battery suggestions

[ReconH3]

Anything but Optima View attachment 14314

X2 what he said!


"Ex Umbris Venimus"

 

[MaxPF]

FWIW I should mention that I am running a pair of Deka Intimidators, made in the USA by East Penn. They're excellent AGM batteries but hard to find compared to the Odyssey/DHP. Car Quest sells them under their own label, but they want $170 for them and only offer a 12 month warranty. I paid $140 each for mine with a 36 month warranty.

 

[silvrzuki77]

Ditto on the deka batteries. I have a old school battery shop down the street from my work where they sell odyssey, optima, and deka. The owner of the shop talked me into the Deka versus the Odyssey by showing me the stack of bad odyssey's on a pallet. Though there were two pallets of Optima's.

 

[digglesworth]

I have a batteries plus by me that claims to have anything and everything.

 

[rascole]

Flux capacitor?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[Renagade132]

I got the Odyssey 31M-PC2150ST for my H2 and it's an amazing battery, it has top posts, and additional threaded top positive and negative post, very handy for additional hook ups.

 

[Steve #1]

Anything but Optima

I would agree, but honestly I think their quality has improved some. My last optima (red top) lasted 2 years and 10 months. I bought it weeks before they changed their warranty from 3 years full replacement to 12 months. I've had my current yellow top a couple years now and not a single problem. I was hard on the red top because I would often leave the carputer on and drain the battery. I learned over a few Optimas that the fastest way to kill them was to drain them then fast charge them vs slow charging them over a few hours. Not saying that is acceptable, but the best way to handle 'em.

 

[MaxPF]

Before Johnson Controls bought Optima they would routinely last 6+ years here in the AZ heat, and they weren't finicky about charging. JCI moved manufacturing to Mexico, cheapened the quality, and continue to charge premium prices. When I can get a Deka or Odyssey that lasts much longer for the same or less money I see no reason whatsoever to even consider Optima.

I mentioned this in an Optima thread on Pirate: the absolute best battery I ever owned was a Delco Voyager Maintenance Free deep cycle that I bought around 1992. It was the one that was completely sealed - no removeable caps - and had the charge indicator eye. I abused that battery, repeated deep discharges until the eye was red, then let the alternator charge it until the eye was green again. I had that battery at least 8 years, and when I got rid of it it STILL passed a fulll load test! Being a deep cycle it didn't have the CCA of a starting battery, but it still easily spun over the engine even in single digit cold. What it may have lacked in on-paper CCA it made up for in ruggedness. They were also truly maintenance free, just like an AGM battery. They had some kind of catalyst that recombined the H2 and O2 during charging, so they never lost water. And they never spewed electrolyte (unless you badly overcharged it to the point where it had to vent, which an AGM battery woudl also do). The only advantage an AGM battery had over it is that it can be mounted in any position, whereas the Voyager had to be kept upright so the plates remained submerged. I wish those batteries were still made... they were made by Delco-Remy, which is now Delphi. Sometime in the 2000s Delphi sold off it's battery division to Johnson Controls, who promptly discontinued manufacture of the Delco-designed batteries in favor of their own, cheaper, non-maintenance-free designs. And they cost just as much. Go figure...