Optima battery??..

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Lately you have money burning a hole in your pocket. lol
If I didn't know better, I'd be thinking your building a car for a magazine or the front of T shirt. lol
well I've been working so much lately I actually had to tell my customers I need a week off to work around the house LOL..
So really the work never stops...
I have bought a few things lately for the car but some of it is preventive maintenance as well. Like the battery I've had in the car since I got it back in 2014 and figured I better get while the gettin's good. I tried starting it a couple times in a row and it died after what I thought was way to minimum of cranking.. I bought the aluminum heads last September and finally got them on and the gaskets and things to accommodate them and the time to work on them... I got new carburetors around Christmas because one of them came with the car and the other one was given to me as scrap metal from a Chevy guy who couldn't figure out it needed 12 volts for the choke.. I did spend 576 for the two carburetors on sale at Christmas but recouped 300 of that selling the old ones.. I did buy a new MSD cap and rotor and plug wires for the car but again those have been on for five years or so and had corroded connections.. beyond that I have splurged a little but I've been working so much I feel I deserve it... It's not like I'm filling my driveway in storage units with cars I just have the one to concentrate on.. lol..
 

Try it. I'll watch from a distance. Always like a good fireworks show.. :D

Resting battery voltage will rarely be 13+ volts unless it's a flooded battery that is warm. The voltage potential of various metals has a very specific limit. Lead-acid batteries produce 2.05 volts per cell, or 12.3v resting voltage for 6 cells in series.

I'm glad you started this thread though, next time I need a good battery I'll be buying an Odyssey - hope they make compatible batteries for my motorcycles too.
 
Try it. I'll watch from a distance. Always like a good fireworks show.. :D

Resting battery voltage will rarely be 13+ volts unless it's a flooded battery that is warm. The voltage potential of various metals has a very specific limit. Lead-acid batteries produce 2.05 volts per cell, or 12.3v resting voltage for 6 cells in series.

I'm glad you started this thread though, next time I need a good battery I'll be buying an Odyssey - hope they make compatible batteries for my motorcycles too.
This is my first optima battery and who knows it could be my last. I'm pretty well-known on this sight for learning my lessons the hard way... I do try and ask first being that's what the forum is for and as you can see I've gotten mixed reviews...
I called optima tech line this morning and they said it should be 13 to 13.2... they also said although it's not recommended it shouldn't hurt the battery to use a regular charger as long as it's under 10 amps when I asked about putting mine on the 2 amp setting..
Soooo... I called Summit customer service to confirm that it is okay to use hey non recommended charger as they're the ones who were going to end up having to warranty this if anything's wrong. Of course I get one of a hundred customer service people that's an old codger that pretty much wants to standoff with me about it. so I take another half hour and call again and get a nice person who's at least going to call optima and get that approved so if this can't hold a 13 volt charge I can send it back.. the first guy wants me to put it in my car and run it and let my alternator charge it. I said I did not buy a 265 dollar battery to run down and abused my alternator trying to charge it...
and in the end I don't care if I seem like I'm being difficult I want what I paid for...
 
Totally agree - it should be good out of the box. Fresh off a charger it will definitely be close to 13v, but don't be surprised if it depresses back to ~12.5v after a few days off the charger. Somehow I'm betting summit doesn't ship a lot of batteries, so maybe yours is old stock? Is there a date sticker on it? Typically month/year on it.

I have nothing against optima's BTW - just seen a ton of crap with them since I sold them for a while. Then again, buddy of mine swears by them and has them in every 'old' car of his and has never had an issue. I've personally seen at least one of his go 10+ years with little use, no trickle charger use, and yet it starts his scout every time he moves it to a new place in the shop (about once every 2-3 years). So there's that...

Hopefully it works for you! Chances are it will, and if this one is no bueno right out of the box at least you've got Summit behind it :thumbsup:
 
Ef-it... Still no call back from Summit I'm just going to put it on the 2 amp charger...
Let it charge all day and then maybe drive the car tomorrow but see we're it settles overnight at the very least...
 
Listen the red top in my 69 Dart is 16 years old. When it sits a very long time I will put my 10 amp Schauer automatic battery charger on it and I’ve nad no problems with it
 
So I put it on the 2amp 12volt charge all day yesterday and took it off at night and it was reading 13.80...
It's read 13.15 all day...
 
First test drive today and my volt meter readings were happy... No dipping bellow 12v at idle with the fan on..
So far, so good..:thumbsup:..
 
First test drive today and my volt meter readings were happy... No dipping bellow 12v at idle with the fan on..
So far, so good..:thumbsup:..

Interesting , I drove the fish to mens prayer breakfast yesterday, car has been running funny ,backfiring thru the throttle body on tip in after turning a corner for a couple of weeks. Got home , let it cool off a bit , went to fire it up to pull it in the garage , nothing , had to shove it in , battery is about 5ish yrs old . Thinking about an optima too--------
 
i went with a red top a couple weeks ago, dang that thing spins the motor. showed a little higher than normal charge for about 15 minutes but settled down. haven't put a meter on it
 
i went with a red top a couple weeks ago, dang that thing spins the motor. showed a little higher than normal charge for about 15 minutes but settled down. haven't put a meter on it

Are they still made in mexico ??
 
Are they still made in mexico ??
as far as i know?

