Optima Battery

B

Bruno

Member
Wondering how long a 6 volt Optima battery lasts for some of you Ford Barners - just curious as to whether you get 3 or more years out of one.

I am on my 2nd one in my '52 F1 - like it a lot - keep a Battery Tender on it when I'm not going to be driving it for a few days.

Thanks
 
I have 14 years on mine ---I never use a battery tender, I let it sit in the car hooked up all winter, I expect it to start, If it won't start I expect it to drive the car out of the garage (if I start driving it out on the starter it usually starts 1/2 out of the garage)

The only time it was dead was when I left the key on ---I have a small charger, hooked that up, hand cranked it (was late, needed to go)

I use a stock generator, diode cutout, no voltage regulator --I use the Halogen headlights to control the charge( drive with lights on)

All the people that I know that use batt tenders replace their batterys much more often than I do, my batterys thrive on neglect, when I was using regular 6V batterys I would get 7-9 years out of them.
 
I have had one for 9 years and it was in the car when I bought it. Never use a tender on it. For my new project I am using an Odyssey because of space. I bought it two years ago and it has not been used in the car and is still fully charged.
 
Old Optimas seems to be great and last a long time. New ones, however, don't seem to be nearly as reliable. Optima moved production facilities to a more southern locale, and that's about when quality seemed to drop.

Of course, your mileage may vary.
 
I want to know who designed this battery that you have to hook up to another battery and run cables all over the place to trick your freakin charger into putting life back into this optima? I have jumper cables and lines all over the place, what a bunch of hog huey.
You have to hook it to another battery in series, nice, why don't I just buy one of the batteries that I need to have to hook it up to and just not use an Optima then.
And they tell you on the phone message to do this bizarre and wacky charging process, and warn you not to let the battery get hot.
Geez, why not just roast hand grenades on an open fire?
 
About a year ago, I had FIVE Optimas die in my personal cars. Thats FIVE DEAD EXPENSIVE BATTERIES. One in my Saturn, two in my '50 Suburban, and a pair in my diesel pickup.
 
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