I have had my Optima battery for about a year and a few months now and have had problems with it since day one. Granted I don't drive my car often, but I do at least let it run once a week or try to swing it around the block a few times. Still, this battery ends up being dead every time I go to start the car. I have confirmed that the charging system is in good order and there are no parasitic draws from the accessories. So it leads me to believe the battery is the culprit. I have taken it to Autozone three times because it is under warranty. They put it on their machine and say the "battery is fine, it just has a low charge" and refuse to take it back each time. The winter has been rough lately so the car hasn't been run for a month. I put it on the charger yesterday for several hours, go to try to crank it, and nothing. The lights wouldn't even come on. I took the battery out and for the heck of it, shook it, and the thing was completely frozen! I've never had that happen to me before, even with cars sitting longer then that. Long story short, I took it to another parts store, dumped it off, and picked up a new AC Delco. Every Delco battery I have ever owned has lasted me 7-8 years. I should have went with that in the first place.

 

No i havent had a battery freeze on me yet. My cars sitting in a warehouse right now, an its not heated so we'll see in the spring.

 

if a battery is dead or heavily sulfated(all the sulfer from the acid if on the plates), the acid is now mostly water

 

Well that makes sense then. Another quick question, how much of a difference would 55 cold cranking amps make? The Optima I noticed had 860CCA where as my new Delco has 915CCA.

 

not much....I have had optimas in 4 vehicles in the past 7 years and never a problem, my brother had one in his 00 silverado and it did the same thing you are descibing...autozone won't take em back b/c they don't get any credit for optimas......I don't know about the watered down thing b/c it a gel in and optima/dry cell

I would get it tested somewhere else, I have never had one problem with mine tho

 

Too late, I got rid of it as my core. From what I have gathered, they do not do well in cars that are not driven very often, which mine is not. If I were to get another Optima battery under warranty, I'm guessing I would still end up down the same road.

 

I use em in my race cars...but then again I do charge it too, just as a habbit.
I used to sell a bunch of interstete batteries, the were descent....the delcos are cheapo's not as good as the original GM's.....have not tried much besides those. I have 2 big batteries in my truck, I don't know who makes em....but they have lasted

Good luck anyway.....

 

Optimas have nothing to freeze they are material saturated in chemical and rolled into cells. There is no liquid to freeze.

I have an optima in my cherokee and it started on a morning with an outside temp of -2 F

 

I thought they were liquid free, too. Everyone says you must only trickle charge them with a charger.

 

they are still lead/acid, there is just a fiberglass mat in the acid to keep it from sloshing, they can still freeze

 

...but who ever worries about their battery freezing? I mean, it's not like you have to check the anti-freeze level. You couldn't check an Optima battery, anyway.

 

As I understand it batteries only freeze when dead . . . I still have the original Delco battery in my '98 Chevy truck and it no problems survived the -40 weather we had here earlier this month

The battery stays in my Z28 over the witner as well and I start it a few times when the weather permits and no problems with it either

 

It was pretty much a routine that anytime I would start the car, I would have to bring out the battery charger and jumper pack. The battery was always dead. I remember when I first bought the battery there were rumors tossed around that there were alot of bad batches out there and alot of returns as a result. Whether there is any truth to that, I don't know. I'm just relieved to have a car that starts on the first crank.

 

 

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