Optima battery advice required.

gooday Dennis .
going back a few yrs , we ran Optima batteries in the GMC ambulances as
an aux battery , they started to bulge the tops up , an shock horror the
manufactureer said it must be our vehicle thats at fault , they were all
replaced with OEM battereis no more problems
mechpete

Dennis,
I have had a top run out of Optima batteries up until recently when a red top failed after about 18 months.

I wasn't going to cart it from Derby all the way home so I could find the receipt so I will guess I will never know if they would have honoured the warranty or not.

I must admit I wasn't happy with it failing but then again these things do happen.

If others report failures then I guess Optima may have a manufacturing problem or they have changed the quality of their build to cut costs.

I've had 3 Optima Yellow batteries fail within about 6mths of each other. All my aux battery and each replaced under warranty. Each blew up like a football, was too hot to touch and vented sulphur dioxide. Not good when it sits in the back of the vehicle.

Think we finally fixed the problem with a new battery management system and new alternator.

Thanks to all for your replies.
I suppose with battery failures there's always going to be a problem deciding whether it was the battery’s or user’s fault.

I recently read a similar discussion on, I think, LCOOL and one contributor said that Optima were now assembling their batteries in Mexico. Perhaps the QA is not up to scratch. Previously their reputation was excellent.

Hello guys,
I work with Optima, searching out such threads as this and addressing issues with our batteries. On the batteries that bulge, as I read in a couple posts, that is usually caused by overcharging the battery. Being an AGM designed battery, the charging method and amperes used is different and it is easy to over charge our batteries. In the one case of post 3, it looks like that problem was corrected by changing the management system to something that properly charged and didn't over charge the batteries.
Reply 1, Again, it is impossible to go back now and check, but I would guess that the GMC charging system was overcharging the Optima battery.
Reply 2, I am not sure about the warranty in your country, but you probably could have gotten a replacement for your battery if you had kept it, sorry.
Reply 4, when all you have is information you read online, you are correct, it is hard to tell and diagnose properly. A lot of returned batteries we get are simply deeply discharged and once we recharge them properly, they are fine.
We have a great video on utube ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slqd73ZOQvI ) that describes the proper way to recharge a deeply discharged optima battery.
We build all our batteries at one location and there isn't nor has there been a lapse in Quality Control. We strive daily to maintain the highest quality product we can possibly produce.
Guys, I hope this helps out with some of your questions about our batteries.
Thanks,
Bill Howell
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.