Is a Yellow Top Optima Really Worth the $$$$$$

I'm not sure about the yellow top but what about running a second battery in a battery box behind your rear seat?

 

Yeah good point about lil Danny being back there.

 

I run the red top, no winch though. We put one in mine due to rough trails killing 2 wet cell ones in just a few months so I went with the Optima. No probs since.

 

I would vote to go with the cheaper battery. Unless you were hitting the off road scene every weekend and jolting your teeth and jeep around. The yellow top battery is 2 times the cost of the auto zone battery with 200 less cranking amps. For occasional self recovery winch use, I would say the auto zone battery would be better. If you think you will use a winch every day, a dual battery system would be better.

 

I have the yellow top in mine. I bought it off of ebay. Paid $80. Guy was local so no shipping. He said he had it for a year and never put a chargeron it. Was using it for testing elctronics. had a full 12.5 volts even after a year of use without seeing a charger. Nice thing about them is you will never have to worry about acid spills or cleaning your battery posts (which you will do often with Autozone battery).

 

Dan: If the yellow top you're looking at only has 650 CCA, it's the smaller battery. Make sure you are comparing "apples with apples".

found that out the hard way when I put a red top in my Yukon. It had less CCA than the old batt, but then I realized it was the smaller size battery.

 

The yellow top I run is 870 CCA. I bought it 2 years ago and it is still working great. Prior to that I destroyed 2 regular batteries in 3 years. Spiral cell type bateries are much more vibration resistant and you can screw up one cell and still run on the other 5. I'll personally never buy another type of battery for my jeep or boat.

 

Dan... we have a Yellow top in the greenie... I like'm...

 

i could be way wrong here, but i could have sworn that my two yellow tops have 1050 cca, i paid 150.00 a piece at the swap meet here last year (brand new). also IIRC the yellow and red tops both have something like 115-120 minutes of stored emergency use so even if the vehicle is dead you can run using that power without draining your battery. plus they last forever, i know alot of guys who run them and i have never heard of one of them going bad on any of the guys. plus any battery you can mount upside down is cool

 

Be aware that there are two different red top Optimas. One has a Cranking amp very close to the Cold Cranking amp of the other. I run a red top in the race Jeep and the CJ-5 and love 'em, but both are the more expensive higher Cold Cranking amp batteries. There are differences in the Yellow, blue, and red top batteries. The red top with higher cold cranking amps should work just fine if not constantly winching or running lights/accessories without the engine running. If so, go with the yellow deep cycle battery. One thing I found out the hard way is running a red top completely dead and letting it sit will kill it quicker that most other batteries. The Optima Rep told me the same thing. The yellow tops don't seem the have the same problem as they are a deep cycle rated battery. One other thing we covered some time back is hook up large draw items like winches to the top posts, not the side terminals. The side terminals have a fairly thin ribbon of material hooking them up internally and under prolonged heavy loads can burn out. The top posts don't have this problem. Nickmil.

 

Dan, I run a Napa spiral cell battery. It came in alittle under 100.00. 95.00 I think. Any how I went thru the same thing as you ,I wanted the duability of a optima but I bawlked at the price. The Napa batery has 1000 cca but it isnt a deep cell/ marine battery like the yellow optima its like the red optima. I run lotts of lights,a electic fan,and crank a 350 buick. I dont have my winch installed yet but I dont forsee a problem. I've run this battery a year with no problems.Go check out Napa. Good Luck!

 

Targetduster, Do you have the NAPA # for that battery by chance?

 

jimf, Hi I could not find my reciept,I know I have it somewhere... Here is the napa no. off of the battery. 9934/78 It is a exide select orbital I was mistaken about the cca. It is 770 cold ca at 0 deg., My bad. The ca is 1000 at 32 deg. Hope this helps
Ken