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Is an Optima battery worth it

An Optima battery is worth it if you do these four things

An Optima battery is a spiral-wound absorbed glass mat (AGM) battery. It’s sometime referred to as a gel cell battery, but it’s not (more on that below). It costs a lot more than a standard flooded lead acid battery and even more than a standard AGM battery. But an Optima battery is worth it if these four features are important to you.

It provides more power to start in cold weather

An AGM battery delivers more cold cranking amps for starting than a comparably sized SLI battery. And it usually has a higher cold cranking amp rating than a regular AGM battery.

It has a higher reserve rating than a standard battery

AGM batteries usually have a high reserve capacity and an Optima battery usually has more reserve capacity than a standard AGM, so you can run electronics for longer periods when the engine isn’t running.

It lasts longer

An AGM battery can handle more drain/recharge cycles than an SLI battery and they last longer than an SLI battery.

It has a lower self-discharge rate

An AGM battery has a lower self-discharge rate than a standard battery, so they keep hold their charge much longer.

Other Optima battery advantages

• It’s less susceptible to permanent damage from sulfation than any other battery types. Sulfation occurs when when a battery is left in a discharged state for long periods. Leaving the battery in a discharged state for long periods is never recommended, but if you do so on an Optima battery, you’ll have less chance of permanent damage.

• It’s less resistant to vibration because their cells are tightly wound which reduces plate shedding; common with SLI batteries.

• It recharges up to five times faster than SLI batteries because it has less internal resistance than SLI batteries due to its tight packing and close plate-to-electrolyte contact.

An Optima battery requires an AGM compatible charger. Look for the AGM setting on the charger.

Disadvantages of an Optima battery

• Cost— It can cost up to 300% more than an SLI battery

• Special recharging equipment — An AGM battery requires a different recharging routine, so the battery charger you use must have an AGM setting. In addition to the AGM setting, some AGM battery chargers have different settings for flat plate versus cylindrical AGM styles.

Types of Optima batteries

Red Top

Most starting power of the three types.

Yellow Top

Dual-purpose with great starting power and larger reserve capacity for running electronics with the engine off.

Blue Top

Dual-purpose but built more for marine use or applications where deep power drawdowns are required and where rapid recharging is needed.

It’s NOT a gel cell battery

People often refer to spiral-wound batteries as gel cells. That’s not true. A spiral-wound battery is just an absorbed glass mat (AGM) style battery where the lead plates are wound in a spiral.

The liquid electrolyte is poured into the battery and absorbed by the glass mat. The electrolyte is NOT a gel!

AGM battery

Cylindrical cell versus flat plate technology

©, 2020 Rick Muscoplat

Posted on by Rick Muscoplat

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