teotwaki
Excelsior!
Over three years old and not even a sulphuric belch has been broadcast :ylsmoke:
Optima Battery Problems
- Thread starter TheJosh
- Start date
Over three years old and not even a sulphuric belch has been broadcast :ylsmoke:
dwh
Tail-End Charlie
Oh god. I hate to do it, but I'm gonna. (Actually, I love it.) I've held off on saying this, because...well, timing is everything. 
<evil grin>
Just out of curiosity, are the Optimas you've been having problems with...perchance...being maintained by that Chinese Wellsee "supposedly 3-stage" solar charge controller?
</evil grin>
<evil grin>
Just out of curiosity, are the Optimas you've been having problems with...perchance...being maintained by that Chinese Wellsee "supposedly 3-stage" solar charge controller?
</evil grin>
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teotwaki
Excelsior!
Oh god. I hate to do it, but I'm gonna. (Actually, I love it.) I've held off on saying this, because...well, timing is everything.
<evil grin>
Just out of curiosity, are the Optimas you've been having problems with...perchance...being maintained by that Chinese Wellsee "supposedly 3-stage" solar charge controller?
</evil grin>
I know how much it pained you to publicly ask about something so electrically basic so you'll be udderly :cow: "shocked" to know that the 2005 Toyota 4Runner comes equipped with an alternator. Let me get you the OEM info for your lab notebook.....
Toyota 27060-50320
Denso 104210-3440
12V 50070
Made in Japan
130 Amp
</evil grin> You could go to a Toyota dealer and pop the hood to see if it says "Wellsee" </evil grin>
Look for a big widget like this
But don't get caught taking it out for your wind turbine :littlefriend:
discoportal99
Observer
I have 2 yellows that I have been beating the crap out of for the past 4 years in Heavy offroad application with winching and HD lights in night offroading 6 lights a 10 amps each and also have run those batteries down to nothing so many times that I can't even start to count them and they are still going. I have charged them with our shop charger that I will check tomorrow because I did not know that there was a specific AMG charger. I even had an electrical problem that was discharging the batteries to we're I had to boost them with a charger.I'd say at least 20 times and those batteries are in parallel. I have learned a lot from this thread and will buy a AMG charger and give them a little love ) I guess that if you get a good one from the beginning your ok.
Nothing but praise for those batteries. My two offroad friends also have them with no problems so far after 3 years. I have never took a proper reading maybe they are not fully charged ? Who knows but my winch,lights and starter cranks fine.
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) I guess that if you get a good one from the beginning your ok.Nothing but praise for those batteries. My two offroad friends also have them with no problems so far after 3 years. I have never took a proper reading maybe they are not fully charged ? Who knows but my winch,lights and starter cranks fine.
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Gunnslinger
Adventurer
Can an Optima battery be mounted sideways? Are there any negative side affects. I want to put a yellow top in my Xterra but the cables will not reach.
teotwaki
Excelsior!
Interesting comments on the batteries that have been flatlined but still come back to life when recharged. Makes me wonder if all of the swirl is really about random quality control issues?
PS: for those that think that all I care about is this thread, please see my latest blog post about Mazourka Canyon: http://suntothenorth.blogspot.com/2012/07/mazourka-canyon-exploration.html
Soon to be followed about my recent trip to the state of Washington and the adventures I had up there. :sombrero:
PS: for those that think that all I care about is this thread, please see my latest blog post about Mazourka Canyon: http://suntothenorth.blogspot.com/2012/07/mazourka-canyon-exploration.html
Soon to be followed about my recent trip to the state of Washington and the adventures I had up there. :sombrero:
Michael
Adventurer
Several sources say that AGM batteries are not sensitive to orientation. Personally, I've run several yellow-tops mounted on their side for over 6 years and have had no problems. The D31T has a vent port that I keep on the upper side, but as what is being vented is hydrogen gas (in the unlikely event that the battery is overcharged in over-temp conditions), that probably isn't an issue. The official Optima web site is silent on the issue, but several Optima dealers such as this one and this one state that Optima Yellow Top commercial batteries can be mounted on their side or even upside down if needed.
Gunnslinger
Adventurer
Thanks, nothing like the voice of experience. I'll give it a try this weekend.
discoportal99
Observer
I have a friend that has one In a jeep mounted sideways for the last 3 years in offroad application and has not had any problems.
