What Battery to use?
 

Gents, trying to decide what battery to go with, any recommendations would be great!

Thanks,

touchy subject
if you want a reliable battery that has never let me down go with interstate.reasonably priced and works like it should.
most of the guys running optimas have to keep there car on a tender so it will start.i jjust feel that a battery should work as advertised.i would never buy one.thats just my opinion take it for the nickle its worth.good luck whichever way you go

Thanks speedshftr, I was just inquiring as I saw that Project WAR is running a braille battery and I have seen Optima's being used in allot of the cars on the forums; I have no experience with either but I will also look into your suggestion of using Interstate. Thanks again!

My preference would be either an Odessey or Deka over the highly marketed Optima

I don't see those companies doing anything for our hobby or even advertising on these sites. For what Optima does for this hobby and these sites I see no other choice than a yellow top Optima battery. Just my .02

Raj, go with the Braille battery. I have used them on several projects and had great luck with them. When Jason ordered his Baer brakes we got to talking about batteries and I told him about braille. They are only 21lbs vs. over 40lbs and have just as much power.

I do appreciate what Optima does for our hobby I just have had terrible luck with their batteries.

sorry but i dont really see how much they do for this hobby.great marketing on there part with there challenge is about it.mabey i missed there huge contribution .:rolleyes:

Thanks Luke!

I was looking at the Braille stuff and looks like you went with the Carbon option for WAR any particular reason for going that way over the no-weight, since they are both 21 pounds?

@ the faceoff they gave everyone batteries, t shirts, duffle bags and put on the event, and they put on the ousci every year which is televised. I dont see any other companies putting on hour long programs with our cars in them. Sorry you missed it!:wow:

lol id give a battery away that didnt really work as it should.:rofl:

I haven't used a lot of optima batteries, but the one I have in my daily driver is 10 years old and it cranks the 6.0L over like it's new.

I run Braille and have never had problems - can't say the same for Optima

Thanks Fernando, will you be running the braille with you new beast of a motor??

I just replaced TWO brand new yellow tops. Two different cars. Neither would hold a charge if left un-started after one week. Completely unacceptable. These were in both my kids DD's - an '06 Mustang and an '05 Magnum.

I have a 10 year old yellow top in the Nomad and it works fine but I have to run a Ctek charger if it's not driven once a week.

Replaced the kids with good old fashioned Sears "gold". Gone for 11 days and they fired right up.

Raj I just always use the B3121 no weight battery. I didnt even know til you stated it that Jason ordered the carbon one for his car War. I dont really see a need to order the carbon one for a "pro-touring" application since it is just more money and the benefits of it only really are seen in extreme temp situations. But it cool looking. :thumbsup:

Thanks again Luke--I will be going with the braille no-weight

or maybe the Carbon.... it does look cool!:D

Raj, glad to help.
So is the car getting close to being ready for body and paint? :cheers:

You might want to do some additional research on that 21lb Braille battery before purchasing. I was about to purchase one myself in an attempt to replace my Optima Red Top, but I found a few threads on the net where people had purchased that 21lb Braille and it wasn't living up to their expectations. Specifically, it would start the car just fine, but if you're running electrical accessories like cooling fans, fuel pumps, or medium to high-watt stereo systems, the battery+alternator will have a difficult time keeping up and will cause a heavy load on your alternator which might cause it to fail. Braille makes great stuff and being able to save 17lbs over the Optima was very enticing to me, but I just wouldn't want to run into a situation where my electrical system can't keep up and end up with a very expensive battery and battery mount that I can't use. Again, the Braille 21lb model has worked fine for some people, but it has NOT worked for others, so it's necessary to consider your setup and how you use your car. I ended up just going with another Optima Red Top specifically because Optima does a great job of sponsoring events that allow us to legally run our cars hard and I appreciate that. Otherwise, I would have probably picked a different battery like an Interstate or a standard weight Braille.

If you do go with the 21lb Braille, please feel free to report your results. I found a number of threads on the net where a person had posted that they had bought one but then never reported back to the thread about how it was performing even after people asked for feedback. That's usually not a good sign.

