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Good price on Optima Yellow Top

Chris

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Bought another Optima Yellow this morning plus two new starter batteries from BatteryMegastore. They have a voucher for 5% as well if you can find it via Google. I have used them before and their next day free delivery was spot on. A big yellow for under £200 delivered is pretty good. I have been very pleased with mine so far. It DOES need the correct charging regime which it gets from my CTEK DC -DC set up. If you are looking for a leisure battery this is a good one at a decent price. There are several yellows, this is the largest and it fits nicely against the rear wheel tub due to its off set design

http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/product/YTS+5.5/?ref=bmuk&gclid=CKWs94PYgMACFSHItAod5y0AVQ
 
Chris

Just to clarify the yellow is to replace your current leisure battery or you are going to use it in the engine bay?

Which starting batteries did you go for as I think I may also be in the market soon for a pair.
 
No, the yellow is a replacement for the now spare original battery under the bonnet now that I have gone to 12 start Warren. It's not happy being used like that and I think that swapping it for a battery better suited to that regime is best. Wet batteries really like to be charged all the time and the system is such that when I start the car, the aux battery deosnt get any charge until the split that I bought from you kicks in. This can be quite slow at times so all the car systems such as lights and fan etc etc are running from the aux battery until that time. Lots of short high drain trips is not doing it any good. The other battery only cranks the engine over with solenoid power coming from the aux battery. I liek the set up because it means the chances of being stranded due to a flat battery are now exceedingly small. What I am doing is, as soon as I start the engine, I am linking the tow batteries via the controller so that the alternator charges the aux immediately. But I shouldn't have to keep doing that. I also ran that battery completely flat recently and if I am honest I don't think it did it any good.

The other two batteries are to replace the Optima Red tops in the green 80. I don't really see the need for red tops in what's effectively a standard vehicle now. They are good but not new so I figure I'll swap them out for standards whilst in a spending mood. They were £67 each before discount which is OK by me.

I put the red tops on the CTEC and they came up fine on the AGM cycle. But I am really trying to make this one standard where I can as I will never use it off road or overland it as such. It drives so superbly that I feel it would be best put back to factory spec really. It's the best 80 I have driven that's for sure. It won't be going out in the Winter that's for sure.

Going to Scotland next weekend and think I'll take this one with the Oz Tent up top. The batteries will get a good charge.
 
Oh sorry you probably wanted a reason. Yellow is dual purpose and the same as the one in the rear which means they can be rotated, swapped if necessary. The terminals are also central which means it can be used left or right handed in the engine bay. Optima don't really indicate that the blue is a cranking battery. OK of course it will, but red is crank, blue is leisure and yellow is dual.

C
 
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I would have gone with the blue - it's the marine version of the yellow (or was) and was once the one with two terminal sets. But looking at the new specs the yellow seems now squarely aimed at off-road and blue is marine or RV. Interesting.
Cheers
 
And why I bought the yellow.

I hadn't had one before and read a lot of reviews. Like Marmite. Utterly great and totally rubbish. I went to a battery specialist and asked them. It's all down to charging. Optimas are not just car batteries in a fancy box. They need different and give back different. I noticed that as he state of charge on mine dropped over three days of use without charge that the voltage barely changed at all. Even when down to 60 something % the voltage was still over 12v. On a wet battery this would not have been the case from experience. Voltage drop off is almost linear. The fridge never shut off once due to low voltage alarm. But all of that comes from ramming 14.5 volts into them at high amps. The computer thing told me that whilst at 60% and 12+volts, I'd pulled something like 30 amps out of the battery which is a 55 AH battery.

Need that solar panel next.
 
Hi there guys

yellow and Blue are the same batteries believe it or not its just how JCI want to market the product. The best product you can buy is the Odyssey by Enersys, it is expensive but it is the only product made with pure lead. look at spec on PC2150

also the best engine battery for bang for bucks is MF31-1000, its 1000cca and 130ah fitted to must big American plant


Giles
 
Ok, reviving an old thread, during this period of continuous -11C to -22C, I'm in need of a pair of batteries for the 80.

Whatever I get, they need to be special order here, to achieve the reversed polarity pillars thingy 80s have and I'm after some advice, if anyone can help.

Optima or Odyssey? Red, yellow or blue?

I'm no overlander so I don't need deep cycle or whatever it is leisure batteries are, but I do want to get the best and I'd rather pay over the odds to get it.

I have a larger output alternator fitted, I think it's over 100 Ah, and I can check if that's an important factor.

I also need to know the best for first choice and an alternative, because it's often the case here that the first choice will be unavailable.

To order whatever you guys might recommend, will I need the Toyota part numbers? I really don't know anything about this, other than the obvious....

