Hi all, I just received a Red Optima and the thing is radically heavy, is that the way they are or did I get the one for aircraft carriers? It's funny cause I've heard the battery location is to offset the driver... this one definitely will.

Mine was heavy when I carried it in to Wally World to get a different battery. I went back to a normal battery since I moved it to the front anyway. It was ready for retirement and pooped out on me the other day when I had to start the car in gear, cuz of the clutch cable being broke to limp it to the mechanic. It didn't have the brass balls to start it in gear.

It's a good battery. If you want light, go with this:
http://odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc680.htm

Loved my first Optima battery, was satisfied with the second one, and disappointed in the life of the third one. I store my cars over the winter with the battery hooked up to a battery maintainer in a garage, and it seems that they don't last as well as they used to.

Went back to an Interstate when it was time to replace the battery as I don't drive the car in the rain anyway and the price of the Optima was getting up there.

I've had good luck with Wally World batteries. I think it was an Ever Start, in my Jetta? I milked 8 years out of it and so I went back for one for the 914!

No mystery why the Optima is not as good. Now manufactured in Mexico with cost cut materials. The Odyssey battery is now the hot ticket and lightweight versions are available.

its not really the rain that will get you with a standard wet lead battery
its the fact that they outgass

they outgass and that can combine with any moisture
humidity... washing your car... anything to lead to a corrosive substance

the optima's are lead batteries too, but they contain their own gas and are thus called "sealed"

I put a standard battery in for a few months and couldn't believe how much more cable corrosion and powdery corrosion the tray showed in comparrison to the sealed battery

brant

I can't agree more ...

How did you guys mount the Odyssey? Anyway to do it without drilling into the tray?

lead purity is key. the MX optimas are as Pancakeporsche stated. the Odyssey and Braille are made with high purity lead. The Inerstate or std car battery is not dependent on high tolerances to be all it can be.
the MX factories are fun to deal with. I helped manage a production facility south of TJ. quality cycles with the experience of the work force. these guys come from deep south in MX, earn more in a month than their entire family can in a year. they work for a year or 2 sending their money back home to their families. then one day you come to work and your lead guy is gone and he took 10 of your best workers with him back to Oaxaca or Medina or some place you cant even find with Google. they refuse to teach another guy because they feel threatened by replacement

Me too!

I just switched to an Optima Red Top too.

Bought the model closest to the stock size. It comes with a custom bottom-edge retaining piece, made of heavy plastic - the standard bolt and hole location on the battery tray work perfectly with it.

And yes, the first thing I noticed was the weight! But so far, so good with performance.

EDIT: Oops, you asked about mounting the Odyssey, not the Optima. My bad. Disregard!

My first one only lasted a year or two. I can't remember. They replaced it for free since it was still under warranty.

I just put a red top in mine. I used a size 35, which is taller and just barely fits beneath the rain tray. However, it is somewhere around 6 pounds lighter than the 34R.

I have 5 "dead" red tops that will not hold a charge sitting down at the shop right now. None of them are more than 2 years old. I did replace them with the same thing (cant remember if I got them at Costco). I did so becasue of the mods made to the hold downs and didn't want to go back and re-engineer everything again. I now use battery tenders on them all and they have been fine.

I was under the impression that the great thing about Optimas was that they could drain to nothing, but always be recharged. This sure has not been my experience.

The 49.00 autozone cheapo that I threw in the 914 in 1999 still works great...

I went with the lightweight Odyssey about 6 months ago and have been completely satisfied with it so far. I did have to drill the tray to mount it.

Been saying optimas are junk for a few years. My exide orbital has been bullet proof.

My understanding is that a deep cycle battery is required for that, which would mean a yellow version of the Optima, not red.

I also winter store my 14 with Optima group 34/35 and I went thru 2 within 2 yrs. First year I kept it on a maintainer via the cigarette lighter socket, I was told it was just a factory flaw.
Second yr I even removed it out of cold and stored it inside my house, charged it in Spring with an automated charger and it wouldn't take.
I'm on my 3rd and wondering what's going to happen this yr?
I was told not to keep it on trickle charge, but a maintainer is a trickle charge is it not? Should I remove it and put it directly on a maintainer?

I guess I got one of the older good ones. Have had mine since 2006 and store the car every winter in the garage. Every couple of months I put a charger on it for a few hours. So far it is doing OK. Maybe I better cross my fingers! I do disconnect it from the battery cables while stored so there is no drain on it at all except internal.
Tom

......Fan of Interstate !

Thanks for the feedback this way, that way, and otherwise. I'm not a big fan of the whole, "not being as good as it used to be" fad, but that's apparently the nature of things these days... evidently. Got the 34R as someone mentioned in this thread, it was the better out of the options... we'll see. Glad it's known not to leak though. All this being said, I still can't drive the dern thing as I'm still waiting for some brake calipers that have been on back order.

I've been using optimas for about ten years. Unless I use the car every week they stay on a battery tender. They still go down over a long period. The interstate guy said to recharge them in parallel with a regular battery to get them to take a charge. I am going to use one in my restored 65 MF tractor. I also found a billet aluminum optima hold down bracket and now a ss one on ebay that is about 45.00 including freight.

I will probably use a odessy in the 914 though. I only use sealed batteries in my toys. Batteries can be replaced a lot easier than paint or metal.

I am inclined to believe the mx stuff might have lower quality.