My Optima YellowTop

[1hot87gt]

Hey all. It's been a while. Wife convinced me it would be a good idea to upgrade our boat at the end of last season as we kinda outgrew it and it has consumed my life. I think I finally have it under control now, fingers crossed, but with that said, everything else including my fox has been neglected. She has not moved all year until last night. But when I finally got the cover pulled back I realized at some point in the spring probably, the battery tender must've gotten unplugged to use the outlet for something I was working on for the boat, and never got plugged back in. The Optima Yellow Top is dead. I was able to jump her with one of my jumper packs and then I let her run a bit. I guess since the car was sooooo low on voltage the electric fan wasn't spinning as it should and I caught her trying to overheat. I'm so mad at myself for neglecting her. This car has been in my life for a very long time and I feel I let her down.

Anyway, my guilt aside. Do you guys think the YellowTop will recover? I have it connected back to the Battery Tender which I believe to be a slower style charge, but according to the lights, it does appear to be doing its job.

Don't judge me, lol, just let me know what you think.

 

[limp]

I can't say about your optima, but my experience has been you need to zap a really dead battery with a larger charger sometimes at first.....Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't....

 

[1hot87gt]

Your right. The battery tender wouldn't even detect the battery when I first realized it had been disconnected and plugged it back in. The battery was that dead. But then I jumped the car and I guess the little bit of running it did before getting hot was enough to put something into the battery because now the tender is recognizing that it is connected to a battery and has appeared to have started the charging process. It is one of the 1.25 amp models and I just read that it will generally charge a battery from dead to full in between 20-30 hours, which is fine. I just hope I didn't do any damage to the battery by letting it sit dead for that long. I thought I read somewhere that the AGM batteries can handle that, but I'm not sure.

 

[AeroCoupe]

I have brought a couple of AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries back from the dead but you need a charger that desulfates the battery and it needs to charge it slowly. Optima sells a charger but holy hell its spendy. This is the one I run on both my cars of which both have red tops.

Amazon product ASIN B005EKY1EM
View: https://www.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Model-2012-Maintainer-Motorcycles/dp/B005EKY1EM?ref_=ast_sto_dp
This one is specific for AGM batteries:

Amazon product ASIN B005EKY20K
View: https://www.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Model-2012-AGM-Maintainer-Motorcycles/dp/B005EKY20K?ref_=ast_sto_dp

 

[Noobz347]

Yellow Tops use a coil anode instead of a plate and do not always respond well to, "CLEAR! ZZZZZAAAAP!".

 

[1hot87gt]

Yeah. I think my battery tender may be struggling. In the meantime I talked to a buddy of mine who had a similar issue and he used the kind of charger that you guys recommended above. I'm gonna order one and use that instead. It has the desulfurization feature and I probably would need it at some point with the boat and it's 4 batteries.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

 

[Willybill32]

I have brought a couple of AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries back from the dead but you need a charger that desulfates the battery and it needs to charge it slowly. Optima sells a charger but holy hell its spendy. This is the one I run on both my cars of which both have red tops.

Amazon product ASIN B005EKY1EM
View: https://www.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Model-2012-Maintainer-Motorcycles/dp/B005EKY1EM?ref_=ast_sto_dp
This one is specific for AGM batteries:

Amazon product ASIN B005EKY20K
View: https://www.amazon.com/BatteryMINDer-Model-2012-AGM-Maintainer-Motorcycles/dp/B005EKY20K?ref_=ast_sto_dp

OK, @AeroCoupe, now you've got me thinking. My F-150 has an AGM battery in it, and I periodically use a 1.25 amp Battery Tender on it due to the battery drain from the start/stop function. The battery has never been discharged completely, so is it OK to use a Battery Tender on it for a top off?

Bill

 

[AeroCoupe]

As far as keeping it charged it will work just fine. I would desulfate it every once in a while as it will increase the life of an AGM.

I disabled the auto start/stop BS on my F150 with Forscan so that is not an issue. If you do not have Forscan you can put a jumper wire across the back of the switch on your dash and that “fixes” it as well.

