Dead Optima Battery.. what?

[syn-]

ok, so I am being labeled the optima killer. I love the yellow top, though not sure my system or quite possibly my 97 sport like it. I recently had to buy another one (I have killed 3 in less that 4 yrs). the first one took 7 months of straight cranking (project car woes). Anyways I run a 4g wire to 2k watt mono d amp. It powers 4 12" subs. I did have the gain all the way up, but I was blowing 80amp fuses left and right so I dropped it down. After I did that the battery gauge didn't move so much. Then recently (about 3 or 4 days ago) I noticed it was dropping the bass hits (not every song). Paid no attention to it till I went to get lunch yesterday and jumped in the truck to find it was dead. so dead that I even tried jump starting the battery for 20 min. Took it to advanced auto, they tested it and it was bad (wouldn't hold charge and pretty much started to stink). anyone care to shed some light on what my problem could be? (keep in mind that I bought this battery 2yrs to the date, as of today).

 

[Rick]

Have you checked to see if your battery is being fully charged after your run the vehicle? Maybe the alternator can't keep up with the system you're running?

 

[Tbars4]

...What alternator are you running???...Stock 95 amp???...:scratch:

...I think Rick nailed your problem...I would also re-check all your wiring for the stereo as you may not have only blown fuses, you might have melted some jackets that are now shorting...

 

[syn-]

yea its the stock 95amp. checked wiring, everything is ok.

 

[Rick]

How about my question about checking battery voltage after parking it?? The engine will start with voltage in the 10s, but the battery doesn't like that kind of abuse for too long...

 

[mattadams]

I personally don't put much stock in Optima batteries, I went through them like they were candy on both my old explorer and my f-150. I found if I let it sit more then a week at a time it would be completely dead, even though the only electrical draw I could find was the LED blinking for the alarm and obviously the things that are always on like alarm monitoring, etc. but all the lights and other electrical accessories were wired so they could only come on when the vehicle was started, and shouldn't have even been drawing a current to the switch. In my F-150 I had two optimas installed, one with an isolator so I could switch to it to "jump start" the first if it went dead, but found that even isolated, the second battery would die if it wasn't used for a week or two.

 

[Rick]

Interesting... I have had an Optima last up to 7 years in my Explorer in a dual battery configuration. The only one I killed outright, I let get down to like 5 volts a few times. That happened because, unlike Matt, I had a ton of LEDs drawing power when the vehicle was off.

I guess they have a problem with consistency. Some last "forever", and some have problems. The worst problem I've ever seen with an Optima, was when Ray Hutchinson's started to vent a vaporized acid Optima told him it was because his alternator was overcharging, but Ray is an electronics geek and said the alt was fine. It never gave him problems before, or after that Optima self destructed

 

[BlackedOutEXPO99]

yea i hate yellow top my ex sport has nothing drawing while off and it is dead if you dont start it within 36 hours. Optima denies that the battery is bad i had all electrical checked and all optima did was tell me to take it to get charged for 12 hours and it worked great for a week and then it started dying again, also i had it longer than a year so no free replacement for me. Powermaster makes a great battery but at $300+ its going to be a little bit before i convert. in the mean time i will just start my ex randomly throughout the day to make sure it stays charged