Hello, I noticed your conversation regarding our batteries and wanted to offer some assistance. Mike, Phil is absolutely correct about our YellowTops for deep-cycle applications. We strongly recommend batteries designed for deep-cycle use, like our YellowTops, in vehicles with winches and other significant electrical draws. An appropriately-sized RedTop will offer plenty of cranking amps, but it is not designed or warrantied for deep-cycle use, including winching and large stereo systems. All of our batteries are up to 15 times more resistant to vibration than standard, flooded batteries.
If you don't drive your Jeep very often, regular use of a quality battery tender or maintainer as Phil suggested, will help extend the life of your battery, regardless of brand. Another alternative is a quick disconnect like the one Phil posted, in conjunction with a fully-charged battery. Our batteries actually have a very low self-discharge rate, but if a disconnect still allows you to maintain presets, it is still allowing some current to be drawn off the battery and the battery could still end up being discharged, if it sits long enough. When batteries are discharged below 12.4 volts and allowed to sit in that state, sulfation begins to diminish both capacity and lifespan. Fully-charged, our RedTops will measure approximately 12.6-12.8 volts and our YellowTops will measure approximately 13.0-13.2 volts.
Since SteelHeadz & Steven both mentioned the “g†word, I should clarify that Optima batteries are not gel batteries. Most standard lead-acid battery chargers will work just fine on our batteries, but “gel†and “gel/AGM†charger settings should be avoided, as they will not fully-charge our batteries and could damage them over time.
Marc, I'm glad to hear your YellowTop has performed well for you. Although some retailers will issue exchanges with no questions asked, all retailers are supposed to charge and check all batteries before issuing a warranty replacement. All of our retailers do have the capability to perform a “charge and check†on returned batteries. However, many of the “bad†batteries returned to us are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly recharged, so it is obviously not unheard of for a retailer to simply take a return and give an exchange out.
Tony, our BlueTop batteries have additional threaded top posts for marine applications and do not have side posts. They are identical internally to their YellowTop counterparts (except for the 34M, which is the marine version of our Group 34 RedTop), but YellowTops come with three-year free replacement warranties. As Phil indicated, Optimas with light gray cases are designed for deep-cycle and starting use, while Optimas with dark gray cases are designed only for starting applications. Tony, I appreciate your interest in making a sale, but the website you posted is not affiliated with the official Optima batteries website in any way shape or form. Please edit your post accordingly.
Gordy, the quality of our batteries has always been excellent and continues to improve. The batteries we are making today are the best we have ever made and the assumptions you made are incorrect. We manufacture all of our own batteries in our own facility and they are the only batteries made there. We never re-brand or re-spec them for any retailer. If anyone has any questions about our batteries, I'll do my best to answer them.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