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Michael
Adventurer
Based on experience, I guess I should also throw in a common sense caution about mounting batteries on their side. Installing a battery on its side presents additional opportunities for shorting the POS and NEG posts. This is a mounting issue, not a battery issue. It goes without saying that you'll need to make sure that any movement of the battery resulting from offroading forces or inadvertent contact with nearby loose nearby objects (or even just getting clumsy when installing or removing it for that matter) doesn't cause a direct short between between POS and NEG (or ground when installed). Side mounting doesn't add any additional risks over mounting it in the traditional upright manner, there are just more opportunities for those risks to become reality. For my installation in the bed of my Tacoma, I cut a piece of heavy grade polystyrene foam into a shape that prevents possible shorts and my battery enclosure is made of wood to provide additional electrical isolation. As I remind myself whenever I work on my electrical system, each job offers a new opportunity to burn my truck to the ground :Wow1:
In my original post, I mentioned my OPTIMA D31T yellow top has a vent port. As my battery is mounted inside the shell of my pickup, I connect a length of flexible tubing to the vent port and run it outside via a hole in the bed near the battery enclosure. Probably not needed, but as a former submarine guy I still follow a 'belt and suspenders' design philosophy
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The BN Guy
Expedition Leader
I have a seven year old yellow top. Only acts up in the cold or if it's been sitting for a few days without cranking the engine. Yep it's timeto replace...now just have to figure out with what!
Gunnslinger, our batteries can be mounted in a variety of orientations, but we do not recommend mounting them upside down. Michael, thanks for pointing out that ommission on our website, I'll ask if we can have that clarified in the mounting section of our FAQ.
.
Jim, the issue you initially described back in January of 2012 involved an Optima battery that you posted a picture of, which included the date November 16, 2010 written on the side (as well as a 10/10 date code sticker). At that time, you also mentioned that your other battery was “months older,” although that battery is either dated March 14th or August 14, 2009, which if you had just replaced the Optima again in 2011, would be more than two years older, but you're welcome to use months.
.
If someone prematurely replaces any battery (Optima or any other brand) once, I would say it is well within the realm of possibility that there could be an issue with the battery, especially if everything else in the system seems to be in order and the previous battery didn't have premature issues as well. When a battery is prematurely replaced for a second time, the odds of the issue being traced back to a defect in the both batteries drops significantly. I would hope by the time a third consecutive premature battery replacement occurs, that a closer look is given to the wiring, charging system and demands of the application, which subsequently happened over several pages in this thread (thank you dwh).
.
Even though you are currently on your fifth battery, I was really encouraged back on the posts around February 11th (#198), when you and dwh got into issues I first suggested five pages earlier in post #142, after I had a conversation with one of my friends at an alternator manufacturer and he suggested the possibility that your auxiliary battery was not getting a full charge in your current setup. In subsequent posts, dwh made it clear he will forget more about chargers and charging systems in his lifetime, than I will ever know, but I really appreciate his willingness to delve into the subject with you.
.
While you did indicate you would accept a refund for your battery, we only offer warranty replacements for our batteries, not refunds. Back on February 1st, I posted, “From everything you've described about your battery, if you returned it to your retailer for warranty service and they fully-recharged it and tested it, they'd probably find nothing wrong with it and couldn't offer you a refund either.” Up until that point and well beyond, it wasn't that your Optima wasn't functioning, but that it wasn't meeting your expectations.
.
I didn't see any mention of you seeking a warranty replacement, until you posted a test slip that was dated at the end of April, which is nearly a month after you indicated you had replaced the battery. I know you mentioned several times that you bought a battery in November of 2011, but I want to make sure that if you bought one in November of 2010 as well, that the battery you received in November of 2011 was not bought, but replaced under warranty.
.
On April 27, 2012 (#251), the picture you posted of the test slip indicated a YellowTop was bad and you posted that “the dealer that I bought it through told me that the Optima distributor would fight against replacing it. He said they had a "huge" charger that dumped a "ton" of amps into batteries to bring them alive long enough to kick them back to the customer. He showed me half a dozen batteries that customers had brought back more than once.”
.
I actually went back and tried to piece together where the YellowTop entered the picture after you first posted a picture of a BlueTop with the 2010 dates back in January of 2012, but I then figured their tester probably only had settings for YellowTop or RedTop. Seeing the serial number on the test slip would've helped with the timeline, but you didn't want me to see that and intentionally whited it out.
