I have always used them in the past but am on my 4th one that has only a few year's on them. Two on my Ram are toast (2 years old), one on my big blk chevy 4x4 3 years and finally the corvette (which lasted about a year and a 1/2). Seem to only get about 2-3 years out of them and then they are toast.

I bought one when they first came out and that on lasted 7-8 years before needing replacement!

 

Like everything else things were better in the good old days.
I got 12 years out of my first Redtops.
I always used Optima but their price hasn't been competitive in the past few years.
I'll never go back to lead/acid, been using glass mat Napa brand lately with no problems.

 

My red tops lasted 7 years, best price for optimais is Costco 129.95, this time I went to the blue tops 155.00 each Got them October this year!

 

yes we have used them for years here in nc at the post office and we never had problems until the last year. Turns out there are a bunch made in mexico and as you all no that the quality control went way down! i have 4 in my truck and i have had to get all 4 replaced in the first 6 months of owning them. Now if you get the ones that are 1000 ca's there still made in the usa. Then they told us that the charger we have that can do 100 batteries at a time was old and outdated. The building 10 years old and the boss spent around 12 grand on a new slow rate charger and they seemed to get better that did just these style of batteries. Then the other problems that the GM cars and trucks have now the alternator is not the alternator they used to be. The charging circuit is in the dash assembly now. We have a chevy p/u and after 9 alternators were put in we new we had a problem. Now why i have no idea but the part was close to 500 bucks. so i don't know what other cars and trucks have this init as well.

 

Mine just up and died about 15 days outside of the 3 year free replacement warranty, I did however get $68 per battery towards others, I ended up getting 2 dual purpose Big Marine batteries for a total of $45.

 

Had two of them and either one lasted more then a 1 1/2 years a piece... Sorry but they are not what they use to be and I won't be getting another one... I can buy 2 decent batteries for the price of one of those and they will last 3 times as long...

I bought them because my jeep isn't always "upright" but now I just run a reg battery and don't have any issues to date... Someone told me that they sold out about 4 years ago and the quality to a dump from there...

 

Try Odessey, better battery, twice the cranking power

 

Sort of pricey though.
I saw where Odyssey is the only company that uses almost pure lead in it's batteries. Their batteries are 99.9% pure lead where the cheapos are down to 75% pure and normal ranges from 80-90%.

 

I put a set of them in the Freightliner. Worth every penny. When I went in the hospital the freezer was on and some other stuff, they went down to flat dead. Charged back up after a couple of weeks, still running. Love the high current to start, much higher cranking speed.

 

Any brand / manufacture , using the multipurpose / dual ect. is a bad choice for any use .
What your getting is a battery that is half way between to different types , compromising either [ meaning that you are not going to get peak performance for either use ] .
There are large differences between quality batteries , when it comes to starting / deep cycle , the lesser quality brand/makes , are giving even less , as Bill said , the purity/amount of lead .
Couple of examples , last spring , my deep cycles for my solar system gave up , these are expected to last 4-6 yrs. , with the proper charging / maintainance , they were over 12 yrs old , these were Trojan deep cycle L16 , good maintainance gets you a long ways also , replacing starter / alternators at the first sign of problems , also connections / keeping clean , just the other day , in a hurry the night before , I left the drivers door open a 1" or so , just enough to turn the inside lights on , then forgot to plug in , -18*F that night , parked out side , I though I was going to have to get towed to warm garage , batteries are 4 yrs. old , got in cycled the key twice [ for heater ] , started right up , the batteries were from Batteries Plus , in the past when I had my own shops , I sold Interstate , also good .
It seems that all the CEOs are going to CEO camp together to learn how to maximize there profit , to the point of screwing the consumer .
So make a point of spreading the word on good and bad products .

 

A lot of big truck owners are faced with the same problem. Inverter, generator, heavy 12 volt use, and one set of batteries. They have to have some deep cycle capacity and still start the truck. The Odyssey seems to be the best comprimise. On my solar system I use real batteries, 1690 amp hour. Can't do that with the truck.

 

I wouldn't buy another Optima battery. I'm on the 3rd one in my boat since '03. Each lasted 2 years and then wouldn't take a charge.
On a good note, I paid $89 for the 1st red top and both of the failures have been warrantied 100% since they were each under 3 yrs old, so I have yet another new battery compliments of Optima.

 

I bought 2 Interstate Batteries for pretty well the price of one Optima battery for replacement.

 

Ive had 3 of them 2 in the Dodge and 1 in the wifes diesel Mercedes that rarely gets driven.
I went out and looked at them and they were made in the USA!
I bought them I think 3 years ago. So knock on wood.

 

Another guy that had good luck with the old ones. Not so much with the newer ones. Haven't had to replace the ones in my CTD yet, since they're only 2 years old. They're Kirkland brand from Costco, so we'll see how they pan out. Still going strong.
I wound up with two Optima red tops in a row that lasted about a year or so in my Toyota rock crawler. This rig only comes out of the garage MAYBE 10 times a year. Pretty poor if you ask me. I replaced the last one with an Exide Orbital, and have had no problems yet. Two years so far.
Now, I do still have a Yellow Top that only runs the winch on my Toyota. It's isolated from the rest of the truck. It has never given me any issues. Always pulls hard, and goes forever.
A friend of mine runs Oddesey's in his rock crawlers for their size. That part of it seems good to me, but other than that, I don't think they're worth the money. He's gone through a handfull of them so far, and at over $200 a pop, it starts to add up fast. Not sure how they treat him on the warranty, but the hassle of having a dead battery really brings the suck.