Just a heads up to anyone in the market for optima's, Addvance auto has a 25% off online battery sale with free shipping .
Picked me up a set of 34/78 red tops for $125 each the cheapest i had found them for a couple years. Not trying to start a battery war but if you like optima's thats a bargain.

 

just fyi.. the alternator in the newer cummins from 98+ normal charge rate is above the level that optima requires for charging.. i went through a hoot and shubang with them over this after 5 bad red tops.. basicly the alternator will cook the battery tell it warps from my experience because when you start the truck from a dead cold it pulls alot out of the battery and for the first 1 or 2 miles it is pushing very high amps to the battery to top it off..... optima stop replacing them and told me that i need an alternator with a smaller output to prevent them from overheating.. so much for that.. i switched over to an Napa battery after-wards and never had the same issue..

 

Never heard that before but I do have a high output alternator on my jeep and I have killed two red tops. I just put in a cheap O'reilys battery last weekend. I'll see how long it lasts. At least it come with a 2 year free replacement before the prorating comes in.

 

Storx would be very intrested in what actually happened there, did optima tell you that you needed a smaller alternator or an optima dealer did???
optima will accept a very high charge rate the only thing that would warp one is to continue charging when the battery was fully charged which on our trucks is controlled by the PCM not the alternator. There is also a temprature sensor under one of your batteries which if defective will cause overcharging. I have nine optima batteries in total, two sets in dodge diesels some as old as eight years and never had one fail yet. i even have a couple of the mexican ones but they are only two years old.

 

just a note for anyone planning to keep their truck for a long time, whether it is optima's , odessy, sears platinum, or deka terminator. when you buy batteries get an agm battery and at some point you will save yourself the cost of battery cable replacement and the attendent acid damage.

 

i have 2 red tops for over 100k in my truck with no issues. I have a winch, air compressor, airdog, 1000 watt inverter for a mini fridge on hot days and never had an issue.

 

Yes, our alternators DO produce more current than those batteries can handle. and, YES it is wise to get an AGM battery, they ARE better, and you won't have to deal with the battery cable issues that the acid batteries cause. The AGMs can take the current and they actually have longer lifespans than acid batteries.


CD

 

Had an Optima in the wife's Tahoe and it was junk. It didn't even last as long as the original OE battery. I believe it was a yellow top though. After paying top dollar for it I felt like a was ripped off and I won't buy another one.

I now buy all my batteries (trucks, cars, atv's, golf carts, fifth wheel) at Walmart or Costco. No problems, cheaper price, good warranties, and if a Walmart battery fails there's always a Wally World somewhere close by where I can exchange it on the 5-year warranty.