optima red-top discharge question
 

Happy New Year YT!
question about my optima, I left the rig at the airport long-term parking for 3 weeks, when I got back the battery was dead and I required a boost (I had the alarm and a rustbuster running the whole time, I think that discharged everything). Started fine with the boost, no problems. Drove home, OK.
I didn't drive it at all yesterday, and today when I went to start it again, battery didn't have enough juice to start. I'm thinking that it's still just discharged, what's the procedure for charging things again, should I just take a long drive and leave it running for several hours, do I need a charger, and big question, should I have gone for a yellow or blue-top instead of the red? Thanks, the 4runner is in the driveway so no emergency, and I have a jumper unit so I can always start things, but I'd like to charge the battery fully if possible- thanks and hope your holidays were good
taiko
PS. I won the auction for the OEM 2nd gen cargo cover (sent from Canada as they were never available on US 2nd gens apparently). Will post a thread when I get it installed :) looks fantastic, never used, very excited. this will be installed with a stock 2nd gen inclinometer by seabestroc

opts are a piece of ...i hate mine...But word of advice...never let them go dead...once they discharge...its pretty much the end of them

optima red-top discharged
 

in retrospect I should have disconnected my battery terminals before departing.
will my red-top recover from this deep discharge? I really don't want to buy a new battery, it's only a year old! time to start searching the 'battery charger' posts.
I just read the optima site, it says that :
link
Remember, it is possible for the customer to have a completely discharged Yellow Top OPTIMA that will not start their engine; so it is important to monitor current drain using a volt and amps gauge to know when the YellowTop Optima is discharged and requires recharging. Advantages of the Yellow Top OPTIMA are that it can accept a rapid recharge and will thus recover from discharge faster than traditional batteries.

To provide you with the best OPTIMA solution, it is, necessary to consider both the application and the charging system before recommending the correct OPTIMA. For example, if drive a Land Rover Discovery with an after-market alarm system, which OPTIMA would you recommend? If you drive 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 vehicle is used infrequently and left without uses for long periods of time with the alarm system engaged, the OPTIMA Yellow Top would be recommended, since the amperage drain over several weeks would damage a Red Top and reduce its life.

Car batteries (save for deep cycle) dont like bein discharged then recharged again.

Run the car at idel for about 45 minutes to an hour, then get a multi meter and check the voltage (should be 12v). However you may have killed it.

just to throw in my two cents, I have had a redtop for about 2.5 years with little or no problems. It has been drained several times from playing my radio when I'm up in the mountains, and still works well. I think if and when I get a new battery I will look to get the yellow top anyway.

reading posts...not too encouraging
 

just spent the last few minutes reading posts
here
not too encouraging! 4crawler's words back in November brought a special chill...
Red tops are not deep cycle batteries. Drain them and they go dead and may not come back to life. Put a little solar battery charger panel on the truck and that'll keep it topped up. Also, see if you have any excessive current drains (with everything off). Any current in excess of about 20 mA (0.020 amps) is enough to kill a battery in a few weeks of sitting.
__________________
too bad I didn't realize this beforehand, thought Optima's were the BEST! I may see if I can swap this out for a yellowtop. It may be under warranty but I am not sure. In the meantime is there a battery charger that anyone can recommend, I'd like to try a tricklecharger before calling it quits on this here red-top

Red tops suck. I've killed 2 in the last 2 years. Wouldn't get another one if it wasn't for them replacing it for free every time.

-jeff

I have a power box, will this charge my optima
 

I have this-

will this charge my battery? It has jumper cables attached to it so I know I can jump the vehicle, if I leave it connected to the battery is this charging it or asking for an explosion?
So far I have only used it to jump, and immediately removed it.

No that would provide to much power imho. You need to jump it and let it run for an hour. then if the battery hasnt kicked it, it may last for awhile yet.

You need a battery maintainer, they sell them at autoparts stores, sears, etc.

My optima vendor says to pull the battery, connect it to a second good battery (like jump starting), and connect a charger to them both.

Reason: a totally dead Optima has difficulty accepting a charge.

Don't red tops have a 3 year free replacement?

I think only the blue top has more than 12 months warranty and it is only 18 months IIRC.

First search on all the problems people have had with Optimas lately ... seems their quality has gone in the toilet.

When you start the truck, be sure to check the voltage and that you haven't damaged the alternator. As mentioned above, bad things happen when you fully discharge a redtop.

