Whatever you decide, I wouldn't put it off. Weak battery will make your alternator work harder, possibly shortening the life of it as well. Just my opinion....

 

The Swiss make the best batteries just like their watches. When I was station over in Germany me and the wife decided to drive down to Pisa Italy, you know the leaning tower before they closed it down. Well to get there you go through the Swiss Alps, a 17km tunnel and about 30 other tunnels until you get to Pisa. You have to turn your head lights on to see where your going. On the way home we just crossed the boarder back into Switzerland and the car went dead. Troubleshoot the alternator with a flashlite and a piece of wire and everything checkout good so it was my voltage regulator that went bad. No luck trying to find one of those suckers in Switzerland when your driving a 2+2 Dodge Charger. So I get a new battery and find out it going to cost more than the 100 USD of Swiss franks I have on me. So the salemans say no problem you take the battery and when you get back to Germany you wire me the money We are back on the road and with a new battery and a charging system that is inop and we make it through all those tunnels with the head lights on and even back up to Zweibruecken. The next day the car started right up and I drove it 30 miles to Ramstein AB and found a used voltage reg for 5 bucks, pop it in and I had power again

Oh yeah I wired the salesmen the money with a nice tip too cause you don't find help like that very often.

That's my story and I'm sticking too it

 

Yeah, red: that 36+36 warranty doesn't quite stand up to the 36+60! And you didn't post up the SPECS on that Optima - the CA, CCA, & reserve minutes are ALL lower, but the price is HIGHER. And an Optima is LESS tolerant of being discharged/fast charged/temperature.

This site is a WEALTH of battery info:
http://www.uuhome.de/william.darden/

This one tells how to maintain & "repair" a battery:
http://www.4unique.com/battery/battery_tutorial.htm

 

Battery maintenance is something hardly ANYONE ever does, and it goes A LONG WAY toward extending the life of a battery.

I do all my batteries, even the ones in my boats, once a month.

I check the electrolytes, and re-fill with distilled water as needed.

Clean the cables as needed and apply anti-corrosion spray (which doesn't last long, it just _goes away_ after about a month).

Run automatic chargers on everything once a month till they complete. This is something most people never do, and it's very important for cars that only do short trips, and for boats, motorcycles, riding mowers, etc. anything that doesn't see action enough to tend to the battery. Lead acid batteries self-discharge at around 1% per day, and even faster in hotter climates (2% per day at 100 degrees F). So without proper charging, they will be dead in just a couple months. If the battery goes dead, or stays dead, a great deal of the sulfur in the electrolyte will permanently bond to the plates, reducing its capacity and service life. If you live just a mile or two from where you work, your charging system doesn't run long enough to replace the power used from the battery to start the engine. The battery bleeds down farther and farther every time. Hopefully, you will take longer trips now and again to top it off, but if not, the life of the battery will be extremely limited. This is even more true if you run under-drive pulleys. If you buy a pulley set, keep the small pulley on the alternator, don't use the larger pulley that comes with the set.

As a battery is discharged, sulfur from the acid gets pulled off the sulphuric acid molecule and embeds itself in the plates. This frees the hydrogen gas that can cause explosion hazards. When the battery is charged, the charging process knocks those sulfur atoms back off the plates and it re-combines with the left-overs of the acid to recreate sulphuric acid. That's why the specific gravity of the electrolyte is lower (lighter) in a discharged battery! The sulfur has been removed! If enough time passes, the sulfur atoms will permanently bind to the plates, that's called sulphuration. Once enough sulfur has permanently bonded to the plates, it can't be knocked off and the battery cannot hold a charge, and there's not enough room on the plates for any more sulfur, so it can't supply power anymore. Top-of-the-line batteries, like Motorcraft, Duralast Gold, and Diehard Gold have special tablets that are dropped into each cell during manufacture. Those tablets, anti-sulphuration tablets, help keep the sulfur from bonding to the plates permanently, so it gets released back into the electrolyte again, thus the length of service the battery can provide is greatly increased. Keeping the battery charged, and the electrolytes filled to the proper level, also help retard the process.

