optimas

[hipster_dufus]

i am not happy with my deep cycles, anybody use these? are they worth it? can u use a regular smart charger on them? do they run longer?

[Ben]

Depends on the size battery but in brief, no Optima will run as long as a quality, similar size flooded lead acid. Look at the reseve capacity minutes on the OPTIMA and compare them to the reserve capacity minutes on another battery. Usually, the one with the highest number is going to run the longest. I say usually because some of the cheaper batteries will push the allowable margine of error to the limit so they can claim a bigger number than it will really produce.

Even if I was going to buy an AGM battery, it would not be an OPTIMA. The Deka Intimidator is a far superior battery over the OPTIMA. A stacked cell battery will perform much better than a spiral wound battery. A Deka group 31 has 190 minutes reserve capacity, don't think you will find that in an Optima.

As for your charger, see if it has an AGM setting on it. Check out the post I made to the link on batteries. It gives you the charging parameters for all three types of batteries.

There are a couple of batteries that you don't hear a lot about because they haven't gone after the boating market like some of the other big names have but are about the best on the market.  US Battery makes one of the best deep cycle batteries on the planet.  They only make deep cycles and are well know in the golf cart world and industrial world but not in the boating world.  Deka is well known up north but not that well elsewhere, they make all types, not just deep cylce.  Trojan also makes a great battery and they only make deep cycle's but can be hard to find in some areas.

These are probably the three best batteries on the market but you're not going to hear much out of them because they don't seem to spend the mega bucks advertising others spend.

[Nick_Barr]

My mom's boyfriend bought 2 optima batteries that they say would last hime the length of time his boat would be in existance and we got out the first day and the pooped out on us. 2 bad batteries!!!!!!!! We took them basck and they were fully charged 12V batteries only producing up to 6V Max!!!!!! They have had problems before with these bateries before, so we bought 3 DuraLast BAtteries and they are AWESOME and only $60 a battery