Hi Nick, I'm sorry to hear about the problems you've been having with your battery and I'd like to help. Do you recall the voltage of your battery when you put it into storage in October and what it was when you re-installed it in January or the voltage of the battery now? If you can fully-charge (approximately 12.6-12.8 volts) and disconnect your RedTop from your vehicle, it should be able to hold close to that voltage for 12-24 hours. If it can hold voltage when disconnected from your vehicle, but drops voltage when connected, you may have a parasitic draw that is discharging your battery.
One of the reasons your grandpa's old classic cars may not discharge batteries, is because they are probably fairly simple from an electrical standpoint. Newer vehicles tend to have higher parasitic draws and will discharge any battery at a faster rate than a vehicle from the 50s or 60s.
Dan, anytime your battery is deeply-discharged to the point where it needs to be jump-started, it is a good idea to fully-charge the battery with a battery charger as soon as possible. Most alternators are designed to maintain batteries, not recharge deeply-discharged batteries. Asking an alternator to perform that task can lead to a series of dead batteries and jump-starts, until either your battery or alternator fails. Add an underdrive pulley to the mix and this problem can get worse in a hurry.
You are correct that vehicles that see regular use tend to have fewer battery-related issues, regardless of brand. Proper voltage maintenance is the key to long battery life, regardless of brand. When any battery is discharged below 12.4 volts and allowed to sit in that state, sulfation will begin to diminish both capacity and lifespan. That makes a quality battery tender or maintainer an excellent investment for any vehicle that doesn't see regular use. Even though you've tucked that RedTop underneath your workbench, it may be worth charging and checking, to see if it still has some life left in it. I know more than a few people (myself included), who are driving around everyday with
“dead” Optima batteries under the hood.
Many of the “dead” batteries returned to us now are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly-recharged. Unfortunately, many battery chargers will not recognize or charge any battery that has been discharged below a minimum voltage threshold (usually around 10.5 volts). This is a charger-specific issue and not unique to Optima. In fact, other manufacturers have dealt with this issue by simply voiding the warranty on batteries discharged below a specific voltage level. We haven't done that, but we did create
this YouTube video, which explains how to recover these batteries.
Since Husky44 mentioned the “g” word, I should also clarify that Optima batteries are not “gel” batteries, but absorbed glass mat (AGM) lead-acid batteries in a SpiralCell design. Gel batteries have very specific charging requirements are not typically found in automotive applications. Additionally, charging a non-gel battery on a “gel” or even “gel/AGM” setting may not fully-charge the non-gel battery and could damage it over time. If anyone has any questions about our batteries, I'll do my best to answer them.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