.
Regardless, if your battery tests bad and your dealer indicated a distributor would fight against replacing it and would attempt to dump “a ton” of amps into batteries, we want to reach out to that distributor to make sure they are properly-testing batteries and warrantying those that legitimately need replacement, even though your's had already been replaced under warranty.
.
I see you posted a scientific poll a couple of weeks ago, which offers voters seven different opportunities to vote for dead batteries and only three options for functioning batteries. I'm not going to skew the results of your poll by voting four times for the batteries I'm currently using (or the two spares that are waiting for a home), although I see your votes currently account for 1/7 of the total and you didn't even give yourself (and potentially others) an option to vote for the battery you are currently using.
.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.twitter.com/optimabatteries
.
Jim, the issue you initially described back in January of 2012 involved an Optima battery that you posted a picture of, which included the date November 16, 2010 written on the side (as well as a 10/10 date code sticker). At that time, you also mentioned that your other battery was “months older,” although that battery is either dated March 14th or August 14, 2009, which if you had just replaced the Optima again in 2011, would be more than two years older, but you're welcome to use months.
.
If someone prematurely replaces any battery (Optima or any other brand) once, I would say it is well within the realm of possibility that there could be an issue with the battery, especially if everything else in the system seems to be in order and the previous battery didn't have premature issues as well. When a battery is prematurely replaced for a second time, the odds of the issue being traced back to a defect in the both batteries drops significantly. I would hope by the time a third consecutive premature battery replacement occurs, that a closer look is given to the wiring, charging system and demands of the application, which subsequently happened over several pages in this thread (thank you dwh).
.
Even though you are currently on your fifth battery, I was really encouraged back on the posts around February 11th (#198), when you and dwh got into issues I first suggested five pages earlier in post #142, after I had a conversation with one of my friends at an alternator manufacturer and he suggested the possibility that your auxiliary battery was not getting a full charge in your current setup. In subsequent posts, dwh made it clear he will forget more about chargers and charging systems in his lifetime, than I will ever know, but I really appreciate his willingness to delve into the subject with you.
.
While you did indicate you would accept a refund for your battery, we only offer warranty replacements for our batteries, not refunds. Back on February 1st, I posted, “From everything you've described about your battery, if you returned it to your retailer for warranty service and they fully-recharged it and tested it, they'd probably find nothing wrong with it and couldn't offer you a refund either.” Up until that point and well beyond, it wasn't that your Optima wasn't functioning, but that it wasn't meeting your expectations.
.
I didn't see any mention of you seeking a warranty replacement, until you posted a test slip that was dated at the end of April, which is nearly a month after you indicated you had replaced the battery. I know you mentioned several times that you bought a battery in November of 2011, but I want to make sure that if you bought one in November of 2010 as well, that the battery you received in November of 2011 was not bought, but replaced under warranty.
.
On April 27, 2012 (#251), the picture you posted of the test slip indicated a YellowTop was bad and you posted that “the dealer that I bought it through told me that the Optima distributor would fight against replacing it. He said they had a "huge" charger that dumped a "ton" of amps into batteries to bring them alive long enough to kick them back to the customer. He showed me half a dozen batteries that customers had brought back more than once.”
.
I actually went back and tried to piece together where the YellowTop entered the picture after you first posted a picture of a BlueTop with the 2010 dates back in January of 2012, but I then figured their tester probably only had settings for YellowTop or RedTop. Seeing the serial number on the test slip would've helped with the timeline, but you didn't want me to see that and intentionally whited it out.
.
Regardless, if your battery tests bad and your dealer indicated a distributor would fight against replacing it and would attempt to dump “a ton” of amps into batteries, we want to reach out to that distributor to make sure they are properly-testing batteries and warrantying those that legitimately need replacement, even though your's had already been replaced under warranty.
.
I see you posted a scientific poll a couple of weeks ago, which offers voters seven different opportunities to vote for dead batteries and only three options for functioning batteries. I'm not going to skew the results of your poll by voting four times for the batteries I'm currently using (or the two spares that are waiting for a home), although I see your votes currently account for 1/7 of the total and you didn't even give yourself (and potentially others) an option to vote for the battery you are currently using.
.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.twitter.com/optimabatteries
