I killed my battery this weekend and was thinking of replacing it with an Optima. What do I need? Seems like I remember someone posting that you shouldn't replace the battery under the hood with the Yellow Top.
red tops are starting batteries. Yellow tops are deep cycle batteries. they have more reserve for listening with the car off and will resist damage against discharge better then a red. yellow top or a kinetic, olympus or stinger is the way to go for a system.
Thanks for the reply, but I'm not sure I got my answer. You said Yellow Top, Kinetik, Olympus, or Stinger was the way to go for a system, but this battery will also be my starter battery. I'm getting a HO alt. soon and don't plan to run two batteries. Should I go with the Red Top?
I had a yellow top battery and it died on me in 8 months thought it was defective and got a new one same thing. There not good starter batterys there for basically running the system when the car is off and use the red top for starting. But if ur going to have one battery get the red top.
Well, Yellow Top optima's are warrantied, Mauricio.. And actually, I had a pair of them die (no fault of theres, had a stupid mechanic touch my vehicle with an arc welder..) and since the places I got them were out of stock at the time, Optima actually sent me in the mail (without returning the old ones, even) two brand new yellow tops of the same model.
The best part to this is, I was able to later return my batteries for warranty service through the places I bought them.
In effect: Optima stands behind their products to the point where they gave me two free yellow tops, just because I was unable at the time to have mine exchanged locally.
Yeah, i whould say go with the Yellowtop for under the hood. They are dual purpose. I have a yellowtop and its been in my SUV for about 4 years now and still peak performance. No maintanance needed and great for when you are at a redlight at idle.
the Red top had more CCA's then a yellow, but for most people, they will have no problem cranking with a yellow top. unless you have some high preformance, high compression engine, a yellow top will crank the car just fine.
there is NO NEED to spend the extra money on a Yellow top if you are buying an HO alt soon.
a Yellow top's MAIN purpose is to be used in deep cycle applications.....like when the car is off. A Red top is just a beefy starter battery, and that is exactly what they are designed to do, which is what you will be doing with it.
if i had to pick between putting a redtop or a yellowtop under the hood. with the car ON or OFF... I would still choose a Yellow Top... Its the STRONGER of the 2!! Redtops die quicker than people think!
I killed a red top with a high output alternator in under a month. Idling at redlights, when the alternator is at idle, can very easily kill a redtop if you're running a high wattage system.
Yellow tops are good batteries dont get me wrong; however, the largest battery they have in the Yellow is rated at 750 cca and 850 ca with a 120a reserve. They also have crazy bad warranty, like if you have a huge system draw...poof no warranty, talked to a dealer and Optima are very strict with warranty. But if a deep cycle is needed (alt is not big enough to supply full power)then get the yellow as it will be running your electrical system while receiving a low charge....but if you have a Ho alt then the deep cycle is not needed.
The battery I am looking at (around $120-180 Canadian) has 900 cca 1200 ca with a 160a reserve and a 5 year unconditional warranty....kicks the yellow top right in the junk as it the yellow top has a 3 year limited.....
Save myself a few bucks and I can abuse it all I want, plus is a bigger battery.........
what are kinetik batteries considered.... i was planning on getting a kinetik battery under the hood as my only battery. i dont play my music with the car off at all. also is the SVR line any good????
Kinetik & SVR are deep cycle battery... A "car audio batt" will be deep cyle!!
Mike what brand of battery are u getting? I doubt it beats the yellow man.... Does the battery sit at 13+ volts or better?? Ok.. Answered my question.. It needs to be yellow and better!
yellow with its low cranking amps can still crank a V8 6.0L engine anyday...
Muddy its like your Alternator is on STEROIDS.. Good Stuff.. from what u have told me.
i put a SVR-100-12 battery under the hood. specs are Voltage 12 Reserve Capacity 190 Amp Hour 100 CCA* 1100 Max Amps 3550
and then i have a 300A HO alt . and i dont play music while the car is off. i have 2 15" l7s powered by a kx2500.1. 2500W RMS x 1 @ 2. i wont have my system turned up all the way alot and wont play with the car is off. do u guys think i will be ok? big 3 done and all wiring is 0 ga
not sure what volt the battery sits at, but I was talking to some battery guys and they said even though some batteries say 13v, 14v after they are started it drops to 12v a.s.a.p as the extra current/volts is used and the alt runs it at whatever charge......
not sre if thats even right buts thats what 2 dealers told me...and they sell Yellow tops, and they would be actually loosing out of moeny by telling me that they arn't "the best"....
