Confused by Optima Batteries
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 1,642
Confused by Optima Batteries
Hey guys,
I've decided its time for me to get a new Battery, stock one is dying, been thinking of getting a Optima.
and I ran into some luck... one of my clients that I sold a phone to, works for Optima in Toronto ... and he can hook me up with a good price.
Here's the question (Yes I did use search before asking)
Which Optima Battery should I get?
Everyone seems like they are vouching for YELLOW TOP overall, but I some people say RED TOP is better for "Performance" of the car itself.
Then we have people like our Maxima.org GOD, Kevin, getting a BLUE TOP !?!?! Isn't that Marine Use??
I just don't understand ...
My Habits:
I do listen to music with the car off.
I DO like Bass
I have Neons, and Rice Lights
I do want increased performance (If possible)
Any suggestions are welcome!
Thanks in Advance,
Eric
I've decided its time for me to get a new Battery, stock one is dying, been thinking of getting a Optima.
and I ran into some luck... one of my clients that I sold a phone to, works for Optima in Toronto ... and he can hook me up with a good price.
Here's the question (Yes I did use search before asking)
Which Optima Battery should I get?
Everyone seems like they are vouching for YELLOW TOP overall, but I some people say RED TOP is better for "Performance" of the car itself.
Then we have people like our Maxima.org GOD, Kevin, getting a BLUE TOP !?!?! Isn't that Marine Use??
I just don't understand ...
My Habits:
I do listen to music with the car off.
I DO like Bass
I have Neons, and Rice Lights
I do want increased performance (If possible)
Any suggestions are welcome!
Thanks in Advance,
Eric
buy a redtop.
there is absolutely no performance increase that will come from a battery. When people use yellow tops/deep cycles, its usually a bandaid fix for when you actually need a higher output altenator.
Personally the only time I would use an optima is when I need to mount the battery in a non-upright position, because last time I checked they do not match the cold cranking amp output which some conventional batterys can put out (mines 975cca's IIRC).
In your case, I would probably buy the optima because you can get a discount on them, and they are decent batteries.
there is absolutely no performance increase that will come from a battery. When people use yellow tops/deep cycles, its usually a bandaid fix for when you actually need a higher output altenator.
Personally the only time I would use an optima is when I need to mount the battery in a non-upright position, because last time I checked they do not match the cold cranking amp output which some conventional batterys can put out (mines 975cca's IIRC).
In your case, I would probably buy the optima because you can get a discount on them, and they are decent batteries.
Originally Posted by Empz
Hey guys,
I've decided its time for me to get a new Battery, stock one is dying, been thinking of getting a Optima.
and I ran into some luck... one of my clients that I sold a phone to, works for Optima in Toronto ... and he can hook me up with a good price.
Here's the question (Yes I did use search before asking)
Which Optima Battery should I get?
Everyone seems like they are vouching for YELLOW TOP overall, but I some people say RED TOP is better for "Performance" of the car itself.
Then we have people like our Maxima.org GOD, Kevin, getting a BLUE TOP !?!?! Isn't that Marine Use??
I just don't understand ...
My Habits:
I do listen to music with the car off.
I DO like Bass
I have Neons, and Rice Lights
I do want increased performance (If possible)
Any suggestions are welcome!
Thanks in Advance,
Eric
I've decided its time for me to get a new Battery, stock one is dying, been thinking of getting a Optima.
and I ran into some luck... one of my clients that I sold a phone to, works for Optima in Toronto ... and he can hook me up with a good price.
Here's the question (Yes I did use search before asking)
Which Optima Battery should I get?
Everyone seems like they are vouching for YELLOW TOP overall, but I some people say RED TOP is better for "Performance" of the car itself.
Then we have people like our Maxima.org GOD, Kevin, getting a BLUE TOP !?!?! Isn't that Marine Use??
I just don't understand ...
My Habits:
I do listen to music with the car off.
I DO like Bass
I have Neons, and Rice Lights
I do want increased performance (If possible)
Any suggestions are welcome!
Thanks in Advance,
Eric
I have all that you have in electronics and I have a yellow top is is a great battery for extended play when your car is not running...I say go w/the yelow top...I've had mine for over two years w/no problems and I play movies at car shows for hours w/no problems...
yellow, when u chillin with someone, preferably your girl 
watching a movie at night or something, u want a battery that can take the damage. PLus everything u like to do leads to yellow. NOt sure if blue is necessary.
watching a movie at night or something, u want a battery that can take the damage. PLus everything u like to do leads to yellow. NOt sure if blue is necessary.
