I have had an Optima battery in this car for about five years, and assumed it was the best thing available. I have also assumed that just because it was reading a solid 12.5 volts unloaded, it was good. I am getting ready to replace it, and would like comments about which batteries are favorites out there, as well as any negatives. Please mention any disaster stories about the Optima batteries. Thanks for participating.

Sam

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Optima used to be the premium battery. When I worked at the wrecking yard in the mid-late '90s, Optimas cost more on the used-battery rack than any other kind. And they were the ones that tended to disappear; if an Optima came in under the hood of a junked car, whoever first saw it would usually grab and stash it. But Optima has been through several corporate "parents". If I remember the sequence correctly, the original manufacturer was Gates (as in belts and hose, in Denver), who originally called the spiral cells in the Optima battery "Gates Cyclon" cells. Then Gates sold the battery operation; somewhere in there a Swedish operation was involved, then somebody else was making them, and quality control went awry. If you got a good one, you were fine, but there were far too many bad ones, and as I understand it (I had quit buying Optimas by then) the multiple sequential brand owners didn't care much about people who'd bought batteries from the previous owner of the brand. I have no up-to-date info on how reliable they are currently; I think Johnson Controls now make the Optimas, and JCI have a good reputation in the field, but I don't consider them cost-effective because they remain considerably more expensive than other batteries without a sturdy track record of being worth the extra money in the long run.

My last few battery replacements have occurred such that a right-now replacement was necessary, limiting my options. I've wanted for some time to go buy a battery from one of those local places that <i>makes</i> them on-site, complete with old-fashioned one-per-cell round filler caps. There were several such places in Eugene OR when I lived there, and I have to imagine there are some here, too. As it stands, my last two batteries have been a spiral cell Optima-type unit made by Exide (their "orbital" design) and branded as Motomaster for Canadian Tire, and a Motomaster Nautilus marine deep-cycle item, both purchased from Canadian tire. One's in the Dart, and one's in the truck, and I don't recall at the moment which is in what. I like the deep-cycle batteries because they're considerably more resillient and tolerant of sustained light-to-moderate load (e.g. leaving the lights on), they have convenient threaded-stud connections near the terminals that make it easy to add electrical accessories, and as long as picked correctly they have much more than enough high-load capacity to start the car very reliably even in very rough (cold or hot) conditions.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

The only time I killed an optima it was my fault - overcharged on a "dumb" charger, excessive drain from forgetting headlights, etc. Thats why I now have a deep cycle yellow top.

I also recall Odyssey batteries being popular especially with the car stereo crowd. I forgot their specific advantages other then they have small / light versions when you don't need the capacity, and I thought they were lighter per CCA. I know they are more expensive.

JCI does make the Optimas now........


Make one of these for the battery:

http://home.comcast.net/~ddenhardt20126 ... desulf.htm


Actually work. I have an Optima in my 4x4 truck that sits around alot and with the parasitic drain you get nowdays was getting down to 12.4v.

Got it back to acting like a new battery.


I've had good luck with Costco Batteries (also made by JCI), and they're considerablly cheaper than other places.......

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

That was interesting EMS. Am I to understand that this device is a charger that also desulfates the plates? I got that it desulfated the plates, but it wasn;t till I read clear to the bottom of the thread that I picked up that this device charged the batteries.

What about a commercial battery tneder that cycles the batteries. Any brand or use recommended? Maybe I don;t need to replace this battery. Maybe one of these devices would rejuvinate it.

What volt drop is acceptable during cold cranking?

Sam

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What kind of voltage drop are you getting? Drop varies depending on load. That standard test is above 9.6v at half the rated CCA for 15 seconds.

Don't know anything about the commercial products other than they're expensive.

I made a variation of the orginal version (N-channel)

http://home.comcast.net/~ddenhardt20126 ... wpower.htm

It doesn't charge, and actually steals power from the battery so you need a seperate charger.

There's a link to a forum somewhere in the site, bunch of info there.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Totally depends on too many factors to give an easy answer. Type of engine and what grade of oil is in it, type of starter and what type of cables feed it, how cold is "cold", etc. This is not generally used as a measure by which to select a battery...

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I just thought I would watch the cranking volts and see what kind of drop there was at crank. I don't know what that would tell me though. YOu mentioned a few threads ago that when the starter is cranking, the voltage may drop down to where any marginal components in the ignition system might begin to fail. I think I remember, years ago having a battery that seemed good, until you put it under load, and then the voltage dropped precipitously.(How's that for a 25 cent word?)

The new coil I installed made a whale of a difference. I wonder if that old coil, (now in the trash) was breaking down completely when the voltage dropped in the cold crank condition. We won;t know until it gets cold again.

Sam

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You're on the right track, but that's not quite what my concern was. What I had in mind is that if the line voltage drops below a certain point while cranking, it'll be too low for certain electronic components to work correctly (e.g., the ECU might not boot correctly or might repeatedly reboot as the line voltage straddles the ECU's threshhold operational voltage), causing hard starting.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Deka= Made in USA. 6 years old in my truck.

I'm due to replace my battery before cold comes as I knew this battery's efficiency starting to drop last winter/spring. This battery I obtained from local battery shop in oct 2003, it is deep cycle type 800CCA type. Wasn't sure of it's quality as the brand on it is not known but was told this is decent.

Last year, I noticed battery got less energy and I had it load tested and says it is good but I don't believe what they said (battery shop where I bought this said battery used a load meter). My caravan have volt meter so I knew it's too low and I've almost couldn't start few times.

So, like yours, I'm in ontario, canada, is costco is good for battery and which is their good lines? Also for motormaster at canadian tire (optima clone) which one is good?

Cheers, Wizard

Costco only has 1 line (plus some optimas) and a group 24 marine.

The optimas have the standard optima warranty (whatever that is) the marine is 36 months and the other costco batterys are 100 months.

So you could compare that against others.......

Here's batteries Johnson Controls makes so you can compare:
http://www.autobatteries.com/brands/index.asp

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

I have had great luck with the "yellow" top optimas. I've always ran them on my desert off road racing trucks where it 100 degrees plus and Iam running 8 huge off road lights, an eletric fuel pump, race radios, fuel injection,and a fresh air system. I the winter races its about 40 degrees out and everytime my truck starts up. Under these extrem conditions i change the battery out about every 2 years and will put them in anther vehicle of mine. I have yet to have one fail on me. Hope this helps

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All in a days work

It seems most people really like the Optima battery. I have not heard of Deka. Who sells them? Are they available at parts stores?

Sam

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I've only came across Deka at the local farm supply where many are for recreational vehicles. I have the red top Optima under the passenger seat in my van. I had a rotted battery tray with a perfectly good Motormaster on top, but I moved to the Optima gel cell especially for being inside the vehicle. Besides having to restring the harness and add side terminal cables, its worked great.