YellowTop or RedTop ....

[firestarter]

Hello all,

So my battery is at its end and I'm looking at the OPTIMA line. Anyone have experience with these? At the moment I don't have any crazy accessories on the rig but plan to be adding a few (winch, light-bar, etc ...). I'm thinking of going with the Deep cycle YellowTop D34 ......

please advise

Thanks in advance,

 

[SteelHeadz]

I use 2 red tops on mine with no issues.

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

Go with the yellow top if you plan on doing much winching, it can handle the frequent discharge a lot better than the redtop.

I went with the Bluetop Optima, the D34M, same combo deepcycle/starting battery as the yellow top but it adds stainless threaded lugs to the top of the battery, makes attaching the winch cables much easier.

 

[firestarter]

Thanks for the input. So maybe i'm confused on the stats for each of these classes.

All the battery's seem to have about the same c/20 capacity rating so i would think they would all have the same discharge behavior but from reading the literature and ignoring the numbers the yellowTop claims to be able to recover from a discharge more easily. I don't really see (in the numbers) where the yellowTop stands out? Is it just a radically different design that's more efficient over long periods of time?

It also seems like if the batter is lets say 80% starter 20% heavy use (winch) that it might be more favorable to go with a redTop? thoughts?

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

The redtop is not a deepcycle, so it won't recover very many times from a near full discharge. A deepcycle is rated to recover 200+ times from a near complete discharge with little to no damage to the battery.

If you don't think you will do much winching, get the redtop and save a few bucks. If you want reliability in all situations, go for the yellow or blue.

 

[jps4jeep]

Red, I would only add a yellow if you have a red as a primary battery. the yellow top is not designed to start an engine under load, one hard start and the battery is pretty much done. The red top compared to a comprabile yellow top (34/78 red top vs D34/78 yellow top) actually puts out more CCA, 800 compared to 750 and under 32 degrees it's 1000CCA compared to a yellow top 870. they both have similar capacity and internal resistance.

If you want the best of both worlds, you will need to pony up for a Blue top, often called a marine grade battery, it is a deep cycle starting battery. it will have the same benefits of a deep cycle with quick recovery long low amp loads, but can provide the CCA for hard starting

 

[Bounty__Hunter]

I really don't think you can kill a YellowTop from starting a Jeep. From Optima:

34 RedTop: Description: High power, sealed lead acid, engine starting battery

D34 YellowTop: Description: High power, dual purpose engine start and deep cycle, sealed lead acid battery

D34M BlueTop: Description: High power, dual purpose engine start and deep cycle, sealed lead acid battery

 

[bobcat481]

Johnny:
I think there is some confusion here with Bounty. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think by "under load" you're referring to going up-hill, in-gear. Not just "starting the engine" I've had to do it a few times in nasty situations where I didn't have enough feet and couldn't roll back cause of the pucker factor.

 

[jps4jeep]

yes, under load. I got almost 8 years out of a red top, put in a yellow top as an upgrade, was in the jeep no less than 3 months, one start under load and the battery would not hold a charge, apparently a cell went bad. got an exchange becuase it was prorated, second yellow top, put a trickle charger on it for a winter, killed the battery again (unknown to me, you not supposed to put a trickle charge on sealed battery's) went back to a red top that someone gave me, I've started it under load number of times, no problems what so ever.

 

[firestarter]

Thanks for the input everyone. RedTop it is!