OK, I tried to do some homework with the search engine, and haven't come up with much.
It looks like my Optima Yellow Top may be going. It won't hold a charge for very long. Still charges back up though. So I may be looking to replace it very soon.

I see that many peeps have replaced their Yellow Top with a Red Top. What other choices are there for similar quality batteries? Stinger maybe? The battery should have a low resistance for audio. (For starting, it wouldn't care, it would just take a bit longer to ramp up the current.)

Anyone use this type (Stinger):
http://www.cardomain.com/item/STISPV44

 

You'll never find another one, but if we still lived in the early 90's you would be able to go out and buy an SPL2000 made by U.S. Amps.

2000 amps be enough for you?

 

I'd look at Hawker Odyssey batteries. I've had one in a Honda Accord with about 2kwrms worth of amplifier power and on the stock alternator had no problems, or dimming or major voltage drop during normal driving . I'm currently using it in the Aristo and the battery lasts for a whole month before I need to start the car, as opposed to a standard off the shelf "heavy duty" battery which only lasts about a week and a half before it dies when the car hasn't been started/driven. Very good batteries, and are pretty small too compared to the power they provide.

 

My friend's Stinger (that model you put up) would also not hold its charge.

I have used an Optima Red Top without problem, going on almost 2 years.

I have to agree the Odysseys are excellent batteries and some versions are quite lightweight.

Exide is another group that a lot of my friends use down here.

 

Good one. I did some research. Apparently Hawker & Odyssey are owned by EnerSys now. So it's an EnerSys Odyssey. Looks like a great AGM battery, one up on Optima. 34/78 size sells for $190 on web.
Thanks for the info! It'll be either a Red Top or an Odyssey PC1500 34/78.

Jerry

 

Thanks Mex, you've saved me from being "stung".
Had bad experiences with Exide as well. Good battery until you let it discharge once too often, then it's a doorstop.

 

Anybody have problems discharging/recharging Red Tops? I'm beginnning to think Optima is full of it, since the Yellow doesn't seem too great, maybe the Red is just as good if not better?

 

I have a Red Top but I try not to discharge it like a deep cycle battery. I think either Richard Clark or Dave Navone did a test on them and it showed that the Red Top is no different than any other starting battery where if you fully discharge it it can only recover maybe 2 times before the battery is no longer able to hold a full charge. The Yellow Top tested to be slightly better, but neither act like deep cycle batteries where you can discharge and recharge many times with no problems. Basically for me, I treat the Red and Yellow as typical starting batteries and don't expect them to deep cycle. The only Optima that can really discharge and recharge is the Blue Top with is really a deep cycle battery.

 

ive got a dead optima now and a dead Lightning Audio. The lightning was dropped and had a corner crushed in....prolly had sumthin to do with it not working now

 

Had a red top for about 7 years before it finally died. (or did it really die?) Bought another red top, had starting problems and Lexus replaced the alternator. Still probs. Then they blamed it on the starter but I didn't want to replace it...gut feeling. Decided to check the battery terminals and they were corroded on the inside. Took a dremel with the abrasive cone tip and then removed the corrosion down to bare copper. STARTS GREAT and runs great.

Very surprised the Lexus tech missed it. Also surprised that one of the techs blamed the starting issues on the battery "being overrated for the alternator...which caused the alternator to fail." Absolute BS.

You can pick up a red top for about 130 bucks at autozone. There's another shop around here, Car Boutique, that wanted close to 300 for the same battery! But then CB is always overhyped and overpriced anyways.

Percy

 

Optima isn't what they use to be. Many people are having problems with the yellow top holding charges (especially the guys on the s2k forum). I doubt any "deep cycle" batter you can get around here can really do deep cycling without damage. I think it has to do with quality control when optima changed parent company back in 2000 or so.

The only ones I know that are able to deep cycle all day are the ones found in industrial equipments, like forklifts. Not sure if anyone wants a big huge battery in their trunk

With that said, oddysey batteries are what I would run if I needed juice.

 

I bought both my Red Tops from Costco for $90 I think it was. It was either $89, or $99. Eitherway, if your local Costco has them the price can't be beat Our local Costco only had the Red Top and not the Yellow Top though.

 

I agree. I think I'd choose an Oddysey battery myself. The only reason why I go with the Optima is because of the dual posts. I run my stock battery terminals on the top posts and use the side posts for all my accessory and other power wires. Other than that, I think the Oddysey batteries are better especially for weight.

 

Go Odeyssey, the size is small, the weight is pretty good, and it's one hell of a tough battery - as you can imagine 2kw of class a/b power is a helluva lot (about 220amps at the least after factoring in amplifier efficiencies), and having a 65amp alternator and a alarm overnight (sometimes a week with no starts) would be pretty demanding on the battery. Was never let down and recommend them to anybody/everybody...it's embarassing when you start the Lexus up in front of your house and the starter just makes a loud "clicking" sound .

 

Update: My Yellow Top just completely died. POS. It appears to take a full charge, but it wont crank the engine, and as soon as you remove the charger, the battery voltage drops to 11.x. It is now a doorstop and earned itself a free escort to the dump in the morning. Optima is full of it. Now I see why their warranties are getting worse.
I contacted Optima to see if they had any suggestions for resurrecting it. Their response was "Sounds like you have a bad battery." No schmitt.

So I bought an ODYSSEY PC1500. Set me back $200 or so. We'll see how this holds up.