I've also had bad luck with three red top Ultimas. The coupe I just picked up from Streetsweeper had a red top in it that lasted all of a day under my watch, lol. It's about three years old according to the sticker on it. Before that, I had one in my Jetta for about nine months till I came out and it was dead. Wouldn't hold a charge, warrantied it and sold the replacement. The first one I had was in my 96 MX-6, and that lasted about two years. I just decided that I wanted a diehard and replaced it. One thing all of the failures had in common was that they all occurred in "colder" weather. The first two were in TN, where I think the temp was a balmy 40 degrees, the norm being around 75-80 otherwise. Obviously, the red top that failed on me two days ago when the temp was -eleventybillion, so I understand that. These are the only batteries I have ever had fail on me, the other three I replaced in my short time dealing with car maintenance were just plain old, lol. One was almost 10 years old, it was kind of impressive. Overall, I'm just not impressed with Optima batteries. Kinda feel like I got ripped off.
Yep, 2005. As for Optimas causing some people problems, I can't argue that. After the original company was bought out, they let a bunch of crap hit the market with little testing at the factory... hence the need to warranty them. This can account for my old ass red-top still working fine after all these years. Justin at GS had an older red-top lying about the shop for a long while, used it to jump cars, the lawn tractor/snow plow. I bought it for $60, and used it in the MG for the summer the Neon was dead. It then came out for winter storage, where it has been sitting on the lower shelf of my work bench. I use it to jump cars and bike that I kill batteries in, or if I need to move the Mini or MG around the shop. That battery has been sitting in my garage for the past year now with this use, and has never seen a charger... lord knows the lead-acid I have next to it has maybe 2v left. I did some more reading, and my Jeep does not have the factory Optima anymore. Chrysler had made a deal with Optima, and installed lower CCA red-tops in the CRDs. These batteries did fail pretty quick, and were replaced under warranty with a "Mopar" spiral core AGM, wich has lasted now for 5yrs. I never said go buy an Optima, but I did say buy an AGM.
I pick up a bunch of rechargeable Energizers and Duracells. I try to keep them all AA size, as they are the cheapest to replace. I wire some in series, others in parallel and it equals out to about 13 volts. Never had a problem with that setup.
Any specific one at Fleet Farm that is good, or are all theirs pretty much the same? I need to find a battery the same size or shorter (7" max height) to fit my FMIC.
