Optima battery issues

[PaulW]

Thanks Philo. The Odyssey is so small I thot it must be a plane batt. Good technology wrong application for our use. I come form the uncertified airplane world and none of those guys use FAA approved stuff. Just what works.
Yes the LION batteries are the latest fad. Very light and fraught with problems. It cost Sony millions of dollars to get up to speed and they recalled everything they made and replaced them with new chemistry. Gm had issues and now Boeing has discovered how touchy they are. The most promising manufacturer using nano technology Lion (A123) had gone bankrupt when the car people panicked when faced with the huge R&D to make them work and unpredicted low sales.
Now they are starting to call them by another name.
Besides all the issues there Are still many companies making them and pretty soon they will be good enough for the masses.
Philo Isn't the Life5 a non rechargeable batt?

Meanwhile gadget batteries using batts for the masses are getting very much less expensive. And some of the lowest price aa, & aaa batts have performance comparable to the major brands for a fraction of the price. Of course like solar panels these cheap batts all come from China where all the leading technology is coming from. How about them apples? Sort of like lead batts mostly coming from MX where less regulations & labor cost make for higher profits.

[Seabass]

Optimas suck. Ive been burnt bad by them and interstates customer service that I get on my soap box at every opportunity I get to bash them. I had 5 young yellow tops shit the bed I a year in different vehicles. One had a melted case from an internal short. There quality really went to shit. I used to be a big fan of them before they sold out. Really sucks they went from quality ro quantity.

[Rwies]

Update - I think my current battery charger was kicking on and off because the battery was discharged so low. I used my dads old charger and charged it up and the thing works fine now.

[Rmc]

Whatever kind of red top optima I got its survived 2 end over ends, 4 rollovers, 3 different vehicles and is 6 years old with a large smashed area on one side and works like new
Must be the old mfg.

[Rmc]

That being said I hope I didn't just jinx myself...

[pieron22]

I've had good luck with my red top optima's. 1 we have is over 15 years old, being a hand-me-down from a nascar team then thru 8 years offroad racing & now a back-up and trailer winch duty. Again older technology.. Bought new 1 for racer and have no problems. Only issues is with my buddies that drag race and hit the battery with a high (boost) charge at track and smoke em. Other than operator error with battery charger no issues. BUT.... I am anal with pre-race maint & put trickle charger on batt nite before every event just as regular maint.

[pieron22]

Oh yea, forgot to mention. We buy optima's thru A&A stores locally, and they (optima) will replace battery within 5 years old if a problem..... so we recycle ours every 5 yrs. As long as date on batt is within 5 years. We took 1 back that was older and they caught that 1!!!! lol