That's what I like in mine but be sure to get a marine STARTING battery and not a deep cycle.

A deep cycle battery is not meant to tolerate high current for short periods of time like a starter motor would draw, but rather a moderate discharge over time like a trolling motor would do. It is however made to discharge quite a bit and be okay when you recharge it again.

A starting battery is the opposite. It's made to supply the high inrush current of a starter motor but won't tolerate being repeatedly drawn down and recharged again.

Now that being said this is just advice that I hear often. My personal experience is that I had a deep cycle in my Ranger for a couple years and it was fine.

 

It sounds like you have a draw on the system if you went thru 3 batteries in less than 12 months

 

OPTIMA battery RedTop!! It'll run around $200 but well worth it. Comes with a 3 year warranty from AutoZone. Ive had my stereo On for a couple hours! Without starting the truck. And fired up like nothing when I left where I was. Starts every time.

 

My Optima Red is about to turn 10.

From Summit, was well under $200

 

10 year old optimas aren't the same as the new ones. I want to say about 5 years ago they shifted production to another facility in Mexico and they're just not the same. I'd avoid them, personally.

All I do for battery shopping is shop by cost first then warranty. I haven't bought one in a couple years now, but unfortunately the Walmart batteries always used to come up on top for me, and never gave me any problems.

Also, there are different batteries for different regions. The CCA ratings here in CA suck compared to what I could get in WI.

 

Had good luck with motorcraft or deka batteries. Long lasting & plenty of cranking power.

 

My understanding if a deep cycle battery will physically fit it should be ideal. They tend to be a lot bigger compared to an equivalent auto start battery though, is the problem. As you mentioned the reverse is not true, an auto start battery can not be used as a deep cycle it will get smoked in just a few heavy discharges. The high CCA is met by more plates/surface area, but they are real thin.

 

I've installed 2 others in other vehicles & when this one is replaced (it sat out for 5 months & tested at one needles width into the "Weak" division on my load tester"), I'll go for another.

Optima (as a high visibility tech company) isn't going to let any sort of bad QA issues go for any length of time just to save a few pennies. If there was any sort of issues reported either internally or out, I feel sure it was corrected.

 

I put Red tops in my daily drivers and yellow tops in my toys and have never had a single issue. Long lasting and dependable.

 

Well, I went through 2 AGM's in 3 years on the Orange one. First was a Canadian Tire one, and the Second was a Excide.

Maybe used the damn thing a total of 200km.

Think a yellow top would be better suited for my "Toy"?

 

The yellows seem to hold up better to long periods of being parked.

 

Excellent, guess I know what's next

 

My $200 optima died just after the warranty was up. Big waste of money!

 

As previously stated there are really only three manufacturers of batteries-Johnson Controls, Exide, and Deka. JC is by far the largest, manufacturing batteries for interstate, optima, everstart, diehard, duralast, autocraft, and other smaller names. Deka makes many of Carquest and Napas batteries, and Exide makes their own brand plus some Napa (napa may have transitioned completely to deka by now).

Optima, as others have stated are definitely not the same batteries quality wise that they were a decade ago. They have been mediocre at best since being acquired by JC and I personally wouldnt spare the extra $$ for them. If you like AGM batteries, any of the "platinum" grade batteries that have AGM technology are as good if not better than an Optima. Plus, since they are flat plate instead of spiral, they actually fit your battery tray without special adapters.

Be aware that many AGM batteries have less CCAs than a premium flooded acid battery by virtue of design. It is only a number, though, and AGMs definitely have the advantage of never leaking and typically last longer. But no battery is going to last with a poor charging system and dirty connections.

 

Oh, and if you are the gambling type, buy an Odyssey battery. A handful of them are amazing and last forever, but many of them die very prematurely and their warranty customer service is some of the worst Ive ever seen. I have yet to see Odyssey actually accept fault and replace a customers battery.