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Optima Red Top

6

66benchcoupe

Member
So I was doing some cleaning and reorganizing in the garage yesterday and came across my old Optima Red Top battery that I bought in 2004. This battery hasn't been charged or used in 4 or 5 years so I checked the voltage and it read 12.09 volts! I thought that was pretty amazing. I'm sure a conventional battery would be dead in that time. Has anyone here ever had to replace an Optima?

Robert
 
I replaced two red tops, had a bad alternator and it was draining the batteries. Luckily the first replacement was about 2 weeks prior to the warranty period ending. The second was about a week later...
 
I think I bought my red top back in 2002, still going strong. I had a blue top in the boat take a powder and it was only 4 years old.
 
My first one I ever bought lasted 10 years. I have one that 8 years old. but the one I bought last year went belly up in 10 months.

I heard that since they moved manufacturing to Mexico, they quality has been a crap shoot.
 
I've had mine trunk mounted for 4-1/2 years and have had no issues with it. Even sitting for extended periods without any external charging, the battery always provided good solid cranking.
 
I have had one in my Jeep for around 5 years now. I got it out of the trash at work, it was in a generator set and it was "dead" so they replaced it. Threw that bad boy on a trickle charger and it took a charge just fine. Now the one I bought new for my Mustang, well that one only lasted about 3 days before It started spewing acid out a vent. Hecho en 'Chinexico' :guns, I put the old wet cell back in and it has lasted fine for the last year or so.
:shrug
 
I trashed one. It was left in a car for too long with a slight drain on it and went flat dead. I forget for how long. I tried every trick I heard of over a few months before I gave up on it. One other red top had the same thing happen but I found it on the second day of being dead (guessing). It too refused to charge and I was about to go apoplectic about losing yet another $160 battery. But for some reason after two days it started to respond to being trickle charged in series with a conventional battery and came back to life. I'm keeping a sharp eye on it but it seems no worse for wear so far.
 
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