I am really finding this hard to believe. Here is the situation:

I purchased two yellow top Optimas about 8 months ago to eventually be used for my dual battery set up. I have only used one of them until today. The one I did use has seem almost no use as the jeep has been pretty much been under the knife for the last 7 1/2 months. I decided to throw the charger on them a few days ago just to bring them up. Neither had discharged much according to the charger's meter. Each was charged for about 36 or so hours with the charger set to its lowest setting (2 amp automatic).

Today I pretty much finished the final wiring for my FI and some other stuff. I wanted to check it out so I threw the used battery in place and turned the key to on. I started checking voltages with my meter. ( I am not ready to start this thing yet) The first place I check is at the starter solenoid. It read .14V, what the heck. I checked at battery terminals, both top post and side mounts, same thing.

I don't believe I have ever seen a battery fail to where it only reads .14V. :confused: When the cells short they usually have some residual voltage. It is almost like it is fused internally. I have never placed a high amp load on this battery. My meter is fine, it reads 13.4v on the unused battery.

What do you think? Is this a common failure?

I've had the same problem with the two aux batteries in my MH. They did the exact same thing. I ran a 12 volt to them both for a few hours and then left the 2 amp on them over night and they came back. Seems as though they need an initial shock to wake them up. Worth a try anyways!!

Bud:)

I had the same probem with my yellow top after extended down time (3 months). I tried charging it and had no luck. It was still under warranty (1 year on a yellow top), so I got a new one. I think the heat of charging them kills them, but who knows! My old post is on here somewhere with some feedback.

Good luck!
Doug

I've had problems with every optima I've owned. I have gone through 8 of them so far.

I bought 4 originally. The rest have been warrantied.
Now all I do is fry them every 9 months or so.

My old Red-Top died on me like that. I didn't use it for a few months, charged it up got it started and it would die on me as soon as I would shut the truck off. Took it in and Optima wouldn't belive it and told me that you had to charge them up with a low amp low heat charger. The shop charged it up just like optima said. Did the exact same thing again. They sent it back to Optima and I got a new battery. It was pretty strange though, it would never hold a charge at all.

I haven't had any of the Yellow top Optishit batteries, but I have had about 9 of the Red tops. They all went bad & their warranty sucks!!:mad: :flipoff:

My 7 year old Delco Voyagers are still working quite well. How long is the Optima supposed to last, anyway?
I can't quite see a good reason yet to buy a battery thats much smaller capacity thats twice the price( my voyager is 105AH, 750 CCA ea.). I've run the winch hard on these Voyagers (that I bought a K-mart, of all places) and not had a problem (I never did Suprise cyn. though). I've even laid my truck on its side, the Voyager did not leak anything at all. Everyone raves about how Optimas wont leak and can be mounted sideways or upside down. Do many of you mount them that way?

This thread sure won't make me want to buy an Optima, either.:rolleyes:

Thats why I don't let my batteries sit, when I got my blem redtop for my lil project truck I threw it into my friends DD until I'm ready to use it.