i was lucky this weekend, we had a junker car traded in. customer said "it hads one of those non liquid batteries in it." well my eyes lit up, hehe. well when the deal was approved. the battery found its way into my garage. my question is how long is it expected to last, i think it was stamped. 1993. aug. thanks.

Originally posted by BIGBIRD
i was lucky this weekend, we had a junker car traded in. customer said "it hads one of those non liquid batteries in it." well my eyes lit up, hehe. well when the deal was approved. the battery found its way into my garage. my question is how long is it expected to last, i think it was stamped. 1993. aug. thanks.

mine just died and it was a 93, deep cycled many, many times though. highly unlikely that the one from the wreck has been deep cycled many times

I believe they have a 7 year warranty, so they should probably last about 7 years and 1 day:D

I have a 8 year old one in our cherokee, still good....:confused:

IME a Red Top will last anywhere from 2 mos to many, many years. It has been suggested the older ones, such as those mentioned here from the early 90s, were of a higher quality and I believe it. I've seen some mysterious Optima failures on young batteries - perhaps they've just been manufacturing defects, but for the price of an Optima I'd expect a little more QC.

Charge it fully and take it to a optima dealer, have them put a load test on it, they will tell you how strong it is.

i had one go 10 years. 1991-2001 RIP.

My last one lasted 5 yrs and change and that one was with a slow drain on the electrical system that left the battery discharged many times. I replaced it with a dual optima setup :D

How you treat a battery has more to do with lasting than how it is made. Dischage then to nothing and they form cystals that distroy the plates. Charging Optimas from dead to fast and they get messed up too. Still a killer battery now matter how much they charge.

:blender:

I'm at 8 years and running strong. It outlasted my last Jeep:)

I have absolutely swarn off any other battery.

I have owned two optimas to date, and both still work well. one is in my truck, and the other is now in my buddies tractor. I gave that first one a beating for three years and then left my lights on for a 10 hour work day. I wrote it off as bad and bought a new one... it sat in the woods by my house for a little over a year, then about a month ago my friend asked if it was good, I laughed my ass off, no way!!! he checked it with an ohm meter, not even 1volt... he charged it for a day (trickle charger) and now it's working fine in his kubota tractor. Thats just one hell of a battery.

The only way I will ever buy anything but an optima again would be for a car I plan to sell (walmart $29) and if I'm flat broke and mine was stolen.

does anyone run the blue tops? why, why not?

i have 2 in my garage waiting on the scrambler. they seem to be the best of both worlds...

matt

Originally posted by jeepnmatt
does anyone run the blue tops? why, why not?

i have 2 in my garage waiting on the scrambler. they seem to be the best of both worlds...

matt

The Blue Tops are the same battery, just different connections.
Blue Top starting is the Red Top. Blue Top deep cycle is the Yellow Top. I run one of each.

i didn't know the difference...and neither did my battery man.

i need to educate him and get a marine starting battery!

THANKS!

matt

My last one lasted over 8 years, went thru and engine fire and all.

Technically it wasnt dead. From the people I talked to both at optima and at the shop where I got it at, they say to get a 40amp booster and give it a quick boost and then put it on a trickle charge, Apparently optimas get some what of a memory and when drainned they wont hold a charge, but the booster shocks them and they will again hold a charge. They did that to my old one and its now in the sales persons car.

Optima just dropped their warranty to 3 years, used to be 6. Exide still does 7 years on the Orbital which is basically the same thing. The one post baffles me, Cherokees usually boil them over in the first year or two, every other vehicle they last a LOOOONNNG time.

Mines jun/92 - still working in the third different vehicle. That's being used in Canadian winters. Well worth the money.

The exide has a 7 year prorated....can't remeber if it is 2 year free replacment or 18 months free replacement.

I have two of them. The older one ended up in my sons Grand Am and it is still working fine. It was purchased in '94 I think. The other one was purchased in '97 and just recently died. I was wheeling in a tough rocky/muddy spot and my truck just died. Battery was dead. Had to get jumped twice before I made it back to camp. With the truck running, I measured 13V at the terminals. I shut the truck off and an hour later the battery read 8V. I had to get a lift to a junk yard and pick up a used battery just to get home. So that Optima was 5 years old. BTW, it had showed signs of dying as any small drain would kill it's charge. For instance, a half hour of the flashers on without the truck running would kill the battery. I'm thinking of trying an Odyssey battery next. Jeff