Posted by BZ [99.190.133.253] on Friday, November 13, 2015 at 15:14:24 :
In Reply to: Re: batteries posted by Ken Sterrett [75.167.187.41] on Friday, November 13, 2015 at 14:03:46 :
There is plenty of info Optima batteries are not the same optima as 5 years ago. I have a 9 year old redtop that is still going strong but in the last two years I've gone through 3. I won't buy another one.
If you have new one, keep a copy of your receipt in the truck b/c their warranty help is a joke - ran into this in Colorado this summer.
I'll stick with Odyssey Batteries from now on and Sears Platinum is an rebranded odyssey. They are $$ but a better product in my opinion.
From another website:
"...When the Swedes owned optima, they paid us well and quality was foremost of all at all cost. JCI is the company that KILLED optima batteries, we always had 99.99 pure lead until JCI bought optima. The first thing they did was: fired all of the on staff scientists, then fired all of the PHD's, then fired the chemists, then dismantled the chemistry lab, then dismantled the prototype lab, then got rid of the pure lead and replaced it with lead with higher tin content, then JCI brought in their genius engineers and re formulated the lead acid paste, then replaced the AGM paper with lower grade paper, ex cetera, ex cetera. All of this was done within the first 2 years of their ownership! We had to fight like hell to prove that what we had when they purchased us was superior to what they had done.
we finally convinced them to begin returning to some of the successful methods Gates had originally designed, but only after making them think that it was their idea. When the U.S. plant shut down, we were using pure lead, similar to original paper and similar paste formula, however, there were many, many other changes they had made in the manufacturing process that negatively affected the optima but produced higher volumes. In my opinion, the Enersys Odyssey is, by far, the very best battery on the market today. I am aware of some of the mfg practices being used specifically on the optima in mexico, and they are not conducive to quality!"