Go out and buy an Odyssey battery (or Sears DieHard Platinum - same thing)

i brought my redtop back w/out a receipt, and got a new one "no questions asked"..really.

also, i learned that the red-top battery makers started out great. but when they got huge- became a lesser battery, better than acid type, but not as good as the 1st generation.

deep cycles are good, but i think your red-top will be fine.
you have to de-sulfer the battery and give it a full charge.
get it tested somewhere.

btw- whats a rust-buster?

The red top I just looked at in my inventory says 3 year free replacement right on the label.

Just go get the biggest wal-mart battery that fits. I gave up on optimas after wrecking 2 in 4 years. the next walmart battery lasted 6.

I think the advice to return the battery under warranty is probably the best.

On not being charged after driving, consider that the alternator needs some voltage to excite the alternator charging circuit. With a dead battery, no voltage is available, and the alternator will not charge properly. Also, running the alternator with a dead battery tends to ruin Mr Alternator.

I stand corrected, is that a new policy?

I know I've seen it on the reds for at least a couple years now.

I know the yellows and blues are less, but we don't stock any so I can't look at one. (I don't sell the batteries, we use them in some fleet vehicles)

We started putting them into out forklifts, because the vibration was destroying a normal battery (they would explode). No explosions since the optima

update on the optima
 

I went to the allied/trojan battery warehouse south of seattle near costco where I originally got my optima- what a great place!! Ask for Lee. I had a good morning there. First, I called in advance and told them my issue, they said to bring it in. So I used my jumper box to start the battery (it was fully dead) and drove over. First I went in, and took a look at the Odysseys that are the same size as the Optima Red-Top they are called model PC1500. They are HEAVY and beautiful. I want one as soon as possible. The allied guys however were not quite ready to let me 'trade-up' to an odyssey before determining if my optima was really dead first or just temporarily discharged.
I had to make a choice, I could buy an odyssey immediately and leave my old optima with them, and then tomorrow if they determine that my optima is a bad cell, then I get a refund of the value of the optima ($130) towards the odyssey. However, if they were to find that the optima was AOK, then I would be the proud owner of 2 batteries. not cool! As much as I want a new Odyssey, if they can recondition my Optima I'll keep it a while longer. So, they gave me a brand new loaner red-top Optima for the day while they run my battery through a special charger for 24hours to deep charge/check it. They'll call me tomorrow morning. I am kind of hoping that the Optima will be shot so that I can use that money towards a new Odyssey did I mention they are sweet? and the prices there are very good. the optimas are 130 and the odyssey 1500 is $195. There was no charge at all for the loaner/charging.

while I was inside I had a good chat with one of the guys, about optimas and odysseys, he agreed with us that the quality of the optimas has deteriorated however they are still really good batteries.
The warranty on the red-tops is 3years and the yellowtops is 1year, something to consider.
The reason they like the Odysseys is that they are like a red-top and a yellow-top in one, deep cycle and starter battery. They also have a 3ear warranty (need to verify this tho) however it is definitely longer than the optima yellow-top warranty. Many of those guys have Odysseys in their vehicles too.

This has been a learning experience, I had not heard of Odyssey batteries and I am glad that I know about them now! I will definitely buy one as my next battery. I will look forward to hearing the status on my red-top tomorrow. I hope I have an Odyssey soon :)

I also asked about the difference between optima bluetop and yellowtop and was told that a bluetop is the same as a yellowtop with the only difference being an additional post for mounting marine accessories. do not know if there are any other differences will have to research this more.

an inbetween battery is an inbetween battery. red tops have more cranking amps than a deep cycle. deep cycles can discharge and recharge with less damage (although when you discharge more than 50% it wont last many cycles)

an inbetween battery will be a balance between deep cycle, and starting, wont have as many cranking amps, but will be less damaged by charge/discharge cycles.

Sulfation shouldn't be an issue because its an AGM battery.

what kinda amperage does the security system & rust box draw? It shouldn't be enough to discharge the battery in that short a time.

Oh, and just a heads up to people purchasing batteries. A recent consumer reports rated batteries, and several of the top ratings were given to the walmart high end batteries, which are signifigantly cheaper than most other high rated batteries (half as much as diehards, which were not rated all that well). I went with one, and haven't had any issues, and I like to use it to run the radio with the engine off, and leave it sitting for weeks at a time, and it still starts right up in cold weather.