RedTop OPTIMA batteries are designed for short term high current applications such as starting engines, like those ones shown above or your car in the middle of winter! They do not like to be "deep cycled" (like ALL automotive starter batteries!) Although this Red Top battery with its SpiralCell Lead Plate Technology, will suffer much less from the occasional deep discharge (such as leaving your lights on) than a "standard" flat plate style battery would do. Because of the fact that SpiralCell technology can store more energy for a given sized battery these types of battery are ideal for use in motor sport because a much larger "conventional" battery would need to be used in place of an OPTIMA to give the same starting current capability.
YellowTop OPTIMA batteries are designed as DEEP-CYCLE batteries. These have lots of uses! Everything from Golf carts, wheelchairs, alarm systems, emergency lighting, backup power systems, orbiting satellite communication systems, emergency vehicles etc can use these batteries. Anything that uses batteries in a cyclic manor, (like my wheelchair!) benefits greatly from these batteries. Unusually for DEEP-CYCLE batteries, they are happy to produce large currents and so can also double as starter batteries. This allows the use of a single (deep-cycle) battery in a boat/car/generator/race vehicle, or one with TV/Powerful stereo systems etc or lots of ancillary equipment that runs when the engine is stopped. This kind of treatment would mean very short battery life in the case of a "conventional" style battery.
BlueTop OPTIMA batteries are basically the same as the YellowTop deep-cycle ones, or the RedTop Starter ones but with an additional two stainless steel connection terminals as preferred by some boat builders designers and users. Also some external dimensions are very slightly different. Both the blue top and the yellow top batteries are electrically identical, and both are full deep cycle batteries with the additional capability of being able to also perform as a starter battery, although not quite as capable as the Red Top ones in this respect.
some information on all 3 batteries i found....