 

Too much typing, gotta get down and buy one of these stupid things before it gets really cold. Alls I can say is 7 yrs from a stock Motorcraft is blowin' people's minds, especially with the high km's, so I'll buy another.

 

Stock Motorcrafts are great. Mine was nearly 6 years old when I changed it because I mis-diagnosed my problem. It wouldn't jump start or anything. Turned out to be a corroded connecter between starter solenoid and battery. Doh! Battery was fine.

 

I've noticed I am doing alot more terminal cleaning, and re applying silicone dielectric compound to prevent corrosion though, the remote starter acts up when this occurs so it warns me. That may be the reason the battery has lasted, upkeep with dielectric goop on the terminals, starter and many other places. A little 411 for the people reading, especially ones who see a winter and salt.

 

So you're using normal dielectric stuff like you use on spark plug boots etc, not specialised battery spray? Mind you, back in the day, I used to use petroleum jelly on battery terminals to no ill effect, I've hardly ever had corrosion issues.

I wonder if you'd have less problems if you used the specialised battery stuff, I use the red spray-on stuff, personally - but I've only been back in Canada and harsh winters for a little while, so we'll see.

I experienced just the alternator gauge jumping like crazy on occasion, ('92 5.0 v8) and one day the entire electrical system quit - no lights no power - I had bought replacement battery clamps as originals looked a little rough, but power was getting through them - had the thing towed home and tinkered with it a few days, finally went through and pulled ALL the fuses, and put dielectric on all the fuse blades, and lo the power came back. Haven't had a problem since, but wish I knew what the heck happened. So check connections too. Incidentally, my battery was pretty new but just a cheap Canadian tire battery, although it's got a reasonable warranty.

I seem to remember reading NAPA batteries scored well in the Consumer mag tests, FYI.

 

Just closing out my post because I hate it when I read a post and there was never a solution posted. Anyway went and had the battery checked and yep it was going. Since the cold weather has just started I went ahead and picked one up, also figured after the holiday's money will be tight.

 

You should get yourself a 16volt racing battery from New Castle Battery(j/k) They are made for race cars so they can save on weight by losing the alternator. You can get them in a 3post so that you can drive around on 12volts and race on 16. Seriously though, if you can find a Turbostart battery from New Castle it is a good battery. I got one for my brothers truck(85 chevy) and he had it in there for 3 yrs and then when he got rid of the truck he put the battery in my dads truck when his died. Its been in there for goin on 4yrs now. Good battery if you ask me.

 

My 4yr old son would love that because every time he gets in the truck he asks "are we going to race." I made the mistake of teaching him what "pedal to the metal" means. You should have seen my wife's face the first time he told her "put the pedal to the metal mommy."

Ah.... music to a father's ears.

 

[QUOTE=reese006]Didn’t mean to start a battery war. No seriously though some good info. I would have definitely looked at the warranty on the Yellow Top before I bought but I would have thought that it would have been at least as good as some of the premium ones, 3yrs free replacement beyond 3yrs prorated. I was kind of shocked that it’s only warranted for a year of free replacement. Wonder why they warranty the Red Top (cheaper) for 3yrs and the Yellow (more expensive) for only 1. Would be interesting to see their numbers for Yellow Tops that go bad between the 2-3yr mark.

I have had a yellow top in my old 72 Nova for 4 years so far. Car sits from Nov. thru April, no trickle charging or anything, has started car 4 springs in a row.......only battery I have ever had that would sit and hold a charge all winter without a recharge. Probably be dead this spring now that I bragged it up.LOL.

 

I did get a new Motorcraft today, 750 cranking amps instead of 540 stock. She fires right up now, very quick. I couldn't believe how small and lack of cranking amps stock had and was great. The 750 fills the tray now. I will go with the Optima Red in my 64, but will maintain the SOB unlike my brother and dad do!

 

I am probably gonna take a beating for this one but in my old explorer I picked up one of the yellow walmart batteries for like 50 bucks and it lasted langer than my truck did over 5 years as far as I know its still good but the trucks in the junk yard lol. for 50 beans I couldnt go wrong. however for large stereo installs I use an optima yellow top and it holds up the best out of all batteries! just my .02