Iam thinking of getting one of these for my ageing POS Hilux ,wondered if anyone has advice on which one to choose ? which one ideally lasts the longest ,best performing .Thankyou for any advice

I can tell you I have run Optimas in all of my vehicles for several years, and our firedepartment runs nothing but optimas. With 17 trucks running them in the department I only know of one that had a battery failure that needed replaced. In reality that wasn't the fault of the battery either. I hit a ditch at about 40 miles an hour with that particular truck going accross a field and shorted out the battery. The hit was hard enough that the front end of the truck needed to be rebuilt, and one of the motor mounts cracked. I will continue to use them in the future.

We bought three optimas for tractors we shipped to South America because we thought they would last longer and perform better. All three batteries were dead and gone and needed to be replaced within two years. Even the poor quality batteries sold there last longer than the optimas.
They are complete hipe in my book

MHO, I think JCI had some quality issues when they initially moved their Optima production from USA to Mexico. All of the newer Optima batteries that I own perform as advertised.

quote:

Originally posted by tankhunter:
which one to choose ...

By that do you mean red top, yellow top, or blue top?

I mean compared to the ''Odyssey '' Brand battery which is the better Brand ?Odyssey or the Optima ?

IIRC the Optima Yellow and Blue batteries are essentially the same battery, blue has additional wing nut posts. I always get the blue top, because the threaded posts work great for adapting accessories.

Off topic, I know.

Thanks i will keep that in mind !
Cheers

I've recently seen two different Mexican Optimas fail right around the two year mark. This is after using an American made red top for over ten years in a Jeep.

Optima, like anything else manufactured in Mexico, is essentially dead to me.

quote:

Originally posted by allfoden:
We bought three optimas for tractors we shipped to South America because we thought they would last longer and perform better. All three batteries were dead and gone and needed to be replaced within two years. Even the poor quality batteries sold there last longer than the optimas.
They are complete hipe in my book

It is all in how you charge them and maintain them. They are both Gel Cell batteries and if they are charged above 10 Amps then they become useless. They cannot be charged on a charger that is for Lead/Acid or AGM batteries, unless of course the charger has a setting for Gel Cells. I think all except the red tops are deep cycle. Carquest also sells their own brand that is comprable and a lot more reasonabily priced. Optima brand are favored because it is actually six individual cells so if one becomes internally disconnected the battery will still provide 12 volts. The reason they are used on emergency vehicles and armored vehicles. All other batteries ony have one cell so ones it breaks or is shot thats it no more voltage.

I'm not running either one but the Jeep forums have all been complaining about the new Optimas. When the warranty changed the product changed, or vice versa. Either way the new ones are no longer the favorite battery for off roading. The replacement seems to be the Diehard Platinum from Sears. I don't know if they are available in Australia. Looking at the Odyssey web site they seem to be a good alternative to the Diehard and better than the Optima.

Something else to keep in mind. An Optima Red Top warranty can be voided if you have a winch mounted on your vehicle. The Yellow Top is a deep cell for load moving.

I was just doing a search yesterday for batteries. I used to have optimas in an old diesel truck. All the new reviews on the optimas were pretty much the same, battery was junk within 12-15 months.

That's enough for me too stay clear of them. I think I'll be going diehard.