When should I use a Deep Cycle OPTIMA as a Starting battery?
"Deep Cycle" batteries are designed for applications that require deep, repetitive amperage drain, like trolling motors, golf carts, and electric wheelchairs, or RV house power sources. However, there are other applications, called "Heavy Cycling" or "High Cycling", when a Deep Cycle OPTIMA can successfully replace a starting battery to provide longer life and better performance.
In heavy cycling or high cycling applications, a vehicle will pull unusually high amperage levels from the starting battery due to extra accessories or limited alternator capacity. Public safety professionals, such as police, fire, and ambulance fleet managers often find that traditional starting batteries cannot provide adequate life and performance due to heavy cycling. This is an excellent opportunity to provide your customer with longer life and better performance by using an OPTIMA Deep Cycle battery in this type of application.
In any vehicle or equipment that will use the battery only for Starting, Lighting, & Ignition requirements and has a properly working alternator, the OPTIMA Red Top Starting Battery will perform extremely well, often providing up to two to three times longer life than conventional batteries. If the vehicle has few or no after-market accessories and uses a stock or upgraded alternator, the OPTIMA Red Top Starting Battery is the appropriate choice.
Remember, it is possible for the customer to have a completely discharged Yellow Top OPTIMA that will not start their engine; the advantages of the Yellow Top are that it can accept a rapid recharge and it will recover from discharge many more times.
To provide the customer the best OPTIMA solution, it is, necessary to consider both the application and the charging system before recommending the correct OPTIMA. For example, if your customer has a Ford Expedition with an after-market alarm system, which OPTIMA would you recommend? If the customer drives the car every day, the Red Top would be the correct choice, since the amperage drain will be nominal and the battery would be recharged on a daily basis. However, if the customer stores the vehicle for a long period of time with the alarm system engaged, you should recommend the OPTIMA Yellow Top, since the amperage drain over several weeks would damage a Red Top and reduce its life.
"Deep Cycle" batteries are designed for applications that require deep, repetitive amperage drain, like trolling motors, golf carts, and electric wheelchairs, or RV house power sources. However, there are other applications, called "Heavy Cycling" or "High Cycling", when a Deep Cycle OPTIMA can successfully replace a starting battery to provide longer life and better performance.
In heavy cycling or high cycling applications, a vehicle will pull unusually high amperage levels from the starting battery due to extra accessories or limited alternator capacity. Public safety professionals, such as police, fire, and ambulance fleet managers often find that traditional starting batteries cannot provide adequate life and performance due to heavy cycling. This is an excellent opportunity to provide your customer with longer life and better performance by using an OPTIMA Deep Cycle battery in this type of application.
In any vehicle or equipment that will use the battery only for Starting, Lighting, & Ignition requirements and has a properly working alternator, the OPTIMA Red Top Starting Battery will perform extremely well, often providing up to two to three times longer life than conventional batteries. If the vehicle has few or no after-market accessories and uses a stock or upgraded alternator, the OPTIMA Red Top Starting Battery is the appropriate choice.
Remember, it is possible for the customer to have a completely discharged Yellow Top OPTIMA that will not start their engine; the advantages of the Yellow Top are that it can accept a rapid recharge and it will recover from discharge many more times.
To provide the customer the best OPTIMA solution, it is, necessary to consider both the application and the charging system before recommending the correct OPTIMA. For example, if your customer has a Ford Expedition with an after-market alarm system, which OPTIMA would you recommend? If the customer drives the car every day, the Red Top would be the correct choice, since the amperage drain will be nominal and the battery would be recharged on a daily basis. However, if the customer stores the vehicle for a long period of time with the alarm system engaged, you should recommend the OPTIMA Yellow Top, since the amperage drain over several weeks would damage a Red Top and reduce its life.
Originally Posted by DanNY
When should I use a Deep Cycle OPTIMA as a Starting battery?
"Deep Cycle" batteries are designed for applications that require deep, repetitive amperage drain, like trolling motors, golf carts, and electric wheelchairs, or RV house power sources. However, there are other applications, called "Heavy Cycling" or "High Cycling", when a Deep Cycle OPTIMA can successfully replace a starting battery to provide longer life and better performance.
