Never again Optima batteries

[Tech Tim]

I remember the era of Pintos, crossfire injection, and Chevy Citations differently.

Pintos were awesome!

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[WillysMeow]

Optima batteries were great when they were made In the USA. They were expensive, but great, and durable. Unfortunately, production moved to Mexico about twenty years ago and the quality of the batteries immediately went down hill.

Sadly, Optima has gone the way of Craftsman tools, all refrigerators, all washers, and driers, and hundreds of other products. We live in a disposable world.

Exactly this.

Our LG refrigerator up and died without warning about one year before warranty up, but if you read around, nobody ever gets satisfaction from LG warranty.

Our new Whirlpool side by side replacement refrigerator had lots of condensation and was freezing things in the fridge side, called and warranty tech came out about 6-7 times and did bunch of stuff and it's better but don't let anything touch the freezer wall or it will get frozen too!

Costco Interstate gellcell battery died without warning just after 3 year warranty...Costco said pound sand and buy new one, no pro-rate or anything!

Oddyssey battery couple years ago (one before the Costco Interstate) died after about 1 year, they said get lost since I bought it online....yet they have no vendors within 100 miles of me.

Optima used to be awesome in the 1980s and 1990s...then manufacturing went to Mexico, my friends and I never bought another one after those died prematurely and Optima didn't care.

Very sad state of affairs.

 

[SlickRicksWilly]

Putting an AGM baterry in an older vehicle is a recipe for failure. The charging system on an older vehicle or a vehicle not originally designed for an AGM will cause the AGM battery to fail in short time.

AGM Battery Chargers have a specific algorithm for properly maintaining and charging AGM batteries.

Also, if you do not keep the AGM Battery State of Charge that is required for the AGM battery the battery will also fail quickly. AGM batteries need to stay above that low State of Charge point to prevent it from failing.

AGM batteries can be recovered if done properly by a quality AGM Battery Charger/Conditioner.

Another mistake people are making with batteries is that most newer vehicles require AGM batteries. The charging systems on these vehicles are conductive for those batteries, but not for lead acid or Lithium batteries.

Lithium batteries are also a different animal and they require a charging system that are conducive to only a Lithium chemistry battery.

Sounds complicated, can we get batteries that just work?

 

[Ratbert]

Yes, AFTER the

70s we were on the uptick....right until NAFTA ruined everything for everyone except the rich.

Ahhhh, so we had about 14 years of "excellence". During our "period of excellence" Japanese cars went from ~20% of our market to ~30%. A clear sign of our "excellence", right?

And then NAFTA (eventually slightly tweaked and rebadged as USMCA in 2020) took away our "excellence"?

 

[Wabujitsu]

I wonder how much of the problem is with current battery quality, or the particular battery management systems in our vehicles.

 

[Ratbert]

I wonder how much of the problem is with current battery quality, or the particular battery management systems in our vehicles.

Toss in lots and lots of electronics / lights / fridges / etc. And we didn't typically have incessant parasitic draw back in "the good ole days".

 

[scootertoo]

Toss in lots and lots of electronics / lights / fridges / etc. And we didn't typically have incessant parasitic draw back in "the good ole days".

Gee, finally some of you have zeroed in on what over time has added to the problem. Increasing use of electronics within the car/truck adds to the battery draw down. Should be no real problem if you in fact are cranking up said car/truck at least within every ten days or so and taking even a short drive with it.
If not, you would and/or could do yourself a big favor if you plugged in a Battery Tender or similar device.
I have an SSR that I only run once or twice a month maybe...........if I don't maintain it with a Batter Tender, I'm faced with it not cranking next time out. Maintaining the usage of the B.T., alllows me to go for yrs without a problem

 

[Wabujitsu]

Gee, finally some of you have zeroed in on what over time has added to the problem. Increasing use of electronics within the car/truck adds to the battery draw down. Should be no real problem if you in fact are cranking up said car/truck at least within every ten days or so and taking even a short drive with it.
If not, you would and/or could do yourself a big favor if you plugged in a Battery Tender or similar device.
I have an SSR that I only run once or twice a month maybe...........if I don't maintain it with a Batter Tender, I'm faced with it not cranking next time out. Maintaining the usage of the B.T., alllows me to go for yrs without a problem

Ash, I wholeheartedly concur.