Thanks in anticipation for some words of wisdom :thumbup:
 
I shan't give any advice as i know nothing but if you're not in a rush i'm sure we can bring more than just sausages and Galaxy with us ( lets be honest, galaxy won't survive the journey anyway!)

ps. I just fitted
http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/varta-g7.html and
http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/varta-g8.html
slightly larger in size than the toyota ones that were in there but they fit in and have handles on the top which make them a dam sight easier to get in and out!

pps, still not giving advice :l
 
Cheers Nick :thumbup:

They are identical to mine, that have just failed after 4 years.

I managed to get a price on the odyssey deep cycle 95 Ah and here they're the equivalent of £560 each :wtf:

So, after lots of dead ends (everything here closes at 1:30 on a Saturday) I found one open, had the same pair of 95 Ah Varta's in stock, delivered and fitted for 900 lei = £173 the pair:dance:

I did want to try to get something "better" but at that price and availability I couldnt refuse.

Job done, sorry for the bother... :icon-biggrin:
 
I didn't know what to get to be honest. I just remember Chris saying his yellow top under the bonnet wasn't getting the love it needed so why pay more.
 
The Vartas are good Clive. Do consider getting yourself a Ctek charger if you've the remotest possibility of providing power to your truck when it's standing. Leaving one connected has revived a failing 1 yr old Varta (too little use :icon-rolleyes:) battery on the Smart and in cold conditions it will just help the batteries out. Batteries that struggle in the cold will usually be fine during warmer temperatures so that tells a tale. They are less efficient and have a far greater job to do starting the truck.
 
Exactly Nick. The yellow top in mine was the systems battery and not part of the factory 24v set up. It got charged by the alternator in tandem with the cranking battery. It began to suffer quite quickly and I could see that as the cranking battery started the motor so quickly, the alternator on supplied 14.5 for a very short time to recharge it. The split charger then only sent 13.8 to the aux battery most of the time and soon the Opti was showing signs of not being loved. I pulled it out and put a wet lead acid back in there which has been happier for sure. I did toy with putting a CTEK under the bonnet to run the Opti but frankly I don't need an AGM under there in the first place. I have one in the boot.
 
The Vartas are good Clive. Do consider getting yourself a Ctek charger if you've the remotest possibility of providing power to your truck when it's standing. Leaving one connected has revived a failing 1 yr old Varta (too little use :icon-rolleyes:) battery on the Smart and in cold conditions it will just help the batteries out. Batteries that struggle in the cold will usually be fine during warmer temperatures so that tells a tale. They are less efficient and have a far greater job to do starting the truck.

Cheers Rich, trouble is mains over night access to the truck 5 days a week is a no-go living on the second floor of an apartment block.

At the house I can rig one up but the failure of the 4 year olds has probably come about due to my alternator (replaced about a year ago) which was barely keeping them charged properly.

I note that when running, the old batteries were pulling (if this is the right terminology) some 14.6 V after start-up and on a run this would drop to 14.0 V or thereabouts.

The new batteries are drawing 13.7 V after start-up and that dropped to 13.4 V on the run up to the house last evening.

To me that suggests the old batteries were sucking all the time and probably never got to full charge.
 
Sounds feasible Clive. In other words the old ones were in a lower/poorer charge state so we're constantly needing charge and not getting there while the new ones hardly bat an eyelid starting your truck so are much closer to being full and drawing less charge from the alternator.

Either that or the alternator's knackered and not charging properly. I would expect 14.4V to start the charging and have that drop away really but your theory may well be correct. I'll have to swat up.
 
Sounds feasible Clive. In other words the old ones were in a lower/poorer charge state so we're constantly needing charge and not getting there while the new ones hardly bat an eyelid starting your truck so are much closer to being full and drawing less charge from the alternator.

Either that or the alternator's knackered and not charging properly. I would expect 14.4V to start the charging and have that drop away really but your theory may well be correct. I'll have to swat up.

I may be wrong, so I'll check the readings when we leave this evening to go back to the city.

The fitter said the charge readings on his meter were good, after fitting the new ones. Maybe my reading from start up was a little late.
 
Sorry for abusing your old thread Chris...

Richard, here's some numbers...

It was -11C overnight and it had warmed up to +1C today when I took these readings in the yard (not driving):

12.8 V Before switch on;
12.0 V After switch on, no other accessories on (and after the heater plug warning light had gone off);
13.5 V After start-up on idle;
14.2 V At 1,500 rpm and this settled to 14.0 - 13.9 V at idle;
13.1 V ten minutes after switch-off.

I don't know if the above indicates anything awry, new batteries and a one year old alternator.

Thanks for any comments.
 
I dont know alot about batteries but all those number look good to me.

I imagine if you now put the lights on for a few seconds and then measured again the surface change will have dropped back to 12.8V again :)
 
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