bestvettever

Hi guys, Well it was a rainy day here, and I guess I had to much time on my hands, so I went to the garage to play around a bit. I decided just for the heck of it to do a volt test on the 9 month old Optima in my Chrysler, and the 9 year old AC delco Pro 78DT 6YR that I use on my work bench for the last 4 years. The Delco is on a maintainer 24/7 since I pulled it out of a car that I gave to charity years ago. It is the old style Delco with the green eye in it. The Optima is a Redtop that I bought for the Chrysler last August. To be truthful the only reason I bought the Optima is because I couldn't find a Delco to fit in it at the time, and I wanted a sealed battery because the Chrysler has it down in the fender well where you really can't check it for water or corosion.
So I put the Optima on a maintainer untill the red light came on signifying a full charge, removed the maintainer, waited 1 hour, and measured the volt output with a Craftsmen digital meter.
I did the same thing with the Delco with the same maintainer.
Results
AC Delco 78DT 6YR,(8 years old),=13.2 volts
Optima Redtop,(9 months old), =12.7 volts
Now of course this was not a load test, and both batteries will start the car. I had occaision to use the Delco to jump start a friends minivan a few weeks ago, so I know it will take a load, and of course the optima starts my dd every day.
But my conclusion is that the Delco was a better more powerful battery than the optima,which I suspect is already starting to sulphate, OR you just can not get an Optima to full charge with a maintainer even though they claim you can, OR both..
Flame suit on--All opinions welcome
Luck to All.

bestvettever

ttt, just thought I'd give it another shot for some commentary on the diff in volts output.

LoneStarFRC

One thing I noticed is that your Delco has been in a more-or-less controlled environment for the last 4 yrs, while the Optima is being exposed to the elements (wider temp changes, etc)
This may also be a factor when evaluating things.

pentavolvo

IMO optimas are overpriced for what they are. way too many ppl have issues with them failing after a year or so.

ac delco in our 01 vert is the origional and the car sits all winter with battery unhooked, no battery maintaner and it always fires right up in the spring. sits for weeks sometimes and always starts right up

94 camaro we replaced origonal ac delco with an autozone battery after the origional was 9 years old and only replaced it because we were putting a big stereo in it and figured the battery was getting up there.

97 cavalier replaced the origonal ac delco this past winter since my son has it at school and it sits for a week or 2 sometimes and it was starting to crank slow

ill never buy optima

Dave68

I recently replaced my OEM AC Delco (7 years old), only because I didn't want to take any chances and to me, 7 years is plenty of life. I replaced it with an AC Delco Professional 7-year battery. They can be purchased through Summit Racing for $99.00.
I compare the Optima/AC Delco to Runflats/non-runflats in that one brings piece of mind, but with less performance. Because of the improvements that were made to the latest AC Delco battery cases, and because I've had 1 blowout in 34 years of driving, I feel that the risk of either scenario is small enough to be insignificant to me.

Mr.Bill

AC-Delco for me....
Thanks for the info, I have always use Delco, Thought about Optima once and that was it, I have always had fantastic luck with Delco, So why change.

02MillenniumVette

Optima for me. The previous owner put the optima in mine and Ive had the car for 5 years with no problems.

vetter79

My red top failed after 2 years -Great Product!!
Replaced with an Exide 780T-72 and have had no probs. since (and the vette is laid up 5 months of the year in this part of the country!

Patches

Funny. My factory AC Delco failed in my '02 9 months after I bought it. I replaced it with a RedTop in 2002 and have had it ever since. When we bought my other '02 used last year, the owner had just replaced the AC Delco with a new AC Delco Professional and that failed within 2 months. I tried finding a replacement but could only find a RedTop that evening so I put one in since the wife need the car the next day. I'ts been great for a year now and I never put it on a tender and it's probably only driven 3-4 times a week.

So, we all have different experiences with batteries. Sometimes it's hard to draw a conclusion.

ljthe2nd

This is normal, any battery in a daily driver that does not have a float charger or some kind of battery maintainer connected to it will show about 12.7 or 12.8 volts if the battery is good. Once you connect a float charger to it (this charger maintains a charge of over 13 volts in your battery) you will get this kind of reading unless you let the battery set for a week or two, and then it will read about 12.7 or 12.8

bestvettever

Hi, thanks for the responses. Just to add fuel to the fire, I decided to test my 01 subaru outback DD the same way. I put an AC Delco top post in it also last august to replace the original water type battery that had made quite a mess after 6 years in the car. The bat was still starting the car, but created a bit of outgassing and the terminals needed annual cleaning. Did the same test, put on maintainer to bring it to full--disconnect-- wait an hour and test.
Result--13.1 volts.
Also pulled the vette down from the storage lift,(drive it 2 or 3 times a week this time of year), and tested the same way. 03 50AE vert auto, replaced oem with AC Delco side post also last august(oem had failed , but no damage, don't know if orig owner used maintainer), unplugged the maintainer, waited an hour and tested.
Result--13.2 volts
So bottom line my AC Delco's have proved to be stronger batteries for me. One other conclusion is that I spent a lot of money on batteries last august.
Luck to All.

hattitude

When I went to the Summit Racing site, they only listed Optima Batteries..

bestvettever

Give them a call on the 800 #. They did have them a few years ago. Although because they are not AGM anymore, I'm not sure if they can ship them now.

Vetteman Jack

Took my stock Delco out of the car less than a year after I bought it - replaced it with an Optima Red Top (November 2001). Had the same battery in the car since and absolutely no problems after 6.5 years. Some may have had problems with their Optimas, but I sure haven't.

Dave68

Here's the model that I have for my 01 - probably fits all front terminal cable C5s.

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...+115&y=14&x=35

...but check here to be sure:

http://198.208.187.182/internet/Vehicle.jsp

Dave