I'm baseing that claim on personal observation. I used to be a car audio installer for 10 years and am now an Engineer. I've only run one red top so far and it failed at about the 2 year mark. We have seen substantially more red tops come back to the shop than yellow tops. I've been out of the business for about 5 years now, but the people I still talk to claim the same thing about the red tops not being able to hold up as well as the yellows.

 

Which type (yellow or red) is better for something that is “not” a daily driver? I have my Lightning parked for the winter in the garage and last year I never disconnected the stock battery. During summer I typically take it out on the weekends for drives and sometimes to work.

At the end of winter it did show the red ball in the small window of the battery but started right up and after a 30 – 45 minute drive the green ball was showing.

I have been thinking about replacing the stock one for just that reason, that is it “not” a daily driver. I have owned the truck for 18 months (2003) and it has 4,200 miles on it.

 

Let me qualify my statement above. When the red top in my old car failed it was after it was deep cycled more than once, and I'll be willing to bet that what happened to those others as well. Mine was also one of the first few years they made them before Interstate bought them.

Deep cycling is torture on a battery. A lot of modern batteries fail after the first time this happens or after only one or two times. The Optima's are much, much better in that respect, all of them. The yellow top is a deep cycle battery and by nature should be less prone to failure by deep cycling than the red top.

Now if you never let the truck sit for long periods of time and never accidently run your battery down I believe that the red top will never give you a problem. But stuff happens and sometimes batteries get run down and then you run the risk of dropping a cell when this happens.

I'm certainly not saying not to buy a redtop, I think it's a great battery and a lot better than any standard battery, But when given the choice I choose the yellow top because it holds it's CCA capacity better when it is only partially charged and it will hold up better to repeated discharges because it is designed as a deep cycle battery vs. a starting battery.

Prior to the Optima it used to be a huge no-no to put a deep cycle in a car because it didn't have the CCA of a starting battery and it's internal resistance was greater and took a longer slower charge to charge it up. This was very bad if you made short trips because your battery wouldn't have time to fully charge before you stopped. The Optima changed all that; the yellow top is as good or better of a starting battery than most convential batteries will all the benefits of a deep cycle.

 

You can kill a yellow top over and over again and it will always take a charge and won't drain once charged again. My experience with Optimas. We used the reds and yellows over in Afganistan and they were about pretty equal. But, when we completely drained the red ones too many times, that was it for the battery-garbage now. Yellows never had that problem.

 

Vinnie,

I must say I love the work you have done on the engine bay of your vehicle.

very nice!!!

 

That makes sense to me. No argument. I usually use them in daily or frequent drivers, or leave them unhooked for months at a time, and never had problems with red tops.

By the way, just to clarify for anyone who may not be clear, by "deep cycle" he means to completely, or almost completely, discharge the battery.

My concern with yellow tops, or the reason I never bought one, stems from their lineage as a "marine" battery, and for exactly the reasons that you stated: ()

My experience with red tops, back in the "Interstate" days, was at a friend of mine's shop, where I worked, or to be more accurate was free help...
They converted Eagle buses into Motor Homes - complete rolling apartments, and the gigantic inverter was powered by 8 huge Interstate batteries. The # of batteries had to do with capacity (run time) - that they wanted to achieve. After the first bus or two, the Interstate reps showed up with the "then new" red tops, and convinced the owner to try 6 red tops instead of the 8 conventional (also Interstate) batteries. The red tops were about half the size, and less than half the weight of the standard batteries, and the owner thought they would never work. However, (as you can guess) they worked much better than the conventional batteries, and had a much longer run time. (The point in the buses was to be able to run the AC and TV and other accessories for a couple of hours without having to run the generator, to cut down on noise (nevermind that they lined the bus interior with lead sheets (talk about Dynamat from hell) to cut noise - and it did!)
Anyway, I have no idea (now)( why they didn't use yellow tops, except that I don't think that they existed at the time, and when they did come to market later, they were originally "marine", and for the reasons that you stated above some other friends of mine with a stereo shop did not use them. (Note, I am not stating this as fact, but more as speculation at this point.)

That 10 year old red top took me to business school, through the MBA program, and law school. I still haven't been able to get rid of it (its on the floor in the garage...) I don't have an engineering degree, but I am well schooled (I think) in 12v electrical work.

 

The Blue tops are Marine, Yellow is deep cycle/starting, red is daily driver starting battery.

http://www.optimabatteries.com/publi...duct_info.html

 

Ive had the blue top for 1.5 years now w/ no prob.I chose the deep cycle cuz I usually take the truck tailgating during football season and have the radio,tv,and fans to keep us cool hooked up.I charge it to capacity when I get home.The difference between the yellow and blue was the warranty,blue was longer,or so the salesdude sed..

 

Also, doesn't the blue top have stainless steel poles to reduce corrosion and have threaded studs with wing nuts for your boat applications?

 

The terminal posts are standard lead,not sure about the threaded studs.I figure they are stainless for the saltwater.Heres more info onit
http://www.batteriesareus.com/index....products_id=39

Frank