I will post a review of the battery if I do go that way for sure, but I am still sometime away from having the car completed.

Raj,

The B3121 is bench tested at the time there built for you. Mine say's 12.95 Volts and 873 CA. That seems more than adequate in my opinion. Will it work as stated over time? Don't know. It's an AGM based battery as well. Do they require different care? Yes. That's why I purchased their charger as well. Looks like a Cetek type to me and I may hard wire it into the car so I can just plug it in when not driving the car. I will recess the battery in the trunk and make it large enough to accommodate any battery.

Bought the carbon one, well, just cause I thought it was cool. If it works I save a few pounds, If it doesn't, lesson learned and I buy another brand. Price of education.

I have had some Optima's and not had them last. Maybe because of operator error. I'll have all the electronics of a modern car installed so I will report back on it's performance over time.

I'm sure there are lots of pro's and con's all over the internet on both brands. Just thought I give this a try.

Yeah - I will be running two of them :lol:

i am running a stinger battery, which i think is the exact same as the oddysey. never had a ounce of trouble. can sit for long periods of time (3 months or more) and always started, w no tender. there have been time when i have had problems starting the car and that thing would just keep on cranking.

We switched over to the odessey battery and have had zero problems...

That battery is good because it was made in the USA, where all their junk batteries now are made in Mexico-therefore I will NEVER own one! Thanks Optima for moving our jobs.....

Put a lead acid battery in it and worry about something else. ;)

supposedly deka makes braille batteries and they are a little cheaper.
here is a link: http://www.batteryprice.com/DEKAbatteries.aspx

I've been running a Braille for a year now and it is doing what it is supposed to do and it is in the trunk.

I've run Optima's in quite a few cars...Here's the thing, they've been good in daily drivers (for me anyway) but have been nothing but trouble in my hotrod/hobby cars...my Nova has been through two batteries recently and I finally changed them out to a Kirkland (Costco) which never failed me. Not as pretty to look at for sure, but way more reliable. The other thing seems to be once you run them down, they never fully recover, even after recharging. The Fire Dept. I work for uses Optima's in all Medic units and Utilities...Our spare Medic had a double set up, and after not being started for about two weeks...yup totally dead, would not start after putting both on a charger for 8hrs! Not bashing Optima...just my personal experience...

I disagree, I accidentally ran mine down and it's been fine ever since. That's was 2 years ago. It's been discussed a thousand times. Put a tender on them if you don't drive on a regular basis or problems will persist. There is a thread over on Camaros.net with a rep from Optima. I pointed out that they should reccomend a tender after a specified timeframe to all new purchasers. That would cut down on warranty claims AND slander on the net. What the hell do I know. :rofl:

Haha, $180 for a battery that can not hold a charge

I've had Optima Blue Top for almost 8 years in my Supra,5 of them I was working on it,it was started few times a month,my car has a typical Supra drain and if it's not started once a week, it will drain any brand battery by the end of second week,I must have killed that battery at least a dozen times , I simply jump it off with another car,no trickle chargers or any other mess, and yet for past 3 years it still works fine as I've been driving my Supra everyday,I guess I got a good one:woot:

I also use Yellow top in my other cars,never had any problems and no, Optima never sponsored me or gave me a battery,lol

Its been a little over a year since I got the car on the road so far I haven't put to many miles (about a 1,000) and both my Braille B3121 have decided to call it a day :(

I contacted Braille and i was given instructions on how to possibly bring them back but that didn't work either, both batteries won't hold a charge and unfortunately I lost my proof of purchase so no warranty. Also as a note I always had a C-Tek plugged in if I wasn't driving the car for more than two days but they still went.

So after a week of reading everything I could about what battery to go with and what would fit in the box I made for my Braille's I got the Exide AGM battery (the same as Odyssey from what I understand) 4 year exchange warranty and as usual not available here locally for me so I went over the border to Washington state. Hopefully this time I will have better luck!

As stated previously Braille apparently rebadges DEKA batteries and jacks up the prices (and the specs). Cute.

