Optima Battery Problems

[Hilldweller]

I have decided to use my Optima for a boat anchor (or core) and buy a new battery. I have taken it to three Optima dealers including the one I purchased it from. It always tests "good battery, needs charge". They always say it's a good battery. It discharges in about two hours sitting on a bench. One dealer actually told me "no one wants to eat $200" as the reason he wouldn't warranty the battery.

Red, Yellow, or Blue?
Purchase date?
If it were me and I had charged it per Optima's specs and it was failing, I'd take this opportunity to contact OptimaJim via PM and ask for advice. A battery is obviously not good if it discharges in two hours. A good meter will tell you that.

Don't anybody throw a hissy in advance. Let's see if we can move this forward.

[subytoy]

Red Top purchased March of 2010.

[HenryJ]

I have decided to use my Optima for a boat anchor (or core) and buy a new battery...

I think this is the best choice of action. I have been down that road and it is much smoother. I did the "new Optima run around" for several years. Since my switch to the Diehard Platinum, zero problems, no 120V chargers to top them off every month.
Cut your losses and move on. Your money is better spent on a different battery manufacturer. JMO

[Hilldweller]

Red Top purchased March of 2010.

Well, if you're charging it right and they're checking it right, they should give you a new one with no hassle.
I think they're supposed to charge it fully and let it sit overnight to check the voltage drop. If it falls like you've said they should give you a new one.
It's not the retailer's money so they shouldn't have a problem...

[subytoy]

I was having the dealer charge it so they couldn't claim I did it wrong. I contacted Optima (Johnson Controls) and got no reply.
Today I went to Advance Auto Parts, bought one of their batteries and my Land Cruiser is happy again.

[teotwaki]

I have decided to use my Optima for a boat anchor (or core) and buy a new battery. I have taken it to three Optima dealers including the one I purchased it from. It always tests "good battery, needs charge". They always say it's a good battery. It discharges in about two hours sitting on a bench. One dealer actually told me "no one wants to eat $200" as the reason he wouldn't warranty the battery.

Besides proper charging it should also get a load test to see how well it can deliver current. My Optima appeared to charge up okay but a load test revealed a bad cell. The Autozone folks here in SoCal did their test for free

[OptimaJim]

Jim, I apologize for my slow response. I've been on the Hot Rod Power Tour for the past two weeks and I'm just getting caught up with my e-mails now. I've had many folks say far worse things about me and Optima on many other forums and I've never tried to get anyone banned. I've never had any conversations with anyone who runs this site about you, as I prefer to let the moderators and administrators do their own jobs in that regard.

It's clear you'd rather hear from dwh than me or our engineers. In the end, I don't care who gets you the help you need, as long as you get it from someone. You criticized me for not making an effort to reach out to a distributor near you, but when I asked for the contact information for the folks you dealt with, you wouldn't provide it. At some point, I have to move on and help folks who are willing to be at least somewhat cooperative.

As Bill pointed out, my ability to assist folks on a forum is limited, especially when I don't have access to their battery. I did bring three extra Optimas with me on Power Tour, which I subsequently swapped out with other Optimas on at least a half dozen different occasions, when the owners approached me, indicating they were having a problem with their battery. The three I have now are totally different than the three I started with and all of the batteries I swapped out during Power Tour ran successfully in their new vehicles, except for one '69 Chevelle, which deeply-discharged the original and one replacement (both of those batteries worked fine in other vehicles after being fully-recharged). Once I convinced him to disconnect his battery when parked, he didn't have any issues for the rest of the trip.

Tom, we don't have the shortest warranties on the market and our warranty terms, which can be just as important as the length of the warranty, are fairly-liberal by industry standards. We do post quite a bit of information about charging our batteries on our website. I apologize if our information is a bit simplistic for an electrical engineer, but we're trying to present a message that is easy for the masses to read and comprehend.

subytoy, if your battery is still under warranty and you are not satisfied with the service you are receiving from your original retailer, please PM me your contact information and your original retailer's.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.twitter.com/optimabatteries

[teotwaki]

Jim, I apologize for my slow response. I've been on the Hot Rod Power Tour for the past two weeks and I'm just getting caught up with my e-mails now. I've had many folks say far worse things about me and Optima on many other forums and I've never tried to get anyone banned. I've never had any conversations with anyone who runs this site about you, as I prefer to let the moderators and administrators do their own jobs in that regard.

It's clear you'd rather hear from dwh than me or our engineers. In the end, I don't care who gets you the help you need, as long as you get it from someone. You criticized me for not making an effort to reach out to a distributor near you, but when I asked for the contact information for the folks you dealt with, you wouldn't provide it. At some point, I have to move on and help folks who are willing to be at least somewhat cooperative.

----snip-----

Good on ya' for swapping batteries where you can do so in person. Bad on ya' for all of the SPIN doctoring in your reply but all of the posts tell the truth in black and white.



FACT: The Optima Battery was BAD as verified by an Optima Battery Distributor

FACT: I tested it myself and felt it was BAD but no offer of help from OJ

FACT: I took it to Autozone for an independent multi-hour load test and it tested as BAD

FACT: I took it to the Authorized Optima Dealer who tested the Optima Battery as BAD

FACT: The Authorized Optima Dealer gave it to the Official Optima Distributor who tested the Optima Battery as BAD

FACT: Optima Jim provided no help at all in the diagnosis or valid Warranty Replacement of a five month old BAD Optima Battery

Look at all of his posts and he never once offered to do anything at all to just get a distributor to test the battery for me without all of the extra work.

Oh. did I mention that my

5 month old Optima Battery was BAD Please spin that OJ.

[jomobco]

I'm guessing Teotwaki got a bad optima? Not sure...

I haven't had the same experiences. I've got a few of them now and have used them for years. I've had them go bad over time but only once did I think it was premature. I've used red, yellow and blue tops.

[redthies]

I'm thinking teotwaki ought to just get himself another battery and get on with his life. It is not much more than a $100 bucks for a red top. You got a bad one, no one seems able to help you to your satisfaction. Get over it. Move on. It's not worth your time or our bandwidth to carry on here. We all get that you had a bad experience. It sucks, but sometimes life is hard.

I, personally have had a great blue top going on 8 years. It has been in about seven different rigs, and not once has it been charged in any "special" way. I am about to put it in my F350 and connect my winch to it. We'll see how it likes that