 

[Pape]

As per my understanding the charging system in the JL also undergo the light oil treatments. Most of the time it will change at max while braking but will be on light cycle while accelerating, you know we need the extras 0.01 mille per gallon here.

 

[txj2go]

I wonder how much of the problem is with current battery quality, or the particular battery management systems in our vehicles.

It's really tought to quantify- people have different driving habits, different climates, different conditions for where the batteries are place in the vehicle.

I live in a hot climate. In 1990 I bought a new Taurus SHO. The original battery lasted 2 years or so. At the time I thought the Sears DieHard was the best and I lived a little over 1/2 mile from Sears so I walked there and carried the battery home. Almost 3 years later I was out of town and that battery failed. I bought an Interstate at the only store open in that little town. It lasted over 3 years so I kept buying them. I drove that car for a long time, had a couple more Taurus, then a CTS-V. I learned that no matter what car I had to replace the battery by 36 months. My wife's car with the battery in a compartment under the floor could go 5 years or more, similar for my daughter's car. I haven't had any better luck with the Jeep.

From my experience I've had the same experience with batteries for a period of 36 years. I think batteries overall are probably lower quality these days which is unfortunate. I don't know what the answer is. I've resigned myself to checking my battery frequently and maybe replacing it more frequently than I should have to. I don't think this is right and I don't think we should have to do that but I do go places way out there, by myself, and don't want to be stranded.

 

[Vimby210]

If it has not been talked about, (im to lazy to go back and read the whole thred!) Charge rates of alternators and idle rates of alternators is what kills batteries, Flooded, vs AGM, vs Lithium all have different charge rates.. If it is wrong for the battery you install then it kills them. Agm batteries will over charge on standard vehicles, ive tried them numerous times, And they hate inverters! (always a failure) till I finally did the research and found out about charging voltage. Also, if you have high demand electronics and drain led acids fast and often they die, they have way less life cycles than a deep cycle, yet a deep cycle cant handle High amperage draws continually like starters. B Unfortunately, after market isnt always the best choice or the best answer without knowing how things work.

 

[jellis4148]

I know I'm going to jinx myself, but here we go. I replaced the factory batteries in 2022 with Mopar batteries. My Jeep is a 2019, the batteries are 4 years old now, and still going strong. I do have ESS shut off. Maybe that has helped it.

 

[scootertoo]

Pintos were awesome!

Back in the days where it became well known that Pintos and their gas tank location were kinda a "ticking time bomb", I had a situation with a Pinto driver.

I was running late to get to work and driving my big Chevy Van and kinda sorta tail gating this slow poke Pinto in the traffic. At the next red light, he jumped out of his car and came back and begged me to back off...............he was recognizing the potential for a big problem.

So i gave him some space.

 

[Ratbert]

Back in the days where it became well known that Pintos and their gas tank location were kinda a "ticking time bomb", I had a situation with a Pinto driver.

I was running late to get to work and driving my big Chevy Van and kinda sorta tail gating this slow poke Pinto in the traffic. At the next red light, he jumped out of his car and came back and begged me to back off...............he was recognizing the potential for a big problem.

So i gave him some space.

It's kinda rare for people to publicly admit that they're assholes. If in doubt there's always the r/AITAH subreddit to verify it.

 

[ScotM]

Never again will I purchase an Optima battery.

Years ago I used to have them in all my vehicles and they would last 10-15 years and be abused.

I purchased an optima battery on Jan 6 2025 and it dies this weekend. I thought we were having an issue with our 4xe but found that the Optima has dies just over a year old. This past year I have had 3 others die either just before or after the warranty.

If this was isolated I would be ok with it but clearly quality has gone down hill. I can be stranded for much cheaper.

3 others in different vehicles? This post confuses me.

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