Optima Battery Problems

[teotwaki]

dead cell after only 5 months

Optima-1.jpg

The dealer that I bought it through told me that the Optima distributor would fight against replacing it. He said they had a "huge" charger that dumped a "ton" of amps into batteries to bring them alive long enough to kick them back to the customer. He showed me half a dozen batteries that customers had brought back more than once.

[scrubber3]

That's funny.... The name on the receipt says Jim... Lol

[teotwaki]

That's funny.... The name on the receipt says Jim... Lol

I was sorely tempted to ask them to have it say "Optima Jim" just for a laugh but some people would excessively fuss over it

[mep1811]

I just had my Blue top Gp 31 battery replaced. It took a couple of trips to interstate and I left it for five days. They finally gave me a new one. I could hear them in the back load testing the battery and saying it still would not pass damn we have to give him a new one.

If I had to do it again I would buy the battery from Battery Plus they do not play those games.

[Binksman]

Autozone pulled that trick with me after I bought a new Redtop for the Jeep. I took it back three times until it exploded on their charger and caught fire

"Guess we'll replace that now..." The guy actually said that, with the fire extinguisher still in his hand.

dead cell after only 5 months

Optima-1.jpg

The dealer that I bought it through told me that the Optima distributor would fight against replacing it. He said they had a "huge" charger that dumped a "ton" of amps into batteries to bring them alive long enough to kick them back to the customer. He showed me half a dozen batteries that customers had brought back more than once.

[Hilldweller]

dead cell after only 5 months

Optima-1.jpg

The dealer that I bought it through told me that the Optima distributor would fight against replacing it. He said they had a "huge" charger that dumped a "ton" of amps into batteries to bring them alive long enough to kick them back to the customer. He showed me half a dozen batteries that customers had brought back more than once.

Funny, I have an Optima charger. It charges at 12 amps when a battery is severely discharged.
Your dealer is giving you bad intel.

[teotwaki]

Autozone pulled that trick with me after I bought a new Redtop for the Jeep. I took it back three times until it exploded on their charger and caught fire

"Guess we'll replace that now..." The guy actually said that, with the fire extinguisher still in his hand.

Let me clarify: Autozone merely provided a free battery test with a printout. They were not the dealer and were very kind when you consider that I did not buy the battery from them nor did I buy a replacement battery from them.

[teotwaki]

Funny, I have an Optima charger. It charges at 12 amps when a battery is severely discharged.
Your dealer is giving you bad intel.

Hilldweller my dear friend, I don't know how you jumped to that conclusion about the dealer. High output alternators can dump 150 Amps into a battery so 12 amps ain't much. I've worked with industrial grade battery chargers that can throw out 2000 Amps. The dealer that I bought from is pretty knowledgeable and he got me the new battery. His intel was spot on about how the Optima distributor would react and perform some due diligence of re-testing the battery for the 3rd time.

I will ask only half jokingly why in the world you bought an Optima brand charger unless it was on sale or a gift. The Optima website price is just a penny shy of $200 so did Optima Jim give it to you for your birthday or are you a charger geek? Feel free to give me a hard time in fun but nothing personal from me. I just don't know why you'd actually buy one of those things when you can get twice the amps for half the price: http://www.amazon.com/Decker-Battery...71488&sr=1-104

Seriously, if a $170 battery requires a $200 charger then I would rather buy a CTEK DC-DC charger (previously discussed) and get the Optima battery properly charged right in the car.

[Hilldweller]

Hilldweller my dear friend, I don't know how you jumped to that conclusion about the dealer. High output alternators can dump 150 Amps into a battery so 12 amps ain't much. I've worked with industrial grade battery chargers that can throw out 2000 Amps. The dealer that I bought from is pretty knowledgeable and he got me the new battery. His intel was spot on about how the Optima distributor would react and perform some due diligence of re-testing the battery for the 3rd time.

Right.
The high output chargers shouldn't be used on the battery --- the fire you talked about would be the common result.

Yeah. Electronics geek. I have 4 chargers. Lots of meters. Access to lots more meters. Big meters.

[teotwaki]

Right.
The high output chargers shouldn't be used on the battery --- the fire you talked about would be the common result.

Yeah. Electronics geek. I have 4 chargers. Lots of meters. Access to lots more meters. Big meters.

LOL! I knew it because it takes a geek to know a geek.

I don't recall mentioning a fire but the more interesting chargers have temperature sensors to place on the batteries. The net is full of images of batteries that explode. Apparently back in 1994 there were a couple thousand folks injured by acid from overcharging batteries. i think I saw that in a Wiki post on batteries.