"not sure what volt the battery sits at, but I was talking to some battery guys and they said even though some batteries say 13v, 14v after they are started it drops to 12v a.s.a.p as the extra current/volts is used and the alt runs it at whatever charge...... "
they just was tryin to sell u something! anything!
Im not talkin about starting up... yellow tops sit at ENGINE OFF: 13v! period! when u start the car it goes up to 14-15v depending on alternator and battery resistance!!!
A 12v battery, many car batteries... will still charge at 14v... when u hit low/hard, untill the alternator cant support the load, it drops to the battery resting voltage "12v" if it was a Optima it will still drop to "13v" NOT ANY LOWER... That extra 1V buffer is ALOT in terms of audio and keepin the system happy at idle... just stating the facts... on the webpage Optima still call their battery 12v batts, for car purpose.... but they are indeed 13V! other better batteries sit at 13v same as Optima or better.... some up to 14v! but still labeled 12v batteries...
A fully charged battery should sit right at 12.6-12.8 anyways, not to far from the 13V. Funny thing is that in order for a standard battery to fully charge the voltage needs to be brought up to 14V because of the battery chemistry and that is not happening when you bump your system and drag the voltage down below 12v with a standard Alt. A red top is designed to come up from dead 35 times and a yellow I thing is 350 times, big difference! Honestly as cold as are winters get here, I would never use either one because they are just too small for my taste, I need at least 1000cca. I have a 300A alt and have no problems idling the car so a stabdard battery works for me but when my other 2 Kicker sx1250's come in, I may add another in the trunk for good measure. If someone is killing a red top while the car is at the redlight then your alt isn't as HO as you think, JMHO...Polo.
Yeah Im with Polo, Canada winters are harsh -20/-40 never been lower than -43 I think. and Also the RC on the Optima batteris are 120 I think, 160 is bigger..lol
Im getting a 200a alt for sure from excessive amperage, as the 250/300 wouldnt fit without brackets...so im looing into brackets as I wanted the 250 or even 300....so it would be charging the battery around 100 at idle (200 alt) but I am geared mostly towards DB drag (I will do Usaci and/ or Iasca) and in DB drag your car cannot be running.....
Plenty people runing Yellows under their hood in Canada right now... Especially for competitions..
if your car cannot be runing, Ill get a yellow top! I have seen them run entire system with failin alternators!!
Polo, when u run 5000 rms... you will need some deep cycles batteries!! TRUST ME.. Like u said the yellow recharges way more times as its deep cycle. Ill PM u a thread of DOM @ Irragi tellin me I need atleast 3 deepcycle batteries to run 5000rms.. for daily... 4-6 for competition... personally im just adding a yellowtop per amp...
if u have a 6v battery its need 2 extra volts to charge it.. so a 8v charge... ETC ETC with a 13V battery, the alternator will try to put out 15v to charge it.... 16V systems charge at 18v!
I found out about Optima Warranty, if you over charge them or anything like they your warranty is hooped. They weigh their batteries after use and if the weight is off by so much they are void. The places I talked to Dont try to push sales on the Optima Yellow tops anymore as of the lacking warranty and their customers complained about the warranty. I'd rather have 5 years unconditional, than a lacking 3 and save $150 or so bucks. But thats just me, and I do believe Yellows are good but just not for all aplications.
if you over charge almost any battery you will void the warranty. Warranties do not cover user abuse.. (at least, most dont.)
It's going to be pretty difficult to over charge them, anyways, as a normal alternator wont do this, and almost all battery charges now come with a sensing feature that tapers off the charge.
hmmm - after reading this whole long thread on points on using both
y not do the correct thing & buy 2 BATTERIES ! - in addition 2 big 3 / ho alt .
use a red as starter (or maybe a reg standard slightly oversized batt) & have a yellow near ur amp 4 just ur audio sytem alone , i'm planning 2 do mine like that soon .......
