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Optima Problem?


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I think those damn Optima's are junk!!! Especially for what they get for um. Within the family we've owned several that crapped out in less than a year. I've gotten better life out of a Walmart battery.

Interstate and Auto Zone's Gold series seem to be pretty good. I've only had one warranty exchange on an Auto Zone Gold. And it was in a boat. I've never had a problem with an Interstate. They've always lasted beyond their warranty period.

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I was a generator mechanic in Iraq last year we always replaced the standard military spec batteries with the yellow tops,for any of our vehicles we used red tops.i run red tops in my jeeps and havent had any problems.we used the red and yellows in iraq because the water in the normal batteries always went away in no time over there.after replacing a battery with a yellow or red top i never had any problem, i was there for 14 months.i'm not sure how any of this relates just my experience :)

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Optima batteries developed a good rep, were bought out by another company and apparently cheapened, and are living off of their old rep until the new lower quality bites them in the keister.

 

A little web search turns up plenty of reasons to not buy them:

 

"...When the Swedes owned optima...quality was foremost of all at all cost. JCI is the company that KILLED optima batteries, they always had 99.99 pure lead until JCI bought optima. The first thing they did was: fired all of the on staff scientists, then fired all of the PHD's, then fired the chemists, then dismantled the chemistry lab, then dismantled the prototype lab, then got rid of the pure lead and replaced it with lead with higher tin content, then JCI brought in their genius engineers and re formulated the lead acid paste, then replaced the AGM paper with lower grade paper, ex cetera, ex cetera. All of this was done within the first 2 years of their ownership! . I am aware of some of the mfg practices being used specifically on the optima in mexico, and they are not conducive to quality!"

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No it's not hot. It buzzes for a little while even when I take it off the charge. Sounds like the yellow tops would be a better choice, but think I’m dun replacing these Optima’s, ...but I need the dry cell technology as I have one inverted under my bed.

 

 

Anyone have any feedback on those Odyssey batteries?

http://www.polyperformance.com/shop/Ody ... -2049.html

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Optima batteries developed a good rep, were bought out by another company and apparently cheapened, and are living off of their old rep until the new lower quality bites them in the keister.

 

A little web search turns up plenty of reasons to not buy them:

 

"...When the Swedes owned optima...quality was foremost of all at all cost. JCI is the company that KILLED optima batteries, they always had 99.99 pure lead until JCI bought optima. The first thing they did was: fired all of the on staff scientists, then fired all of the PHD's, then fired the chemists, then dismantled the chemistry lab, then dismantled the prototype lab, then got rid of the pure lead and replaced it with lead with higher tin content, then JCI brought in their genius engineers and re formulated the lead acid paste, then replaced the AGM paper with lower grade paper, ex cetera, ex cetera. All of this was done within the first 2 years of their ownership! . I am aware of some of the mfg practices being used specifically on the optima in mexico, and they are not conducive to quality!"

 

wow, that sucks. I was seriously considering buying one, but not any more. You see this happening with a lot of things. Interstate has never failed me, or any of my customers. Imho still the best battery around, and I used to think optima was to, oh well.

 

I've installed hundreds of interstate batteries, and I have warrantied 2 in 10 years. The funny thing is they never fail inside their warranty period, but they've basically figured out how to put a timer on them, because right after that they tend to go bad, but that's 5-7 years depending on the one you buy. I've seen countless autozone and walmart batteries come through that the customer says in a huff, I'll have to take it back to where I got it I just got that last year.

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proud owner of a 10 year old optima here...works great.

 

 

sad owner of a 1 year old optima. it already has a dead cell (or whatever is in them) and won't hold a charge more than a few days. it's wierd...I can run the radio and lights for 7 hours, but it won't hold a charge more than a few days...and there's no leak in my electrical system. it's the battery itself.

 

 

Interstate has never failed me. you can bet your arse I won't pay $180 for a battery again...cheaper to put a good alternator on to run my lights and whatnot, and have an interstate.

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I run a yellow top in the MJ, but it's old (like at least 7 years old). Never had a problem with it until a few months ago and it wouldn't hold a charge for more than a couple of weeks. I accidentally left it on a full charge for two days in the garage, and it's been fine since.

 

No comment on the more recent batch of them out of Mexico, but I've been hearing alot of bad stuff about them.

 

There was a huge thread going on them over on garage journal, and a company man even signed up so he could post rebuttals of what everyone was saying.....it was interesting, to say the least.

 

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/show ... hp?t=86382

 

Jeff

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Interstate is nothing but a name and distributor. JCI (Johnson controls) makes Interstate, Die Hard, Duralast, Optima and tons others. Now I can't say with certianty if all the manufacturing processes are identical, but one would suspect that to be the case whenever they can get away with it. The only other true battery suppliers are East Penn (Deka), and Exide; and distributors switch all the time.

 

An example: The NAPA stores here in the midwest just switched their battery supplier from Exide to East Penn about a year ago... so the NAPA legend 84 month that you bought in '05 is NOT the same as the replacement on the shelf.

The same is probably true with Interstate. iirc they were East Penn not too long ago, now they are JCI...

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are you charging the optima with a charger meant for AGM batteries? I know they specifically say that you need a multi step charger to charge them. as for replacement I know you said you need a dry battery so you can mount it upside down but I have been hearing good things about die hard platinum lead acid batteries.

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  • 2 years later...

You can't charge a optima with a regular old battery charger you have to have a smart charger otherwise you will fry your battery.

Really? I've charged my red top from that is a 2008, about a dozen times with a 10amp regular old battery charger... Works fine.

 

I see this is a old thread....

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