I've noticed my rather new NAPA battery only holding 11v with the engine off. 14.3v running but drops right off when you turn it off. I expedted 12.1v

Anyone have problems with this type of batter?

 

I'm running an Optima RedTop that's about 5 years old. After it's been sitting in my hi-boy with the alarm armed for about a month, it still reads 12.2 V. One big selling point of the spiral cells is that they don't lose charge while sitting as badly as the lead/acids do. So it sounds like you have a battery problem, or a "leak" somewhere? Does it ever get below the 11 volts, or just settle in at that level? Guess I'd be putting an ammeter in-line with the battery cable to see if there is some parasitic draw occuring, and if not, back to NAPA to discuss a replacement. Good Luck. Steve

 

How and where do you measure voltage?

I always do it on the post with a sharp probe that can pierce the oxide layer and can quarantee a good metal-to-metal contact, else, or elsewhere the measurement could very well be erroneous.