How good are batteries like Optima ?

[jjager2385]

I’ve wanted to get a new battery recently and was told that optima batteries ($150.00) do fairly well, that they tend to last longer than 3 years, I have heard that they last about 7-8 years. Is there any truth to this? I have also found another company finally making the same kind of batteries as Optima but at a cheaper price called "Exide select Orbital" sells for $120.00, has anyone heard of this brand?

Interesting part about all this is both come with a 3 years warranty.
Thanks in advance.

[justen]

They seem like a good battery so far, There isn't alot of battery manufactures in the usa, (I think there is 3 in usa) so exide makes batteries for everstart, ac delco, dura-start, exide, autolite, autocraft and a few more. Optima, I'm not sure who is the source manufacture. But I bet the exide one would be just as good as any other. My optima battery is almost 4 years old, no trouble so far.

[dougbfresh]

Got one in the Vette but I keep smart charger on it and the bike. Seems Ok so far but only time will tell. The stock battery in the C5 was prone to leak, and it's right ABOVE a mess of wiring harnesses AND the main computer so many C5 owners changed to these type of batteries before a calamity happened.

[Porcupine]

Interstate Batteries are supposed to be good, but I've never had one so don't know for real. Ford or not, I always liked the Delco batteries more specifically the Delco light industrial

[justen]

Who makes motorcraft batteries?

[Porcupine]

Motocraft is Ford, but who makes them I have no clue. I'll bet they're like other manufacturers where they might be tendered out. By the specs and bulk best price. Just a guess

[duffy]

DEKA battery (made right here outside the Kutztown, Pa area)

10+ years ago, Exide came to Grandview speedway with their version
of a "damp cell" spiral wound similar to the Optima, and distributed them
to the racers for free... you just had to evaluate the performance. We had been going thru a lot of batteries due to the abusive nature of dirt track racing. The Exide performed flawlessly for quite a while (over 2 years), then the race car owner borrowed it to install in his Chevy van... The darn thing is probably still there.

[Gearhead52]

The Optima or any spiral wound cell type battery are a rough duty battery. Because they are a gel type and resist vibration they can get truned upside down and short of getting the battery case in a pinch and breaking it, the battery will last 3 or more years in a rough enviorment.

Now if your battery will experience this kind of use/abuse then this is your type of battery and $150 is a good price.

My truck is the only one that comes close to that but it's factory battery that is 5 years old will get a similar replacement, most likely for less that $150.

Surprisingly enough Consumer Reports rated the Duralast- Autozone battery very high. Remember it's based on longevity with price, it's up to you to buy the right size.

[Porcupine]

I recall the EXIDE as being the very top of the line back in the 60s & 70s. If you knew a person that had an EXIDE back then , you could rest assure that anything else, under the hood was top of the line. They weren't that cheap either.

I have 5 gels in the back of my work truck, gels mostly due to safety regs. The brand I have, Dynasty, is common in the industry for standby power supplies, 3 wired in series and then transformed into a quasi-square wave output for our actives or fiber nodes, further down stream.

I use the 5 for my power source for all my RF toys in the truck (I like my reserve). Trying to maintain a float voltage is another task. Of course all mine are hooked up in parrallel.

Our standby power supplies usually get all 3 of their batteries replaced every two years. 1 of the 3 might be below spec, but the other two will be fine. They'll repalce all 3 as a matched set. When working in series they have to be matched. When working in parrallel it's not as crtical. Of course I salvage the good ones and I'm all set for another 2 years. I have a new set coming in Feb/07. I usually run 3 but tried 5 this time. I think I'll retrun to 3 with the next batch.

[duffy]

Originally Posted by Porcupine

3 wired in series and then transformed into a quasi-square wave output for our actives or fiber nodes, further down stream.

Huh ? ? ? I'm lost ! ! ! Quasi-what ? ? ?

[Porcupine]

Originally Posted by duffy

Huh ? ? ? I'm lost ! ! ! Quasi-what ? ? ?

If you ever look up on some of the telephone or power poles you may see the ocassional ALPHA grey box. These are standby power supplies. If your local power goes out, then the standby provides power to the immediate area and more importantly to feed down stream.

Since most AC power in 110VAC or 120VAC then the standby powering needs to be brought back in case of outage. The 36VDC series batteries can create 90VAC via an AC inverter of sorts. Obviously, it's more of an inverter than we buy for our camping trips 90 VAC is the minimum that the RF. Since digital is a square wave, rather than the anologue being the graduated gray area. Our inverters are not 100% square wave because the conversion can't complete the process to 100%. So, they're called quasi-square-wave. Quasi referring to partial or not 100%. There's more to it than that, some of the details beyond me because it's not my area of expertise, but those are the basics.

If you look at the graph and see the bottom portion, you'll see where it's not a true square wave, you'll see some anologue in the cycle, hence QUASI
http://ece-www.colorado.edu/~ecen581...s/QSW/qsw.html

Remember, we get most of our power directly from the local utilities. But if THIER power goes out, then ours kicks in. A standby is good for roughly 4 hours, then it recharges when the power comes back on. 95% of our fleet have AC inverters so during times of major outages we can plan trucks in strategic areas, usually fiber nodes.

If you have a UPS at home or a standby generator at home and the power goes out, you should still get cable, Internet and VoIP. I only have a small UPS but getting a 1KW UPS soon.

[danny]

Originally Posted by duffy

Huh ? ? ? I'm lost ! ! ! Quasi-what ? ? ?

you know quasi-moto? i think he just copied the name wrong-lol-

[justen]

Originally Posted by danny

you know quasi-moto? i think he just copied the name wrong-lol-

LOL, thats intresting didn't know they had backup systems like that. Our hospital probably has some sort of setup like that.

[Porcupine]

Originally Posted by justen

LOL, thats intresting didn't know they had backup systems like that. Our hospital probably has some sort of setup like that.

That's a good point Justen. Our main office for Ontario has a Caterpillar V12 Hospital type generator. I can't remember the KW right now. They test run it once a month. What a cool sounding machine. We also have two other locations throughout the building with massive battery packs, all gels. That provides instant power until the main generator comes online and is in sync. Usually a second or two. The millions that we put into just standby powering is an eyeopener.
All our smaller offices had smaller back up generators of various KW ratings.
You must remember that in our industry that cable only plays a small part. It's the Internet and VoIP that requires 24hour back up. The priority for Internet would be online instant trading as well as other things.

They kick in with seamless interruption. All our offices are equipped with GPS so to syncronize the EXACT time across Ontario. That's mostly done for equipment syncronization.

I know your hospitals have similar system, for surgery and other life providing systems for patients. I'll bet if you talked to your maintence crew, you'd be surpised what you have.

[Porcupine]

Originally Posted by danny

you know quasi-moto? i think he just copied the name wrong-lol-

two words...
Good grief