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That's what I hear people saying as I've been asking about them. But I never looked it up personally... I know my SS Springs were made in Mexico they said it on them LOL...

Yeah , the s/s springs made way back in the day were far superior to the mexican springs , we used to run the 002-003 springs on the hemi belevedere .
I bought an 850 amp autocraft platinum battery from advance auto, had a 25% discount, and supposed to get a $22 core charge reimbursed to my paypal account =$176.22 , if it works out .
Havent put it in the fish, will do today , Lord willing .
 
Yeah , the s/s springs made way back in the day were far superior to the mexican springs , we used to run the 002-003 springs on the hemi belevedere .
I bought an 850 amp autocraft platinum battery from advance auto, had a 25% discount, and supposed to get a $22 core charge reimbursed to my paypal account =$176.22 , if it works out .
Havent put it in the fish, will do today , Lord willing .
Well I guess part of it for me as I've always kind of wanted to try an optima battery and see how they work. I was always impressed with the old commercial where the guy would drive up to the top of the mountain with his Jeep pull the battery out and shoot it up with his gun and put it back in the Jeep and started up and drive away...
Not that I would do that but it sure left an impression....
 
Well I guess part of it for me as I've always kind of wanted to try an optima battery and see how they work. I was always impressed with the old commercial where the guy would drive up to the top of the mountain with his Jeep pull the battery out and shoot it up with his gun and put it back in the Jeep and started up and drive away...
Not that I would do that but it sure left an impression....
Not allowed to do any more. Battery lives matter!
 
Check this out, I bought this Optima red top battery around 20 years ago, maybe more...I have used it in a couple different vehicles, I have ran it completely dead, I have charged it with a regular battery charger, I have jumpstarted it or used it to jumpstart other vehicles, I have stored it in the freezing cold during winter storage....It has never been used year round, it is only been used in my collector cars about half the year.

Knock on wood, this battery is still going strong and it’s the best damn battery I have ever purchased. I can’t believe the extremes this battery has been put through and it still works great. I have looked at buying an Optima since then but have only read mostly bad reviews about them. I’ve read that they don’t last very long and you’re lucky to get 3 to 5 years out of them. Some people have told me that my battery is one of the “good ones” because it was made in the USA (Aurora Colorado) before production had moved, probably to China or someplace....Of course they don’t last that long now, why would they want you to buy a new battery, if everybody had a battery that lasted as long as mine they wouldn’t be making any money LOL

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I went to Batteries Plus because I needed to purchase another battery but was a little hesitant about getting another Optima even though I’ve had good luck with the old one I have. Batteries plus suggested that I get this one, it’s a Gel style and it is their brand of battery to compete with the Optima and made in the USA, they said it is better and I believe it cost about $30 more but there was also a rebate. I don’t care for the blue top on it, But it’s been working great.

I have this battery in my Plymouth Satellite with a 340, (never mind the ugly battery cable is getting fixed LOL) the battery is probably close to three years old now and does have a good warranty. For the last year and a half this car sat parked in my shed and it was not started since I parked it. A few weeks ago I needed to pull the car out of the shed...The battery has been hooked up the entire time, so I figured the battery would be dead. I opened the door and the dome light came on so I figured I would dump some gas down the carburetor and give it a try. Cranked over for a bit and then it came time to dump some more gas down the carburetor because it was so dry, the thing cranked over for a little bit more and started the car up no problem! So far this has been a good battery and I hope it lasts for many more years, when it comes time to buy another battery I will probably go this route but hopefully I can get it in a different color LOL

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I went to Batteries Plus because I needed to purchase another battery but was a little hesitant about getting another Optima even though I’ve had good luck with the old one I have. Batteries plus suggested that I get this one, it’s a Gel style and it is their brand of battery to compete with the Optima and made in the USA, they said it is better and I believe it cost about $30 more but there was also a rebate. I don’t care for the blue top on it, But it’s been working great.

I have this battery in my Plymouth Satellite with a 340, (never mind the ugly battery cable is getting fixed LOL) the battery is probably close to three years old now and does have a good warranty. For the last year and a half this car sat parked in my shed and it was not started since I parked it. A few weeks ago I needed to pull the car out of the shed...The battery has been hooked up the entire time, so I figured the battery would be dead. I opened the door and the dome light came on so I figured I would dump some gas down the carburetor and give it a try. Cranked over for a bit and then it came time to dump some more gas down the carburetor because it was so dry, the thing cranked over for a little bit more and started the car up no problem! So far this has been a good battery and I hope it lasts for many more years, when it comes time to buy another battery I will probably go this route but hopefully I can get it in a different color LOL

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Made in USA is good to see
 
Made in USA is good to see

I ended up w/ an AGM battery from advance auto , biggest one they offered , had to extend the fuel inj, wires and some of the ground wires I run to the trunk mounted battery , and redo the tie downs brackets . The thing weighs about 14 pounds more than the one it replaced .Strong mogator right out of the box. Drove the car a little , seemed to run better than it ever has , and ran right before it hit 190 degrees , which it never has done before ----------?? The battery has been popping into my mind for a couple of months now , guess somebody was trying to tell me something!
I had a 25% discount , off the internet , and supposed to get a $22 core charge credited back to my account. Will end up $176.22 , thats only $8 bucks more than I paid for my RAM battery at a mopar dealer.
 
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