My Optima Battery is Garbage

[scatter]

I don't recall the battery Dave. Hell, I don't even recall what I had for lunch today....
They were working and lasting me for years and then all of a sudden I couldn't get more then a year out of them. Switched over to Optima and all is good again.

[daveb]

Well that makes me feel wonderful. Funny thing on the Optima I killed. I tried my buddies trick and it seemed to work. I'm trying it on another Optima now and will report back what I find.

[jage]

What trick? I'll test it, the jeep is doing nothing but sitting anyway.

[campervanbeethoven]

Originally Posted by jage

What trick? I'll test it, the jeep is doing nothing but sitting anyway.

I just saved two optima yellows that I thought we're junk by charging them in the following way.

First connect a known good battery to your dead yellow (or other AGM) battery with jumper cables. Pos. to pos. neg. to neg. Then let the two batteries sit for about a half hour to let the dead battery soak some charge off the good battery. then connect a charger to the good battery.
Run the charger at 12 amps for about an hour and then switch to 2 amps for another 4 to six hours. At this time take off the jumpers and hook the AGM directly to the charger and do 2 amps for 12 to 24 hours keeping an eye on it for possible gassing. If it gasses stop charging and see if it's reading over 12 volts with a meter. If it is let it cool down for a while and then continue @ 2amps until it's reading close to 14 volts on the meter. At this point put the battery into a vehicle and disable the spark (in a newer vehicle pull the ignition relay) in an older vehicle pull off the primary coil wire. While holding a meter on the battery have somone else crank the motor for about 5 sec and note the voltage drop and recovery of the battery. It should drop to low 12s and then recover to high to mid 12s.

This method was used on two yellow tops that were totaly dead and had been sitting under the house for two years.... they both came back.

ps. you need a charger that is burly enough to do it this way, cheap-o wallmart chargers will get eaten up with agm batteries. especially dead ones.

Hope it works..Luke

Disclaimer: Using this method to charge batteries may cause a battery to explode, resulting in bodily injury. No life guard on duty, swim at your own risk.

[daveb]

I PMed Jage the method I use which is more aggressive than yours and he did get it back up into operating mode. Don't know if it’s still working for him. I don't want to post my method on a public board for safety reasons. Your method sounds a bit safer but everybody must realize that when you’re dealing with dead batteries, applying high charge levels to any battery can be hazardous especially those that are mounted inside the vehicle.

[TwinStick]

Or, just buy one of these for $20. http://www.tractorsupply.com/vehicle-ma ... -v-1030951
It does all that automatically. It brought my 2003 stock atv battery back from the dead to 100%. Also got my 2 camper batteries back to 100%, from 75%.

FWIW, the Sears DieHard Platinum Marine batteries are Odyssey batteries, just repackaged to say Sears, also, they are cheaper. I have the 2150 (1150 cca/ 205 min res cap) as an aux battery in my Power Wagon. It works awsome.

[daveb]

That may be true for a battery in a low state but my battery was completely dead. Even my 12 amp charger would not bring it back to where it would hold a charge like it did before I killed it. Most AGM's will come back to a reasonable state if the voltage stays above about 9 volts which is considered 0% or dead. Mine was sitting at 2v and a standard charger wouldn't dent it. It took an un-safe procedure to bring it back.

As far as the Die Hard Platinum Marine battery, the new ones are indeed made by the same manufacture, but Odyssey is made by EnerSys and they produce batteries under different names for different companies including Sears. So it's kind of hard to say that a Sears battery is the same as any Odyssey when they make so many different grades. According to the EnerSys (unless they lied to me) the military grade Odyssey batteries that I installed in my rig are very different than others that Odyssey (or Sears) sells. I'm sure the Die Hard Platinum Marine battery is a fantastic battery similar to some models Odyssey sells, but which battery and what grade would be the question. Anytime a company as big as Sears buys and sell in large bulk, prices drop and you get a good deal. One of EnerSys selling points is that they use pure virgin lead and many of the batteries have heavier plates. So you bring up a great point; you don't always get what you pay for, and there are times when you pay more for a name, so going with Sears might be the way to go. But Sears didn't offer the military heat resistant grade starting battery I wanted. Did I get a good deal...probably not, but I got a better battery (IMO) than what Sears offers. As far as standard grade batteries the Sears platinum series is a great battery

[TwinStick]

Well, it says it is designed to exceed military specs, can sit for 2 years & still have a full charge & weighs 75 lbs, so it is pretty heavy. I am specifically talking about thier Platinum Marine batteries. The 2150 Odyssey is identical to the PS 1. Specs are the same,

[daveb]

Yep thats a great battery. I will be pulling my optima's in my bass boat for those when the optimas go and replacing with the sears.