Would you buy another Optima?

I would. I have 2 of them , one came with my Blazer when I bought it in 02 , still in there , and the other I bought in 06. They are wired in parallel and she will crank everytime I go out there no matter how long it has sit . Ive had to do some heavy winching on Bingham one time , which resulted in me pulling a reese hitch off a Z71 that was stuck(the winch broke all the 3/4" bolts that were holding it to the frame) and the truck didnt die , never lost power to nothing. Excellent batteries IMO

I got a yellow top and it's great. Battery terminals don't corrode.

To clarify , Im running dual red tops

Costco. They are everywhere out west.

I live in the South.

98TJ wrote: scoutman wrote:    I would get a yellow with side terminals if I were to get one.      Unless they have changed them, don't hook your winch to the side terminals.  At least that was the case with my red top.

I had a Red top in my Jeep for 12+ years( since I was 14) and it died a year ago, I think the sitting caused it.  I will always buy an optima.

Ive seen a winch melt the side terminals out of different kinds of batteries. I was just posting that as a rule of thumb

I have heard that sears diehard platiums are made by optima

premier power welder folks are not big on optimas either-Company has been bought and sold several times-They recommend Odessey-but they are $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Brad is right-once a red top is drained-throw it away.

NOT4HWY wrote:   ........once a red top is drained-throw it away.

I would have never bought that battery if I had know that.  It cost me about $130 to find out.  I guess the yellow top Optimas don't have that same problem? 

I wouldn't doubt that there is some damage to completely drain down any battery.  But my red top went totally south after two such drainings.  I've never had that happen with a lead-acid battery.  Tried the double battery recharge and all that.  It was toes up.

The older optimas were great, but the current ones are junk.  For every 5 that my store sells 4 of them come back bad within a year.  A dual post 34/78 series from Advance is about 100 bucks and has more CCA than the Optimas.  Those Energizers at Sam's are the best priced batteries that I've seen, about $65 for a 3 year free 84 month prorated battery.  Batteries plus also has a sealed type of battery similar to an Optima.  Parts stores make a retarded amount on the mark up on batteries.  The only leaking batteries that I've seen regularly were the 75 and 78 series AC Delcos that would leak from the negative terminal.   I've been told that there's only about 4 major manufactures of batteries globally, most of the one's available here are made by Johnson Contrals.

grcthird wrote: The older optimas were great, but the current ones are junk.  For every 5 that my store sells 4 of them come back bad within a year.  A dual post 34/78 series from Advance is about 100 bucks and has more CCA than the Optimas.  Those Energizers at Sam's are the best priced batteries that I've seen, about $65 for a 3 year free 84 month prorated battery.  Batteries plus also has a sealed type of battery similar to an Optima.  Parts stores make a retarded amount on the mark up on batteries.  The only leaking batteries that I've seen regularly were the 75 and 78 series AC Delcos that would leak from the negative terminal.   I've been told that there's only about 4 major manufactures of batteries globally, most of the one's available here are made by Johnson Contrals.

Good post, thanks!

For just another $130 you could have had an Optima yellow top. 

If I had bought a yellow top instead of a red top, I probably would still be using mine.