 

[Willybill32]

As far as keeping it charged it will work just fine. I would desulfate it every once in a while as it will increase the life of an AGM.

I disabled the auto start/stop BS on my F150 with Forscan so that is not an issue. If you do not have Forscan you can put a jumper wire across the back of the switch on your dash and that “fixes” it as well.

@AeroCoupe, thanks for the response. To "desulfate" my AGM battery, I'd still need a different charger, right?

Regarding the start/stop function, I'm not dissatisfied to the point of disabling it, although I frequently find it stopping the engine just as traffic starts to move.

Bill

 

[Noobz347]

If you're planning on getting a desulfator, I would get one sooner rather than later. The Noco unit I have was $40 a couple of years ago and now the thing is almost $100!

IMO, it needs to be 10 Amp or better to be practical for swapping from battery to battery for annual maintenance. 50 Amp is the sweet spot if you're a home user like me and don't mind the extra cash.

 

[Willybill32]

If you're planning on getting a desulfator, I would get one sooner rather than later. The Noco unit I have was $40 a couple of years ago and now the thing is almost $100!

IMO, it needs to be 10 Amp or better to be practical for swapping from battery to battery for annual maintenance. 50 Amp is the sweet spot if you're a home user like me and don't mind the extra cash.

@Noobz347, it's been so long since I've used my old Craftsman "big" charger, and I generally keep a Battery Tender on my four vehicles that I've not dealt with a totally dead battery in a long, long time. After looking at battery charges with the "desulfator" capability, I don't know if I want to do that now.

Bill

 

[AeroCoupe]

My 30A battery charger has dust on it but I still have one for just in case but all I use is the tender. If you just have to have the best then here you go:

https://www.optimabatteries.com/products/chargers/?gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwxaanBhBQEiwA84TVXBS03DvtIAJj0l21Iep9Kz1EpO7x8yxYktkrsV5O3NJJetp6Z_U1KxoCyacQAvD_BwE

 

[1hot87gt]

I bought one of those a few years back for my Dad and it was $200. I see it's $260 now. I ended up buying a Schumacher charger with most of the capabilities of that charger including the desulfurization but without that crazy price tag. It was about $100 on Amazon. Finally got it late yesterday. Hooked it up this morning. It's currently charging reading 23% complete. Have it set to AGM and apparently all else is automatic. We will see. Hope this battery comes back. I don't want to have to drop $300 on another one.

 

[AeroCoupe]

I saw that charger when so was looking into this type of charger. I would think it would work so hopefully it does the trick.

 

[1hot87gt]

Well, just got back from a day out with the family and it's at 58%. Seems like it's taking a long time, but I don't know what it's doing behind the scene like the desulfurization process, etc. It's not throwing any codes like something is wrong, and it hasn't burnt my house down, so that's a plus. Fingers crossed.

 

[AeroCoupe]

The last one I recovered took over 24 hours.

 

[1hot87gt]

Well, the long and short of it. Battery was replaced by Optima under warranty. It was only 2 years old and they offer a three year free replacement. Even when the battery reached 100% charge, it wasn't right. It was getting hot, making an occasional cracking noise, and the electric fan did not sound right. Even the top looked to be slightly lifted on one side. Didn't trust it anymore. Think it was bad. Maybe 12volts but the amps not right? Idk. But the new one resolved the fan issue. Sounds strong again like I always remembered it.

 

[limp]

Well, the long and short of it. Battery was replaced by Optima under warranty. It was only 2 years old and they offer a three year free replacement. Even when the battery reached 100% charge, it wasn't right. It was getting hot, making an occasional cracking noise, and the electric fan did not sound right. Even the top looked to be slightly lifted on one side. Didn't trust it anymore. Think it was bad. Maybe 12volts but the amps not right? Idk. But the new one resolved the fan issue. Sounds strong again like I always remembered it.

Sounds like the Optima warranty came through for you...
My experience with battery warranties always seemed to end up with me getting back 53 cents.......

 

[1hot87gt]

Sounds like the Optima warranty came through for you...
My experience with battery warranties always seemed to end up with me getting back 53 cents.......

Lmfao