[cgrey8]

Back 6 years ago, I bought an Optima Redtop 34/78 for my Ranger. At the time, I was running the C&L MAF and was fighting flow issues. I had considerations of relocating it in or under the bed to free up some room in the engine bay. There are places under the bed a battery MIGHT could fit if I could mount it sideways instead of vertical. The quickest and easiest solution I could think of was using hold-down straps without getting fancy with a welder, which again, would've been easier and safer if I had the option to mount the battery with the terminals sideways as opposed to vertical. This is why I went with the Optima in the 1st place.

Now, 6 years later, I can tell it is getting weak. It still cranks the truck, but I can see and hear that the cranking voltage is what it once was. Datalogs and the dash show it's cranking just below 9v. A brand new battery would crank the truck with a bit more obvious pep on the starter AND above 10v. So I know the battery is getting weak. But in the battery's defense, this is the longest I've ever been able to go without replacing a battery. For that reason alone, I have a rather positive opinion of the Optima and am considering replacing it with another Optima despite the diminished need for a dry-cell battery.

Just google-searching the red and yellow, it seems Optima advertises the red as lasting roughly to 2x longer than a conventional battery and the yellow lasting 3x longer. The yellow is a good bit more expensive, but if there's a chance a yellow would last 9 years, that would be worth it. Otherwise, I'll save my money and just get another red.

So my question to guys here with Optima battery experience, what has been your experience? Have you found that the yellow actually does last longer?

In my googling around, I did find a forum post talking about alternatives to Optima. I think the alternative they were raving about was a brand called Odyssey? The post posited that Optima has some Q/A issues somewhere about 10 years ago and their batteries weren't that good for a while, but fixed their mfg issues somewhere around 2009 and have been solid since. But if others have compelling reasons for me to consider a different brand, I'll entertain that.

And also while searching for the best prices, I found I could buy an Optima Yellow D34/78 for cheaper off Amazon ($189 inc s/h) than I could buy a Redtop from Autozone (~$200). That's not surprising. But if an alternative is going to be suggested, the comparative price would also need to be in that realm as well. The Odyssey Extreme 34/78 I found on Amazon was ~$250. Unless someone had a really good reason why they are worth that kind of money, the Optima yellow seems like the better deal.

Thoughts?

[LeadHead]

I know it's not really what you're looking for, but I've had really good luck with the AutoZone Duralast Gold batteries. IIRC, they're made by Johnson Controls.

[jsa]

I've had a mixed bag with odyssey due to that qa issue.

Very happy with fullriver now. Name sounds off for a battery, but cost effective and around 6 year life.

[cgrey8]

I know it's not really what you're looking for, but I've had really good luck with the AutoZone Duralast Gold batteries. IIRC, they're made by Johnson Controls.

I've had a number of Duralasts over the years and they consistently lasted me 3-4 years. But I can't recall that I've ever had one last me a full 5 years. Being they have a 6 year warranty, I've always gotten something on the prorate. But the prorate is usually only a few bucks and the replacement, it seems, has always been more expensive than the same exact battery was a few years before.

I remember when Walmart had their 9-year battery warranty with a 3-year free replacement. That was laughable and it was no surprise that (9-year warranty) didn't last long since their batteries were common to fail within that 3-year window. And even if they made it just past 3 years, the prorate was significant making the next battery about 1/3rd the shelf-price. It was a great deal for people that bought during that time AND went back to Walmart for a replacment to cash in on the prorate. I think Exide made theirs, but I can't remember.

It's been my experience that every time any standard lead-acid goes bad, they go bad pretty quick. They either burn out a plate on crank leaving the battery completely unable to recharge/crank the engine or they run dead after 30-60 minutes of accessory usage (i.e. radio or flashers). I had one strand me on the interstate after I'd blown a tire. Just running the flashers for 30 minutes getting the spare onto the truck left the battery drained enough that I was still stranded...and not in a good area of Atlanta. The more expensive lead-acids, at least, do last longer than the ultra-cheap batteries do but they still tend to fail with very little warning signs. Engine cranks in the relatively warm garage, but fails to crank after the car's been sitting outside in freezing weather.

One of the supposed promises of the dry-cells is they fail more gradually...as mine is doing. And mine doesn't seem to be affected by whether I'm cranking in the garage vs cranking after work in cold weather. Granted, this is my 1st dry cell battery so I can't say that all dry cells will do this. But both Optima and Odyssey's site seem to indicate this same end-of-life characteristic "feature."

I've had a mixed bag with odessey due to that qa issue.

Very happy with fullriver now. Name sounds off for a battery, but cost effective and around 6 year life.

Odyssey or Optima?

As for Fullriver, their batteries must be made of gold. The cheapest car battery I could find on Amazon was over $300. I didn't find any 34/78 models. I'm sure they make them, I just didn't find them on Amazon.com...at least not by those numbers. Regardless for that price, they had better be good. It appears their specialty is deep cycle applications like industrial UPS and solar storage which would make sense. If you know where they are sold for a cost-effective price, let me know.