In heavy cycling or high cycling applications, a vehicle will pull unusually high amperage levels from the starting battery due to extra accessories or limited alternator capacity. Public safety professionals, such as police, fire, and ambulance fleet managers often find that traditional starting batteries cannot provide adequate life and performance due to heavy cycling. This is an excellent opportunity to provide your customer with longer life and better performance by using an OPTIMA Deep Cycle battery in this type of application.
In any vehicle or equipment that will use the battery only for Starting, Lighting, & Ignition requirements and has a properly working alternator, the OPTIMA Red Top Starting Battery will perform extremely well, often providing up to two to three times longer life than conventional batteries. If the vehicle has few or no after-market accessories and uses a stock or upgraded alternator, the OPTIMA Red Top Starting Battery is the appropriate choice.
Remember, it is possible for the customer to have a completely discharged Yellow Top OPTIMA that will not start their engine; the advantages of the Yellow Top are that it can accept a rapid recharge and it will recover from discharge many more times.
To provide the customer the best OPTIMA solution, it is, necessary to consider both the application and the charging system before recommending the correct OPTIMA. For example, if your customer has a Ford Expedition with an after-market alarm system, which OPTIMA would you recommend? If the customer drives the car every day, the Red Top would be the correct choice, since the amperage drain will be nominal and the battery would be recharged on a daily basis. However, if the customer stores the vehicle for a long period of time with the alarm system engaged, you should recommend the OPTIMA Yellow Top, since the amperage drain over several weeks would damage a Red Top and reduce its life.
"Deep Cycle" batteries are designed for applications that require deep, repetitive amperage drain, like trolling motors, golf carts, and electric wheelchairs, or RV house power sources. However, there are other applications, called "Heavy Cycling" or "High Cycling", when a Deep Cycle OPTIMA can successfully replace a starting battery to provide longer life and better performance.
In heavy cycling or high cycling applications, a vehicle will pull unusually high amperage levels from the starting battery due to extra accessories or limited alternator capacity. Public safety professionals, such as police, fire, and ambulance fleet managers often find that traditional starting batteries cannot provide adequate life and performance due to heavy cycling. This is an excellent opportunity to provide your customer with longer life and better performance by using an OPTIMA Deep Cycle battery in this type of application.
In any vehicle or equipment that will use the battery only for Starting, Lighting, & Ignition requirements and has a properly working alternator, the OPTIMA Red Top Starting Battery will perform extremely well, often providing up to two to three times longer life than conventional batteries. If the vehicle has few or no after-market accessories and uses a stock or upgraded alternator, the OPTIMA Red Top Starting Battery is the appropriate choice.
Remember, it is possible for the customer to have a completely discharged Yellow Top OPTIMA that will not start their engine; the advantages of the Yellow Top are that it can accept a rapid recharge and it will recover from discharge many more times.
To provide the customer the best OPTIMA solution, it is, necessary to consider both the application and the charging system before recommending the correct OPTIMA. For example, if your customer has a Ford Expedition with an after-market alarm system, which OPTIMA would you recommend? If the customer drives the car every day, the Red Top would be the correct choice, since the amperage drain will be nominal and the battery would be recharged on a daily basis. However, if the customer stores the vehicle for a long period of time with the alarm system engaged, you should recommend the OPTIMA Yellow Top, since the amperage drain over several weeks would damage a Red Top and reduce its life.
Originally Posted by bijan gxe
I heard yellow tops arent reliable for cold starts.
Red top all the way!
Red top all the way!
be careful, because some places(including the one local place I bought my old Yellow top from) will void your warranty if you buy a Red/Orange Top and your car has a "demanding" electrical system(ie-big system, tvs, etc.)...maybe they were BSing me, but if anything goes wrong with the Red Top you might be up sh*ts creek
I say Yellow Top... I had 2 amps, 3 monitors, ghetto DVD player from my parents room 
, and Dreamcast running off a power inverter...w/ the car off I ran stuff usually 3+ hours many a nights when just hanging out, never had one prob with the Yellow Top.
, and Dreamcast running off a power inverter...w/ the car off I ran stuff usually 3+ hours many a nights when just hanging out, never had one prob with the Yellow Top.
Originally Posted by bijan gxe
I heard yellow tops arent reliable for cold starts.
Red top all the way!
Red top all the way!
But there's gonna be proponents for red AND yellow. Optima has some kinda chart on their site to give you a better idea of which battery is suitable for your application.
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 1,452
Same goes for me.
