New battery time which one?

[krom]

All I'll add is, I've had my fill of Optima's. Back to regular batteries for me.

It seems like the Optima's are not lasting like they used to. I buy the regular batteries also, use a battery tender and they go on and on and on.

 

[TWISTER]

well I tried to buy an Optima at Autozone and it kept ringing up $20 more than the advertised price after a few words and a long story short and 2 days of being pissed off cause the computer at Autozone says this so they dont care what the sign says Autozone has lost yet another customer. This happened to me a few years back at a different Autozone pretty much the same customer service and I dont want to get into the long story so I bought a NAPA Deca for $70 and it cranks the Buick twice as fast as the ol AC Delco which was about 7 years old so Im sure it was tired. If I could have found another one I would have went that route. Thats it for my rant. I never get good customer service at Autozone. Oh well.

 

[turbobuickman]

The optimas have had mixed reviews. I was just in the market for a new battery and was faced with the same dillema. After doing some research I developed a theory: the people who said their red tops gave them trouble also usually mentioned using a battery tender or charger in their post. That got me thinkin...then I read somewhere that optimas dont respond well if they are not charged the right way (something about overcharging or charging too fast, not sure) but I think it might be possible that people are killing their optimas with chargers. In the end I decided to go with a red top and havent had any problems so far (one month of weekend driving only).

 

[krom]

I saw an Optima red leak this weekend at the track, I brought my Vatozone from home for him to use. The Optima red I had on my 5.0 worked for years and probably is still working for the new owner. BTW I used to charge it all the time.

 

[dwall]

Penske or other big box brands seem OK

I think a lot of batteries are made by just a couple of suppliers. Mine is Kmart special with the Penske name. I think its 3+ years old - never a problem. It'll get replaced at the end of prorated warrantee period - 60 mo.

Just started using a automatic shut off trickle charger ($27) since Xmas. I have been watching it, it ran for part of the first day only as far I can tell. Every other time I looked the indicator shows inactive/battery charged.

FYI - the Penske (made by EXIDE) name is identical product line to those labeled Exide (Batteries Plus, Checker, Sams club).

Got the oil changed and out for a ride today! Runs good in the cool weather.