Battery Help!

[Jasonf860]

Ok, I'm looking into getting a new battery for the 3gee tomorrow. I'm seriously considering droping the $160 for an optima yellow top. Then i found Napa carries their own line called Orbital... Anyone tried these? Ok, what about Oddyessy batteries? Supposedly all similar in concept but the orbital battery looks just like the Optima, just not yellow. Any thoughts on these? Anyone ever use any of these? i know Optima batteries are great, but why spend the $ if one of the others is just as good! BTW, the NAPA batteries have higher cold cranking and longer reserve than the Optima's do...

[MessyHonda]

how much is the napa one?..i paid 75 bucks for a pepboys one...came with 60 months warranty and get a free one if it failed on the first 24 months....you only need a high end batt if you have a big stereo or lots of electronics

[jschatte]

yeah, just get a cheap one (under $100) because most of them have a 3 year warranty and there is other things you could do to your car with the extra money

[Crazybird]

lol u suckers my mom paid 150 bucks once for a battery for my car and guess what it had a lifetime warrenty

so as long as i have my car i never have to buy batteries again

[Jasonf860]

Considering i've burned 3 batteries in 5 months with all the electronics I have hooked up, I need a high end one. i'm tired of my lights dimming when I am at idle. I have a 1.5 farad cap and my lights still dim when my bass hits! I've got a local guy rewinding my alternator with a full rebuild and he is confident he can get 110 amps out of it with no problems. Even comes with a 1 year warranty. The napa battery has a 24month free replacement and an additional 3 year pro rated warranty. I'll look into the Pep boys one as well. Thanks for the input!

[Jasonf860]

No more thoughts on the matter?

[MessyHonda]

well i think it only works on the Lx-i only but here you go https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51149
it does help out if you are pushing more than 1000 watt system...i hooked up my friend alpine type Rs and my light dimed so much the car in front of us was geting pissed that he changed lanes...lol

[snoopyloopy]

i got a $30 battery from walmart. worked good so far for about the last month or so. but i wouldn't mind a yellow top.

[Jasonf860]

Pep boys was a bust. They don't stock a deep cycle/starting battery of their own brand anymore... at least not at the 2 I called. optima batteries are great but guess what I found out... Napa's battery is made in the same place as the OPtima! The Odyessy, well, too much for too little. I guess Napa it is!

[DBMaster]

Sam's carries the Optima Batteries for about the same price as I paid for my Red Top with my corporate discount - about $100. The great thing is that the battery stays perfectly clean and the even greater thing is that this battery has already outlasted any other battery the car has had since new. I am at four years and counting. The battery has a 72 month pro-rated warranty (nearly useless), but a three year free replacement. Not bad considering the majority of batteries I have had in the car lasted three years or less.

[Jasonf860]

Ok, I put the napa Orbital battery on order today. i shoul dget it tomorrow afternoon by 2:00. I'm gonna throw it on the trickle charger for a day or two and install it this Saturday. I got it for $112 out the door, tax included. Almost 1/2 the price of the yellow top Optima. This baby will flow 75 amps for 155 minutes! Just think, if our water pump was run by the timing belt, you could drive without an alternator hooked up for like 2 hours easy! It puts out more than our alternator does! I'll let you all know how it goes!

[MessyHonda]

water pump?...lol well yeah that is a decent price i guess....

[Jasonf860]

Update: been a week since my new Orbital was installed. Let me say this DON"T BUY ONE!!!!! Spill-proof my rear end! This thing leaks more than Anna Nicole Smith! Called up the Napa I purchased it from, they gave me the run around like I have no clue about cars or batteries for that matter. he pulled the ,"Well, you must be overcharging it" card. So i said," Well gee, i thought of that, but since i put the car on the voltage meter while it was running and it stayed at a steady 14.34 volts even at high speed, i highly doubt it". I also told him that according to the Exide specs on the battery, a charge rate up to 14.8 is acceptable even under constant charge. I'm headed down to the store to ream them one, so i'll post back when I get home.

[Jasonf860]

Update # 2:
got back from napa... they were good to their word and the guy i originaly bought it from was there. He was completely dumbfounded by the acid leak as they are not an "acid bath" battery. he went on to tell me that he has installed one of these exact batteries upside down in some guys trunk without leaks. So he gave me another new battery, free of course, and off i went.... Too be continued!

[DBMaster]

Well, there IS acid in these batteries, but it is in the form of an acid soaked matting material that is rolled into the six lead sheets. That's why if you look at the battery from the bottom it looks like a six pack. Maybe yours suffered from over saturation of the material. My Optima red top still looks new after four years.

[Jasonf860]

Just a quick update, i was at Napa today getting my water pump and what not and i talked to the guy i bought the battery from and subsequently returned it to. i asked him if they had sent the battery back and he told me they did. Seems they got a call from the place that checks their returned batteries. The guy said that there must have been some kind of mix-up at the factory where they made that bettery cause it was filled with the acid form a normal type battery. This was inside along with the normal "wrap" type material that DB described. He said they were surprised the battery didn't blow the top off and only vented a little. The new battery is working perfectly so far, not a drip, not an ounce of sweat.