Another Optima Battery Question ...

[Protege5Gurly]

OK from what Ive heard/read the breakdown goes like this:

RED TOP - Idea for general "starting" battery - doesnt deep cycle very well.

YELLOW TOP - Deep cycle, great for heavy audio loads at shows

BLUE TOP - Both Starter and Deep Cycle -- basically a great all around battery.

My thing is this -- I dont want a red or yellow top in my engine bay (doesnt work well with the cosmetics -- but the blue will fit in just fine. Does anyone see a problem with using a Blue Top for auto applications? And if its a good choice -- which model?

Pe@ce

 

[FC3s Boy]

the blue one will work fine, i saw them at costco for cheap ( i don't know if you guys have costco out there) I use the yellow on my race car and the red on my street car and they both work great

 

[LinuxRacr]

The thing about the Deep Cycle batteries, is that if you do deep cycle them, you will need a charger that can charge them up. If you completely drain your Optima Deep cycle battery, the car's charging system will be inadequate. 1sty ran into this problem.

 

[Protege5Gurly]

i checked the website -- the specs on the BTs are the same as the RT and YTs ... and they offer it in both starting and deep .. so ill end up getting the starting version of the BT

Pe@ce

 

[Protege5Gurly]

This will be added just to have a better battery -- and more color in the engine bay -- and I dont deep cycle anyway since we have an inverter for shows

Pe@ce

 

[1sty]

The thing about the Deep Cycle batteries, is that if you do deep cycle them, you will need a charger that can charge them up. If you completely drain your Optima Deep cycle battery, the car's charging system will be inadequate. 1sty ran into this problem.

Yep, but the good nes is that only the yellow top is actualy a deep cycle. The red tops can recharge off the alternator.

I have always known the blue top as a marine battery, what the hell that means I have no clue. I'd get optimas suggestion before buying it.

 

[Pretzellogic]

the blue one will work fine, i saw them at costco for cheap ( i don't know if you guys have costco out there)

No, we don't have a Costco out here. Rub it in. (pissed)

 

[p5sundevil]

yah everywhere else i have seen lists the blue as a marine battery, now if gurly is right and you can get the blue top with the same properties as the red top that would be sweet, as Im in the same boat as the color clashing the scheme in the bay with the re and yellow.

 

[YellowMP5]

a friend from the club just bought a RT from costco here. $100 dollars and no core was needed. btw, what does deep cycle mean?

 

[1sty]

Deep cycling a battery is when the battery is drained low enough to permanently damage the battery so that it can not return to a full charge. A deep cycle battery like the optima yellow top is more resistant to this then are typical batteries. Becuase of this you can drain an optima yellow top to nothing and bring it back to all but 100%

 

[Poseur]

jsut to toss in my $.02, I was told by an optima rep that red and blue were nearly identical, for whatever that's worth. Though he really had no technical specifics when I pressed him.. ended up defaulting to "that's just what I was told"

 

[Greg S]

Basicallya blue top is exactly that a blue top, they can be either starting or deep cycle. The marine speicfication come from the fact that it has marine style battery terminals, basically a threaded terminal with a wing nut in addition to the normal style battery terminal. Both are on top so it's makes the terminal area a little more crowded and might make it a little more difficult to fit aftermarket battery terminals. Aside from that there is no difference.

 

[sndsgood]

greg has it right, same exact battery just has the quick connect marine terminals on top.