11 Jan 11, 11:22 am
I've had lots of batteries over the years, and here's my take.
Had several acid 1000+ CCA batteries hold up fine in Northern Minnesota winters without pads or chargers.
However in more recent years the lead acid batteries haven't held up so well for me so I've been switching over to the Optimas as I've had great success with them in the last seven years.
I've bought four red tops, and a yellow. Currently I have two one year old Red tops in my offroader, and a six year old yellow top in my car. The Yellow has been in many vehicles over the years and has yet to fail me. There's only one time the yellow didn't start the vehicle it was in and it was because the vehicle had not been plugged in for over a week and it was -40. An hour of being plugged in and the vehicle started right up without a jump.
One negative of the Optima's compared to Lead acid in my opinion, is that the Lead Acid batteries come in sizes over 1000 CCA, for lots of cranking power, most Optimas don't go over 800 CCA.
I have yet to have an Optima fail, however, I had an Orbital go bad and Napa went through three on their shelf before they found one that was good.
I'm sure that just like all cars and trucks, you can have two identical batteries sitting side by side and one will last ten years, and the other will last two. So having one of any type go bad is probably not a good indicator of wither or not the type of battery is junk.
Maybe I'm lucky, but I'm going to stick with the Optimas, I've had great luck with them and they have not let me down. They seem to take discharges well, and recover better. Every Lead Acid battery I've ever drained never was the same again. Also with Lead Acid, if it discharges, it will freeze. I haven't frozen an Optima yet. Again, maybe I'm lucky, and maybe I just do a good job of ensuring I don't have an excessive drain on my vehicles.
I also agree with Kevin that trickle chargers that are used all the time seem to make the batteries dependent on them and over time they loose their ability to hold a full charge. I use heating pads, only because I like the extra 100 CA's you get from a warmer battery over a cold one.
If I get another Diesel truck in the next year or two and it ever needs batteries, the 2 one year old Reds will go to it and 2 Yellows will be purchased for the offroader due to their higher reserve ability which is desirable for winching.
Had several acid 1000+ CCA batteries hold up fine in Northern Minnesota winters without pads or chargers.
However in more recent years the lead acid batteries haven't held up so well for me so I've been switching over to the Optimas as I've had great success with them in the last seven years.
I've bought four red tops, and a yellow. Currently I have two one year old Red tops in my offroader, and a six year old yellow top in my car. The Yellow has been in many vehicles over the years and has yet to fail me. There's only one time the yellow didn't start the vehicle it was in and it was because the vehicle had not been plugged in for over a week and it was -40. An hour of being plugged in and the vehicle started right up without a jump.
One negative of the Optima's compared to Lead acid in my opinion, is that the Lead Acid batteries come in sizes over 1000 CCA, for lots of cranking power, most Optimas don't go over 800 CCA.
I have yet to have an Optima fail, however, I had an Orbital go bad and Napa went through three on their shelf before they found one that was good.
I'm sure that just like all cars and trucks, you can have two identical batteries sitting side by side and one will last ten years, and the other will last two. So having one of any type go bad is probably not a good indicator of wither or not the type of battery is junk.
Maybe I'm lucky, but I'm going to stick with the Optimas, I've had great luck with them and they have not let me down. They seem to take discharges well, and recover better. Every Lead Acid battery I've ever drained never was the same again. Also with Lead Acid, if it discharges, it will freeze. I haven't frozen an Optima yet. Again, maybe I'm lucky, and maybe I just do a good job of ensuring I don't have an excessive drain on my vehicles.
I also agree with Kevin that trickle chargers that are used all the time seem to make the batteries dependent on them and over time they loose their ability to hold a full charge. I use heating pads, only because I like the extra 100 CA's you get from a warmer battery over a cold one.
If I get another Diesel truck in the next year or two and it ever needs batteries, the 2 one year old Reds will go to it and 2 Yellows will be purchased for the offroader due to their higher reserve ability which is desirable for winching.
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