2 recent reviews on amazon cite this:

http://www.amazon.com/Braille-Batter.../dp/B004DDI1VA

and apparently that battery is really this

http://www.tristatebattery.com/etx30...ery-p-982.html

I was considering this Braille until now. Need to research further.

You are correct sir -- Deka, Big Crank, Duracell and Braille and more are manufactured by East Penn; I dropped into the East Penn location here locally and they told me the same.

The other batteries I found to be the same are:

Odyessey & Sears Platinum amungst others = Exide
Optima, Eveready and a bunch of OEM are = Johnson Controls

Cool, Raj. Curious to see how the new Exide works out for you. Which model did you get?

I got the Exide Group 78 -- I hope this one holds up!

http://www.atbatt.com/product/25083.asp

I'm not en electrical engineer. I don't know alot about the chemical processes involved in these different batteries, I can only speak from an extensive experience thus far with many different types of batteries thanks to years spent in the car stereo scene.

Years ago, Optima's were a great choice of battery. They held a charge, they performed well, etc. but in recent years they have lost their way and become a name that I avoid recommending for all the reasons that have already been listed in this thread.

Seeing as Optima's weren't going to last for what I needed, I turned to a company called "Kinetik" and ran several of their power cells for years. In one truck I had a KHC1800 and two "Cap Killer" KHC600's. These were basically ultra high capacity AGM batteries with a shiny blue case and a reputation for being the best at the time. I also ran a KHC1800 in my GMC Canyon and was happy with it until it died a terrible death.

About 6 months ago I had one of the "Cap Killer" batteries in my Silverado go south and the KHC1800 under the hood followed very closely behind.

It was at this point that I contacted the team at XS Power ( 4xspower.com ) and talked to them about a new battery for my Canyon. I haven't been running the battery more than 2 months now, but thus far, I am VERY impressed with the performance. It uses the same AGM technology we are all familiar with, but packs the case tighter, making for higher energy capacity. In this truck I run a competition level stereo system that draws ALOT of current, and this battery couldn't care less. Additionally, Nathan and the team at XS power have been an absolute joy to deal with.

Yes, the XS Power D3400 that I run is expensive at $450, but you really can't beat the overall performance it delivers.

Just my $.02

The Diehard Platinum I think is another good option. They are basically the Odyssey AGM batteries with a different case and better price. If you wait till one of Sears' "friends and family" discount days you can get these Diehard batteries for a pretty good price. I think my last one was like 160ish.

The only thing I don't like about it is the weight compared to the Optima red top it replaced. That was an older Optima btw but it was awesome. Hearing all recent reports I decided to try something else this time around. Hated to do that since they support our "community" but...

I try not to get so emotionally charged (get it? "charged" :badidea:) about my battery purchase.

At the moment, I'm running an Optima Red Top. It has four posts which works great with my Holley EFI as that system requires dedicated battery posts. It works great and is compact. But more than anything, it was right there at my local Advance Auto Parts store when I needed a 4 post that would slot right into my trunk mount, billet battery hold down. It works fine.

In my opinion, and I am NOT an expert, But "any" right size battery should do, as long as the alternator is up to the task, who I think often is not big enough on older cars. Especially after installing a lot of stuff like Electric fans and modern injection and so on. And overnight drainage is also often the culprit for bad batteries.

And the battery must also be big enough, especially for Winter use too.

After all that is made right, then I Guess you could choose wether you want an modern type mini battery for weight savings, who also would look cleaner and can be tucked more away.

Or else any standard (right size) battery should do it. Of course, some will always be cheaper and some not so good as others -But I dont think thats the MAIN reason for battery failures

I have an Red Optima battery in my car, an old alternator, dont know size, probably 60-70 amp. I "just" bought the car. ;)

I have an Electric waterpump and fan, it just keeps up the voltage until the fan starts, then it falls flat on it face and cant keep voltage up. - Very classic hobby-car mismatched charging/electrical use system..

It has been sitting for a while now, Wonder if it will start, With what People have said about Optima batteries