Buying a new battery

bob67327 said:

Sorry to raise a question, but do you know the Optima is superior for this particular application? I don’t know either way, and, of course, if you think of it as insurance that question doesn’t matter. But I wish I knew the answer.

Best of luck! bob

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Hi Bob, that's a legit question. A lot of us have anecdotal stories regarding success or failure with one or more battery types. There are some independent fact based studies you can find via Google comparing for example, regular wet lead acid batteries and AGMs like the X2 Power AGM (detailed in my review link above) and the Yellow Top Optima (for example AGM comparison ). While there are some clear differences in cold cranking power, reserves, etc., more important to deciding on which category 48 size is best for you depends on your use. Specifically, the normal temperature ranges you drive in, how you drive, etc. AGMs typically handle extreme temperature ranges better as well as vibrations. However, AGMs tend to cost more. Also, consider the warranty.

Another factor that played into my decision was that the X2 is made in the USA.

I did buy an Optima once, nearly 30 years ago for my daughter’s jeep at college. It did well, but maybe (?) not enough better to compensate its cost.

With our C7 the OE battery did very well, but its use was probably as “light duty” as possible! The car was in our garage most of its life. The 100,000 miles came entirely on long trips. When in the garage a battery tender was connected. I suspect that OE battery would have lasted considerably longer than the 7-8 years it was in the car! But I grew uncomfortable because I knew if it failed I might be in for annoying (or worse!) problems!

I even devised ways to test it (in the old days one merely started the car with the lights on, and watched them dim!) but finally decided it was more trouble to monitor the old battery’s condition than to install a new one. However, if I’d known how tedious that installation would be maybe I’d have waited! Because I’m a bit nutty I took extra time to maintain 12 Volts on the car while replacing the battery (even though you, Jeff, and others said it wasn’t necessary).

So that’s what led to my question. I doubt an Optima battery would last much longer than a normal battery if its duty cycle was like that in our C7.

BTW, a “Deep Cycle” battery might be competitive with an Optima, but doesn’t save money.

Sorry for this long, boring post! bob