CANADA weather
2000 watts of stereo, and I've had it for 4 years without any problems. Yellow tops work great.
-- And yes, it is a band aid fix. However due to alternator placement on most of the japanese cars, I'd like to see someone with a SC have an upgraded alternator to put out 200w. There just isn't enough room to rebuild it to be bigger & better on our cars.
CANADA weather
2000 watts of stereo, and I've had it for 4 years without any problems. Yellow tops work great.-- And yes, it is a band aid fix. However due to alternator placement on most of the japanese cars, I'd like to see someone with a SC have an upgraded alternator to put out 200w. There just isn't enough room to rebuild it to be bigger & better on our cars.
Red Tops...Yellow Tops...whatever floats your boat man. Ive heard people saying there have "HEARD" YTs arnt good cold start batteries, fact of the matter is not too many can really prove that. I suggest you guys go over to www.caraudioforum.com (search works pretty well) if you please to do so, just post a topic and watch a dead horse get beaten.
Im personally going with a Yellow top once im ready to get me audio Besides they do still pack a good CCA rating (im sure its still a hell of a lot better then you OEM right?) I was thinking of going with the blue, but its not the smartest choice, let me explain.
With the Yellow, you can use your the side posts to run the cars ground and positive off of, and leave to top posts to the audio. The Blue however does the side posts, but the posts on top are very thin and depending on how much power your runnin, it much become an issue. Its basically a YT with a blue cover and smaller posts. So if your gonna use it for just a small system, and basically a good replacement for your OEM, use the RT. If your going to run a powerful system, go with a YT. From what Optima preaches the YT's and BT's both can surive being 100% drained and re-charge a few hundred times. So I dont think you'll have to worry about getting another battery anytime soon.
As far as needing to upgrade the alternator, our 110-120A alternator will due just fine, and your not gonna run into any problem with needing to upgrade it for just a battery upgrade. Unless you got 2-3Kw's worth of amps in the back...you'll be just fine.
One trick is to upgrade your grouds, if you have a 4guage pulling the power, but the grounds to the battery are at 8-guage, then whats the point. It would be wise to upgrade your grounds to match your speaker wire size (once again, depending on how serious a setup your thinking of)
Cliff notes:
Weather wont effect in IMO.
You dont need a new alternator.
If you want just a good OEM replacement, get the Red.
If your planning on a system thats somewhat decent, get the Yellow.
I think I should have placed the cliff notes on top...
oh well.
Im personally going with a Yellow top once im ready to get me audio Besides they do still pack a good CCA rating (im sure its still a hell of a lot better then you OEM right?) I was thinking of going with the blue, but its not the smartest choice, let me explain.
With the Yellow, you can use your the side posts to run the cars ground and positive off of, and leave to top posts to the audio. The Blue however does the side posts, but the posts on top are very thin and depending on how much power your runnin, it much become an issue. Its basically a YT with a blue cover and smaller posts. So if your gonna use it for just a small system, and basically a good replacement for your OEM, use the RT. If your going to run a powerful system, go with a YT. From what Optima preaches the YT's and BT's both can surive being 100% drained and re-charge a few hundred times. So I dont think you'll have to worry about getting another battery anytime soon.
As far as needing to upgrade the alternator, our 110-120A alternator will due just fine, and your not gonna run into any problem with needing to upgrade it for just a battery upgrade. Unless you got 2-3Kw's worth of amps in the back...you'll be just fine.
One trick is to upgrade your grouds, if you have a 4guage pulling the power, but the grounds to the battery are at 8-guage, then whats the point. It would be wise to upgrade your grounds to match your speaker wire size (once again, depending on how serious a setup your thinking of)
Cliff notes:
Weather wont effect in IMO.
You dont need a new alternator.
If you want just a good OEM replacement, get the Red.
If your planning on a system thats somewhat decent, get the Yellow.
I think I should have placed the cliff notes on top...
oh well.
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 1,642
Thank You HitmanSE
Thanks for the great reply Hitman ... that answered all my questions, and now I have a good idea of what i need.
I've decided on the Yellow Top, cuz in the long run it will be a better investment ... I may not have a system now ... but I do plan on one in the future, for my next car (trading in Max next September) if not the max.
I've decided on the Yellow Top, cuz in the long run it will be a better investment ... I may not have a system now ... but I do plan on one in the future, for my next car (trading in Max next September) if not the max.
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Oct 1, 2015 12:51 PM