Optima Battery- will not charge, discharging with a charger hooked up in fact.

I had about almost a full charge in my battery when I put it into the car earlier today. I cranked the car with the fuel pump fuse removed to get things primed for a bit, then I hooked my battery charger up to it at 2 volts and went about my business. I just went out to see how it was doing and it is now reading ZERO.

There should be no draw coming form the car at this point in time. Cranking the voltage on the charger up to 15 barely moved the needle.

The connections are good.

Does anybody have any idea what is up? I have another battery to use if push comes to shove, but I was hoping to crank the car tomorrow.

(this was not exactly helpful: https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/support/faqs )

Did you read the FAQ about charging it in parallel with another battery? If that doesn't work, then you've probably got a bad battery. Optimas ain't what they used to be, or so I've heard.

In reply to Basil Exposition:

I've heard the same thing. The red top I have in my car has been going strong since July 08. From what I gather shortly after that they took quite a dive. 3 people I know have had multiple batteries die in less than 6 months, and all had different use schedules. Nothing out of the ordinary or extreme, daily drivers and weekend machines. Trickle chargers didn't help at all. I will be buying something different once the need arises.

so now they are doing a slow coast on the name?

In reply to Lancer007:

Yeah, I've got three that are that old or older-- one going on ten years-- and all are going strong. One is in a racecar that doesn't have an alternator and the others in seldom driven classics. From what I've heard, though, I wouldn't buy a new one.

We have experienced a very high failure rate of newer Optimas. Old ones just keep plugging along. I've spent many hundreds of dollars on them in the past, I won't be buying any more.

A lot of them were exhibiting symptoms like internal connection problems. I think we had at least one that would make/break a connection if you pushed on a terminal.

Keith Tanner wrote: We have experienced a very high failure rate of newer Optimas. Old ones just keep plugging along. I've spent many hundreds of dollars on them in the past, I won't be buying any more. A lot of them were exhibiting symptoms like internal connection problems. I think we had at least one that would make/break a connection if you pushed on a terminal.

This has been my experience as well. Ive had like 5 and Im done. I've got a shorai that I love, I'm getting more of them. If I need more cca than shorai offers, I'll get baraille.

I left the charger on overnight, and it read about 95% charged. The car did crank, but cranking it 3 times drained the battery to half. I'm not entirely sure about using this battery. I've left the charger on again tonight, we'll see what it does tomorrow. I'm starting to think the battery has a fault.

It is a newer red top.

Got one of these? http://www.harborfreight.com/100-amp-6-volt12-volt-battery-load-tester-69888-9191.html

If, not, get one. They don't cost much and take all the guesswork out of evaluating a battery. I use mine all the time. Just used it recently to figure which of the two batteries in the diesel truck went bad.

A fully charged battery will not take additional charge. But if it discharges rapidly, Bad battery.

My newer redtop is doing ok, must have gotten a good one......

You do need an AGM-specific charger. I've let the smoke out of an Optima by using a normal battery charger. As in, there was smoke jetting from the vents and the battery was hot to the touch.

As a general rule, it seems like once they are discharged fully once then they lose a lot of capacity. Freeze once and the battery is garbage.

You must - must - parallel the battery if you are doing any more than a maintenance charge on a battery that isn't dead.

So what's a good battery that's better than the usual crop of Duralasts, Die Hards, and store brand auto batteries? I've been pretty unimpressed with the Duralast Gold I put in the Taurus last year (failed to start at just over a year old when it was -15F outside but the car was in an attached garage), so when the truck's time comes, I want something a little better. I was thinking Optima, but this thread has me reconsidering.

Napa.

Duralast and Diehard are junk. Napa lasts way past warranty period.

It's also 2-3x more expensive.

Not all diehard are junk. Their P1 platinum line is a re-branded Odessy. Not cheap ($230 on sale for the last one I bought) but they are 99.9% virgin lead and come with a 4 year full replacement, 8 year prorated warranty.

PS, I bought the P1 after researching it a decent amount, and it replaced a 9 year old optima. I have been burned 2x with newer optima's, I won't buy another one.

Perhaps I am a little unfair. I don't know the model lines, but I do see a lot of Duralasts fail inside a year and Diehards after two or three. I only know the ones that I replace frequently

More or less, the OEM battery lasts 5-7 years, then a 75-month NAPA will take it for the rest of the car's life.