I called optima last week, had questions about a battery i bought from a friend. They were extremely helpful and thier advice helped me save my battery. It would charge, but in a day or two it would be dead. They told me to charge it on the desulfate setting on my charger and it worked out.
Have you ever dealt with thier service dept first hand? Why do you say its flaky?
I have a few Optima battery's now. My cars sit during the winter. I use a Cetek charger which they say is the "worlds smartest charger" Anyway it's a 4 stage charger and has a setting for AGM batteries like the Optima's.
I try to put it on each car once a month during the winter. I haven't had any problems with the Optima batteries since I got the charger.
My first red top failed after 7 yrs of mostly sitting and I never charged it at all. Thats when I decided to buy a "Smart" charger.