommend to keep it as warm as you can during winter. Better yet move here to San Diego.

goalie31

Mine went dead after 3 weeks of sitting. Mine is also a year old. It's charging as we speak (type). Thought that wouldn't happen.

VETTE2k

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1026094

Check out what happened to mine on Saturday.

Lithium

i had the same problem in the same amount of time TWO TIMES!!!! no more optimas for me

vettenuts

WOW!!!

I have been contemplating getting a Red Top for my 02 since the AGM's usually fail without notice and we have some trips planned in the car this summer. Maybe I will just go with an Interstate. I have never had a problem with them.

C5XTASY

You may want to try an Exide Orbital. These are the people that originally developed the glassmat battery technology. I've had one in my car for almost four years now and it acts like it is brand-new. During the winter I keep it on a maintainer.
Ed

Evil-Twin

Optima batteries have a three year no charge ( no pro-rate ) direct replacement.

cajung

I too have an Orbital. I heard about all the problems with the Optimas lately and stayed away. What type and model maintainer do you use for the Orbital? I've also heard that you shouldn't use just any trickle charger, but you need something with very low amperage.

C5XTASY

You do not want to store a battery on a trickle charger. I use Schmacher battery maintainers. Bought them at Fleet Farm for about $20...don't remember exactly. Sears also sells them for about this price. There are other companies that sell maintainers also, but charge about double for the same thing...be careful. Maintainers monitor voltage and apply a low level charging rate only when battery voltage drops below a certain point. When the battery voltage rises up again to a certain level, the maintainer shuts down again. I've been using maintainers for years and have never had a battery fail that I store on them. I use them on the Corvette battery, lawn tractors batteries, boat batteries, etc. I'll get the exact performance details off the box, and instruction sheet, this morning and post them in this thread. Living in Minnesota, I have plenty of experience storing batteries over the winter.
Ed

John Nowak PE

Well, I'll throw my .02 in here....

I've tried a wide variety of different battery brands/types over the years in a wide variety of vehicles. After all this trial and error, there is a reason why all of the vehicles at our house have Delco batteries. Of all the batteries I've used, the Delcos have given me the longest life at a competitive price.

The factory AGM battery in our Vette just died this year (nearly 5-years old). Now it is probably partially my fault as this winter I didn't go out and run the car as frequently as in the past (normally I leave the battery in and run the car for about 20 minutes once per month and never had any problems). Put a brand new Delco in it yesterday and all is well.

Our 1996 Chevy 4x4 still has the factory battery in it. It is still going strong at 131,000 miles. During the winter the truck is run periodically with a small electric winch to clear snow (the winch raises & lowers the plow blade) which puts extra stress on the battery. During the summer, the truck is also parked for extended periods (driving the Vette then).

The only other battery I've ever had that came close to a Delco in longevity has been a CAT battery. Interstate (don't even get me started on them), DieHard, Exide, Optima, Napa, Motorcraft, etc. have never held up as long as a Delco for me. As a result, I'll keep buying Delco and I'll always recommend it.

ditty22

Iv got an orbital in my denali and its a year old and its junk now! Im running about 2000watts with the stereo system but still im pissed! Does anyone know where i can exchage it 4 a new one? Ps i also had an optima red top in my acura tl with damn near the same system and it was fine as could be for a year and now my moms been driving it for the last year with no problems but without the stereo though. laters ditti

zguy

Update: Just got it replaced at Pep Boys this afternoon for free. The manager asked a ton of stupid questions like, how do I know it is dead???

Anyway, I better hold on to that receipt. I will probably need it next year again.

DRR

Warranty on Optima Red Top 36 mo. free replacement. Yellow Top 12 mo. free replacement. How do I know this you ask? My Daughter was out of town in her Civic and pulled in to register at the hotel, came back out 5 min. later and her Yellow top powered Civic would not start. She called me and I dug out the records and saw the 12 mo. warranty deal. They don't make a red top for her car, so I went with the yellow thinking a more expensive and more cca rating would be better and have a longer warranty. Wrong! The 12 mo. period expired 1/2/05 and on 2/25/05 the yellow top expired too. She had AAA jump start it and drove 50 mi. to the Batteries Plus store in Santa Cruz to get a new one. They pro-rata exchanged her dead one for $80. That means they gave her $50 towards the new one. Optima HQ is getting an email from me complaining about this. Thanks for the opportunity to vent. My advice is stick with the red top if you can. Doug

Mike Mercury

BiggieBoy

I'm on my 3rd Optima Red Top in 4 years. The cells go dead, even tho I've had my Battery Tender on it all winter. Fortunately, they're replaced for free, but WTF--this surely stinks... I'm 100% certain, I'll not be buying anymore Optima batteries.

Dugmole

Just had my red top go out.

No long winter storage either

It lasted for about one year.

2KREDVert

The yellow top (deep cycle) does well if the car sits allot.