Optima battery life

B

Bruno

Member
Have been using Optima 6 volt batteries (red top) in my '52 F1 for last 10 or 12 years - wonder what kind of battery life other Ford Barners get from their 6 volt Optimas??? One I'm using is about 3 years old but seems fine; I put a trickle charger on it when I'm not driving it daily.
 

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Run them in most of my old cars etc , especially like the fact that they can run laying on their side etc.
I have learned you need to go to Google and look up optima charging methods etc. They dont charge like other batterys...
 
BUBBAS IGNITION said:
Run them in most of my old cars etc , especially like the fact that they can run laying on their side etc.
I have learned you need to go to Google and look up optima charging methods etc. They dont charge like other batterys...
Click to expand...

Okay, so what's the deal? How do they differ?

TM
 
14 years, never on a battery tender, left the ign on once for 3 months, flat dead,used trickle charger to kick ignition, hand cranked, 30 min drive and it started car, I use the original generator set at 15A rate (3brush), if I take a long drive I turn on the lights after a while ---my method for long battery life--- neglect, sit for 6 months--no problem, won't start--use starter to drive out of dark garage into light--no problem ---even at 14 years it has been suggested that I have 12V because of fast cranking.

3 brush generator is stupid don't care what battery---it will charge it.

found a 12v optima in a junk car, charged it, found it again 2 years later in a corner, a friend needed a battery for his 70s Mopar, gave it to him 5 years ago, just heard that it started the car fine after a 4 month sleep
 
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I have 3 of them, two 6volt & one 12 volt, the oldest is about ten years old & one of them I have laying on it's side under the seat. No troubles so far.
 
Well worth the $, I've seen them sit in the cold for months here in extremes as low as 50 below, and still have cranking power.
 
Will the battery be ready to use when it is purchased from the parts store or Tire/Battery outlet or does it need to be charged up by the consumer?
 
I have three 6v Optimas. Two went dead, below 3v. Put a Battery Tender Jr on each one and had little luck charging them. Called Optima and was told that the battery needs to be jumped in order to start charging, but only when it's below 3v. To "jump" it, I was told to hook up a good 6v battery to the tender, then hook up jumper cables to the bad battery coming from the good battery that has the tender hooked up to it. After about a day's worth of charging, the charge level went up and I was able to charge it just with the tender.

I'm going about 3-4 years on mine. Just recently started to keep a trickle charger on each one when not in use.

I also recently purchased two used 12v Optimas at a garage sale for $16, but haven't been succesful in charging them. Need to find a good 12v battery to try the jump charging method used previously.
 
I have a couple of Optima's that are approaching ten years of age. I keep a Battery Tender Jr. on them, disconnecting the negative battery terminal when the vehicle is not going to be used for awhile..
I have found that the Optima battery's do not like a fast charge... They like a slow trickle charge... Over night. This is true of most battery's... It desulfates the plates.
Battery Tenders generally will not work if the battery is below 50%.
 
There were some problems (design/manufacturing) with the early Optima 6V Red Tops. Evidently there were too many current carrying components jammed too tightly in the top, terminal end, of this battery and that sometimes resulted in short and open failures. The correction for this required raising the overall height of these batteries by about 1/4". After this change was made the Optima 6V Red Top would not fit properly into the original Ford Script 2LF lead acid battery cases that some battery manufactures were producing for show car correctness.
 
just found this today, i don`t know if it`s been posted before or not. looks like a good idea.
tom

[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]If you have an Optima 6 volt battery, or plan to use one in your vintage auto, then you should consider using the Disguise Battery case. the Disguise is designed to safely conceal the Optima 850-6 battery as well as provide the look of a conventional lead acid battery. The Disguise is available in two models: the, 2D-II, and 2LD-II. The 2D-II case looks like a modern group 2 battery, the 2LD-II has the appearance of a vintage Group 2L tar top battery.

Please note: The 2D-2 and 2LD-II have been redesigned to accomodate the current Optima 6 volt battery design as well as previous designs

Model 2LD II Tar Top shown below, $95.00 plus Shipping from Zip 92881. Model 2D II (not shown) $78.00, battery not included.

Dimensions: 10.5 L X 7.0 W, X 8.0 H Shipping wt. five Lbs.

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