I purchased an optima yellow top in june of 04. So, it is roughly 20 months old. it will no longer hold a charge. Optima says to replace it, they pro rate it based on the list price.

They said the list price was 235 bucks, and it would cost me 195 bucks to replace it under warranty.

I got the optima in the 1st place cuz everyone said how good they were, and that the warranty was awesome. Well, if the warranty is this bad.....I WILL NOT be using optima's in the future.

I also wish I had just bought a 70 buck battery instead of this one, which while I got a good deal on it, I still paid 125 bucks for it.


Just a word of warning.........for anyone considering them.

 

I buy the NAPA batteries, 875 CCA, for about $80. Going on four years now and still going strong. I rotate them from side to side about every year.

 

Why do you rotate them?

 

Rotate them to avoid uneven wear??

I would guess because one battery is worked harder than the other and it might extend the battery life. Too much work for me.

 

Why a yellow top? That is the deep cycle battery that does not do well with high rates of discharge.....it is the same for lead acid deep cycle batteries. For a primary/starting battery a red top is a much better choice. While the capacity is lower, it is designed for high rates of discharge without any damaging effects to the battery. I watched one yellow top after another take a dive in our 4x4 club and one after another we switched to red tops and have since experienced zero battery failures to my knowledge.

Personally, I would not bother with Optimas unless you use your truck offroad....I just don't see any advantage to them. I only use an Optima in my Jeep for the safety factor in the event of a roll over because they are a dry cell battery and there is no chance of any type of acid spill even when they are punctured.

 

Doesn't your truck take two batteries or was the Optima for a different vehicle? If you just replaced one battery, that would have been the problems right there as they should be replaced in sets.

 

Not saying that this is your problem, but you had a deep cycle battery, everyone I know that swears by the Optimas (myself included) runs the Red Tops. That may be the difference. Or you may have gotten a bad one. Or the Yellow Tops may just not work as well in our trucks. I was happy with my Reds though.

 

It was/is in my other truck...(see sig), which is used almost exclusively for 4 wheeling. As well as lengthy periods of battery drain from lights with the engine off.

I got it because my battery died suddenly, and I knew a winch was in the works. Well, the battery is dead/bad, and the winch isn't even bolted on yet.

 

I've had great luck with the original Mopar's as well as my red tops. My truck sits all week and when firing her up on the weekends with my red tops the wipers work normally. With the old Mopars the wipers would barely function for several seconds and then everything would be kosher. My guess is that the red tops retain their charge better. Just my highly unscientific observation.

 

Am I missing something, I had a blue top for the boat and it is the Marine one, says so on it?

 

No, you aren't missing anything.....you are correct, the blue top is the marine version.

 

Yikes, good thing! The yellow top won't last long with an electric winch.....that is the all time highest rate of discharge a battery will see and it will make short work of a yellow top. We even had Optima tell us that!! Also, they said they won't honour a yellow top warranty if a winch has been used with it.

 

I have run probably a dozen Optima batteries over the years in different vehicles. I recently had two blue tops go bad on me after about two years of use in a boat. I'm not going to complain about it, I just went and bought new batteries. As with anything else in life, sometimes you will get a bad one.

 

True, sometimes you do, but when the company that makes it pretty much tells you 'Oh Well, buy another one' (that is almost exactly what she said BTW), it just makes me mad. if i'd have paid say $50 for it, I't not be such a big deal.

Normally the winch would be used when the engine is running, and with a 150+ amp alternator (70+ amps at 800 rpm), I don't think it would have been a big deal.

 

To me, not having to clean battery acid once a month is worth every penny the Red tops cost. The original mopars splattered my fender nicely with acid leaving pits in the paint.