Optima Battery

[Tom Goldman]

Red tops . Optima reps seem to always recommend Yellow top ,but as stated before , they are deep cycle and are not meant for rapid recharging between rounds.
I have been using red top Optima's for many years ,recharging between rounds with a conventional Snap On heavy duty charger at a 20 amp rate.
The important thing is to watch the charging voltage ,you do not want to exceed 14.5 volts , most good quality chargers will not. ...some cheaper chargers will reach 16 + volts and boil the electrolyte in the battery .
I change them out every 2-3 years and put them into the trailer for the lights and winch or my beater truck till the next change out .

[Doug Domm]

I spoke to Optima Tech a few years ago and the person I spoke to said the yellow top was best suited to my needs which I’m sure is similar to most here and that being we generally make a pass and then run the water pump and fan to cool down. Even with between round charging you still may use the fan and water pump in the staging lanes with no charging and the yellow top is best suited to that type of service. He said the red top should have the alternator operating with any type of load other than the start up and the yellow top is best suited to longer discharge from accessory use between charging. I’m just stating what I was told. The blue top generally considered as a marine battery is supposed to be more of a deep cycle than the yellow top and more for applications where it would get run down and then recharged. Again, just stating what I was told.

[devo340]

Red top works great.
I once accidently hooked up a battery charger backward for overnight before racing the next day.
It was dead when we tried to get it off the trailer.
Charged it overnight correctly, it still runs today 6 years later.


Last I heard, Optima batteries were shut down from covid.
Tried to pick one up at our Interstate dealer for a crane on a service truck.
Said they would be shut down for awhile, that was a couple of months ago.

[Tim H]

There are many reports that Optima battery quality is not what it use to be. Personally, the last Optima I had was a yellow top and it was an awesome battery lasting far beyond my expectations.

[Darrel Goheen]

Yellow in the Camaro (came with the car). Red in the Chevelle. Both have alternators. Only the Camaro has an electric fan and water pump.

[SGSST109E]

I have used Optima yellow tops for 20 years. Every 4 years or so I would replace it with another. The old battery went in the trailer to power the winch, laptop etc. The trailer had solar on the roof to keep the batteries charged. My last trailers batteries lasted 14 and 12 years. Tom is correct over voltage will kill and Optima battery, 14.5 volts. The Optima battery charger is very good and so are battery tenders. I have always had an alternator on the race car. A red top is fine to use but should have an alternator. The yellow tops have a longer reserve capacity and are designed to recover from a deep discharge. The yellow tops are both a deep cycle and a starting battery. I worked for Johnson Controls for over 12 years, they own Optima. There was a quality issue for a while when some of the batteries started to be built in the new plant in Mexico.

[curtis reed]

Originally Posted by John Dinkel

Which Optima battery for race car Red or Yellow?

I would say neither. These are my choice in a 12v set up.



https://www.odysseybattery.com/extre...ies-batteries/


And this is why.



https://www.odysseybattery.com/desig...sey-batteries/


Made in the USA, the UK and France.

[Bob Don]

I had a three year old red top quit on me at the scales at Maple Grove. Had to get towed back to my pit (thanks, Adam). Wouldn't take or hold a charge. Replaced it with a NAPA Legend that lasted 6 years.

[Bob F]

I switched to deka batteries made in Pa after Optimas were moved to Mexico.
Optima red in my truck only lasted about a year.

[OptimaJim]

Hello, I noticed your conversation involving our products and wanted to offer some clarification. The advice Doug received is what we typically recommend in racing applications. When pumps and/or fans are being run in between rounds and/or there is no charging system we would recommend a YellowTop. If a vehicle has an alternator that can maintain voltage (not underdriven) and can handle the vehicle's electrical demands after starting, then a RedTop is fine.

BlueTops are identical internally to their YellowTop counterparts (except the 34M, which is the marine version of the Group 34 RedTop). BlueTops offer additional threaded top post terminals for marine and RV applications, they are more expensive than YellowTops and their warranty is typically shorter (Group 31 is the same).

The quality of the batteries we manufacture (and we manufacture all of our own batteries, in our own facility) has always been excellent. The batteries we are manufacturing today are the best we've ever made. No manufacturer has a 0% defect rate, but any suggestion of widespread quality issues at any point in our production are false. Our plant and our main distribution hub in Laredo, Texas were both temporarily paused as of yesterday, due to weather-related electrical outages. We also had a two-week anticipated shutdown in April of last year due to COVID-19, but had a 90-day inventory stockpiled at that point. Other manufacturers were not so fortunate.

1uke, did you get warranty service on the RedTop you had in your truck?

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries