Newest "best" battery

[Kurt in NJ]

My Optima died, went to move the car yesterday to fix the garage door hinge ---totally dead, so I took the battery from my generator tester, it's my newest best battery (it's best because it was free and it starts the car), I also found that the optima was older than I thought, may of 97 is when I bought it, didn't quite make 16 years, 2 weeks ago I went out for a drive, it cranked a little slower than usual, that was the only warning, but I have been expecting the day it wouldn't work--I knew it couldn't last forever.

My newest battery came from a Mercedes that had a fire, the car had a flat, when the spare was put on everything was thrown into the trunk, the cover was missing over the battery, the jack shifted and shorted, burned the + post off (2500$ to fix)

[luckyal]

I would say at 15+ years, your Optima owes you absolutely nothing. Less than 10 dollars a year !
Al

[Bruce Adams]

Its interesting that if an Optima Battery goes stone dead, say from leaving the lights on for a week, you can't just hook it to a normal charger to bring it back to life.
There is some process like putting it in parallel with another good battery and charging them both, or like that.
if it happens I will google Optima to obtain the particulars.

[Big John]

group 1 ... 6 volt battery at tractor supply .... for about $60.00

[P.S.]

Hey, that's not bad at all. Excellent!

Actually, the slow cranking 2 weeks ago probably wasn't the first warning it gave you. The ammeter probably showed more charging than usual, and for a longer period of time than a healthy battery.

But still, a month shy of 16 years? Nice!! That's $7.19 per year at Amazon.com's current price for a new one.

[luckyal]

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I personally found the tractor supply ( TSC ) batteries to have a short life. I had 2 and they each lasted less than 3 years so even though cheaper, in my opinion, no deal !
Al

[Christoph]

Kurt

Your new battery is a million....

I allways wondered if it works out to "tune" a 12 V Battery...
(just in case being on tour and having a dead 6 Volt)

You proved perfect - Thank you

I just bought a new Optima so i will start to wonder
about batteries in 16 Years again...

[oliverguy]

I have not had good luck with tractor supply batteries, for equipment that only gets used periodically. I switched to deka. I'm lucky that I live near the plant and can buy seconds.

[Franchise_24]

I've gotten my batteries from my local Napa store and have had great success.

[spdway1]

I have been in the automotive and towing business (nine trucks) for 23 years, Interstate Battery is my choice.