The other aspect of buying a battery on Amazon.com is IF the battery does go bad, how would I go about prorating it? I wouldn't want to ship it back to the seller. I'm sure that'd be at least $50 and hardly worth the effort. The hope in buying a higher quality battery is that it will last. I guess that's the gamble I take when trying to save a few bucks buying stuff online.

[decipha]

ive had excellent luck with the no name wholesale suppliers, the battery in my ss sat for 2 years with nothing but a drain on it (car alarm) I yunk it out put a charge on it and its been perfectly fine in my Harley truck ever since, no issues with it yet going on 4 years, not bad for a $29 brand new battery that has a scratch on the top making it a 'blemish' battery that went back to the supplier

if im not mistaken I believe they are the die hard batteries as sold by sears (prior to labelling)

[cgrey8]

ive had excellent luck with the no name wholesale suppliers, the battery in my ss sat for 2 years with nothing but a drain on it (car alarm) I yunk it out put a charge on it and its been perfectly fine in my Harley truck ever since, no issues with it yet going on 4 years, not bad for a $29 brand new battery that has a scratch on the top making it a 'blemish' battery that went back to the supplier

if im not mistaken I believe they are the die hard batteries as sold by sears (prior to labelling)

I wish I could find a place selling $30 batteries. For that price, I wouldn't care if they only lasted 2 years. There used to be a place near me that made recycled batteries (Bomber Battery). But they've been out of business for years now. For the 97 Ranger that I rarely drive, I do something similar. I buy used batteries from a junkyard near me...but used, they are still $40. It gets run probably once a month and if the battery dies, it's not that big of a deal. I'm not about to buy a $200 battery for that truck if I can help it.

But it's sounding like there isn't anybody that can give any kind of feedback on the Yellow vs Red discussion. So I'm probably going to go ahead and buy the Yellow off Amazon. With any luck, I'll know in 9 years whether it was worth the extra cost or a mistake.

[decipha]

Ive had a couple reds the most i ever got out of one was 5 years

[jsa]

Fullriver are about half the price of the other two, here.

[cgrey8]

Gotta link?

[jsa]

No, local bricks and mortar store.

[LeadHead]

FWIW My 4.0 Ranger has had a Duralast Gold in it for about 5 years now, and it's been fine, also only cost around $100. Dekta/East-Penn batteries are also pretty good, and generally pretty cheap.

Funny you mention a company that built recycled batteries - lead-acid batteries have a close to 100% recycling rate. The majority of new batteries on the shelf have lead that was recovered at some point from old batteries.

[85GT]

Not much luck with the duralast golds. Replaced a 10 yr old Diehard gold in 91 caprice with one in 2010. Dead in 2013. Replaced with another. Just died again couple weeks ago. So on third one, cause of pro rating. Averaging 3yrs from each. Just checked records on 95 cap. Bought the gold in late 2012 before i knew any better... Must be living on borrowed time lol

[cgrey8]

I reverted my desire to use Yellow tops after talking to people that have used Yellows and have found they don't last any better than the reds...certainly not 8-9 years. Add to that, I found where even Optima reps have stated that you sacrifice some CCA with the yellows compared to the reds. The yellows are really meant for going deeper cycle, although not fully marine deep-cycle like their blue tops.

Add to this, I've been reading on Optima's warranty, and no where that I could find, do they rate their batteries for any more than 3 years on any of their batteries. So I'm sticking with the red!

One person did give me a hint that if I show the online price to someone in Autozone or Advance, they might price-match. They got their Optima price-matched as compared to Summit Racing (which has a location here in Atlanta). I don't know that they'll price-match with Amazon since they don't actually have a local presence.

[steved74]

my last yellow top lasted about 5 years. yellows are deeper cycle, so if you had a big stereo it might be a good option. mostly i just buy reds. also, to maximize life i pull all my batteries during the winter and maintain them myself in the garage.

[patrickmx2]

I have a Red Top that's been in 3 of my cars since 2001. It's still going strong. It's in my 1990 now. I unhook the cables between long periods or drop a tender on it in cold months starting 3 years ago. It's never failed to come back from a dead charge.

Over the holidays I ordered another Red Top from Amazon and gave $146 for it. I checked this week and have watched it go up twice, 155, and yesterday was about 166... My 1981 Mustang build needed one and I'm doing a 1979 build this spring so I thought about just getting another. I thought $146 was a good buy so I may juggle batteries until this next Christmas LOL... I see a lot of things going back up since 2 weeks ago.

So I'm getting at least 15 years out of my oldest one. One car I did manage to put about 60k miles on in the middle of all that. Another car about 15K miles, and current about 32k. So its got just over 100K miles on it too.