Optima debate

Update..Optima's website states that they don't have a battery to fit a 71 Pantera and refers me to batteries.com who forwards me to Pepboys.

The Optima battery is physically smaller than the original Pantera battery.  Optima's "long" dimension is only 10", which would require modifying the battery hold down.

The Optima battery that I have used was a #SC34U.

John 

If you got 10 years from any battery...Extremely rare, then I would stick with it for sure. Of course experiences vary depending on the usage. If the battery is not being used much over that time it's not that impressive. The same battery used daily would not likely give you much more than 3 years.

BTW. Don't shop for the battery by giving the car model. It's irrelevant, just get the most CCA that you can and that will fit.

thrillrider posted:

My Optima Red Top seems to be discharging every two days or so even when using my new Optima Charger.

 

Have you measured to see if there is a current draw with the car switched off?

BTW. Don't shop for the battery by giving the car model. It's irrelevant, just get the most CCA that you can and that will fit

That makes excellent sense !

My optima lasted over ten years in my car.  It started rolling the starter over slow so I pulled it out.  Now it's on a solar panel running the front gate.

I would stick with optima.

Optima took back my red top battery after if finally became too weak to start my Pantera when it was warmed up. If I recall it was 14 years old and they wanted to display it because the case look so good, which makes sense because of its location in a Pantera. The second Optima red top only lasted ten years and neither of those batteries had a battery tender on them all the time when the car wasn't being used. I have been told that the trick to making an Optima battery last a long time is to not let it get completely discharged. I purchased a NAPA brand AGM battery this year and it fits better than the Optima did. It has always been on a Battery Tender and I will see if it lasts as long as the Optimas did.

My experience on Optima is TERRIBLE. Got a brand new red top well left the ignition ON hence DEEP discharge..Battery DAED..no way to recover, and trust me I tried!!!. Any Bat say 80 Amh is better as half price and they live VERY long >10 years (ok head in Arizona give it 5 years),  only you need to recharge in "winter" after 2..3 month".

Optima is very good for EMERGENCY vehicles ..as no discharge..and mony does not count ..

Matthias

I'm a former Optima user. I have three dead ones here on the floor trying to figure out how to recycle them right.

I would say that 15 or so year ago when they were made in the US and were $80 new, they were well worth the money and the best that you could do.

Since they have been made in Mexico and are $160 each, they have become a condensed compacted pile of unreliable crap.

I've gone back to conventional batteries. Those are a higher level of crap for only right now. Between three cars, over the past three years, I've replaced 6 of them under warranty. So they aren't anything to write home about either.

Batteries have never been high tech and maybe I personally have too high of a quality expectation but when I have to worry about the Tesla next to me having it's batteries explode, then I tend to think that yes it could be me but it probably isn't. Batteries are just in a world of crap no matter who or where they are made.

Yea...definitely it's me.

I have to agree that some batteries are not what they use to be quality wise. I had two unsealed batteries fail in only three years in my pickup truck. The OEM one at least gave me a warning, but the second one just totally died. It wasn't unusual for me to get four or five years life out of conventional and sealed batteries ten or twenty years ago, but now I don't expect more than three years out of any of them. I will see how this NAPA AGM battery does in the Pantera. At least it looks much better than the Optima does.

After 2 red and 2 yellow optimas, for me it's a no-go using this product in the future. Overpriced and not worth it for the time being. Average life about 2,5 years and I'm not Dagobert Duck swimming in money.

I switched for my cars to a hawker oddysee which now works almost 5 years without an issue and for the Pantera I installed a banner battery from Austria which is one of a kind. Since I switched to these batteries is a no brainer to start the car after 7 weeks without hanging on a charger.

Finally I can confirm what some folks already wrote. Size isnt the main trigger, if you install such batteries they will work plug'n play because of the size. Check the Ampere # which comming close or slightly above the original battery and go for it. There won't be any significant weight reduction using a drycell battery but for me the handling and longer last is main.

Good luck 

I have found Interstate makes a great product.  Put it on a battery tender - lasts a long, long time

The Battery Tender trickle charger is a good product. It won't overcharge a battery and for a vehicle that isn't driven very often, it will usually extend the life of a battery.

If you have the CTEK products in the US, then I recommend using their MXS 5.0 trickle charger (optimiser), its the best in the market, and the one that often gets re-branded as OEM by top manufacturers.

I run an Optima Red Top in my Pantera, always fitted to the CTEK when not in use, and it is faultless, and now 7 years old.

Enough CCA to wake the dead!

with all respect - the only reason for OPTIMA WAS (!!!) it has NO SELF-Discharge. That is why it used to be used in special vehicles i.e firehose folks etc. If you do a trickle charge then the value of the batterie is gone, and then it is by far too expensive, as any other bat on trickle stays in top form..

Matthias

tch911 posted:

If you have the CTEK products in the US, then I recommend using their MXS 5.0 trickle charger (optimiser), its the best in the market, and the one that often gets re-branded as OEM by top manufacturers.

I run an Optima Red Top in my Pantera, always fitted to the CTEK when not in use, and it is faultless, and now 7 years old.

Enough CCA to wake the dead!

A 7 year old red top is right on the border of good and bad as far as quality goes. The old ones (US) were good and reliable.The current ones (Mexico) aren't.

Don't buy a new one. They are over priced and junk.

matg posted:

with all respect - the only reason for OPTIMA WAS (!!!) it has NO SELF-Discharge. That is why it used to be used in special vehicles i.e firehose folks etc. If you do a trickle charge then the value of the batterie is gone, and then it is by far too expensive, as any other bat on trickle stays in top form..

Matthias

 

Not at all, you make a valid point. I think, like many, I just choose to use a trickle charger, or battery optimiser, as they are often referred to as, to make sure that my car is always 100% ready when I want to drive it.

Any car that I have garaged, is always hooked up to a CTEK, and I often use them on my daily drivers, every so often, to ensure that the batteries are fully charged, to prevent any unwanted sulfation.

I chose the Optima as, at the time, it was perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be the best choice. And have no reason to think otherwise. It would seem, from above posts, that their quality may no longer be what it once was.

I'm in the same boat... My optima's have both lasted 7+ years with a battery tender with no issues.