Optima Yellow-Top battery-how long should it last?
JK Freak
Joined: Apr 2011
Posts: 537
Likes: 0
From: Somewhere Out There
Thanks everyone for your replies. I found my receipt and it was actually purchased in Sept. 09. This puts the battery at a little more than 4 years old. Still, I thought Optimas would last longer. It has never sat for longer than 2 weeks without at least a short trip somewhere around town. My garage is not heated and temps started to dip into low 30s a few weeks ago. With my multimeter I did a voltage test which gave me 12.3. With the jeep jump started, I checked voltage again with engine running. This was 14.7 so I believe alternator is good. I took the battery to BatteriesPlus and had it load tested. At 12.5v it only had 130 cranking amps, just a little shy of the 750cca its supposed to have (lol), which means the battery is indeed toast. They had no recommendation for me other than buying a new battery. I'm not sure I want to get another Optima. Looking now at Diehard Platinum. It has 850 cold cranking amps and a 4 year warranty. I don't drive the jeep much in the winter months and the guy at Batteries Plus suggested I get a battery maintainer also.
I bought the Diehard Platinum and it's great. 6 year replacement warranty.
JK Freak
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 563
Likes: 1
From: Hopedale, MA
My little red jeep I sold has a yellow top from 08 still going strong it spent till 2013 in a vehicle in northern Idaho.....cold cold cold...
, like anything sometimes things go bad sooner than later....optimas are good batteries.
I've got a yellow top in mine and a blue top new sitting in the garage (d34m) which is the same as yellow but has to thread style mounts on top as well as top mounts so hooking up a winch directly to its own mount is easy....and it has a blue top no front mounts, still deep cycle, 750 CCA, starting battery.
I hear the die hard platinum is a gold battery as well if you end up options a get a d34m blue, you will have the standard top post and a thread post for the winch direct to battery with no additional wires...cleaner looking.
Attachment 513593
Tricke chargers are a good thing g the reason my battery was still gold up there was it was my dads in a rig that never really drove but sat on a trickle charger since day one. He has 2 more in other rigs up there with chargers on em as well....they sit in 2-3 feet of snow at times where they are located.
, like anything sometimes things go bad sooner than later....optimas are good batteries.
I've got a yellow top in mine and a blue top new sitting in the garage (d34m) which is the same as yellow but has to thread style mounts on top as well as top mounts so hooking up a winch directly to its own mount is easy....and it has a blue top no front mounts, still deep cycle, 750 CCA, starting battery.
I hear the die hard platinum is a gold battery as well if you end up options a get a d34m blue, you will have the standard top post and a thread post for the winch direct to battery with no additional wires...cleaner looking.
Attachment 513593
Tricke chargers are a good thing g the reason my battery was still gold up there was it was my dads in a rig that never really drove but sat on a trickle charger since day one. He has 2 more in other rigs up there with chargers on em as well....they sit in 2-3 feet of snow at times where they are located.
You had me at cleaner looking!
Just in time too! I was going to buy a new battery during the wiring I have to do. I was going to use a Yellow Top like I usually do, but now I'm going to use a Blue top instead. I've used Yellow tops for years. In my S2000 show car we used the same Yellow top for about 10years. We would run that poor thing down show after show. We'd jump the car to start it at the end of every show to drive home. It would recharge during the drive home and it would be all set.