Optima Yellow Top 75ah or Fullriver AGM 105ah

[user 12270]

G'day All, Would love to know everyone's opinion on the above batteries for a second battery setup.

I've set up a poll too. I'm sure others would be interested.

 

[Boosted]

I've got 2 yellow tops and a red top in my ute. They are an awesome battery just make sure you keep the charge up to them other wise they can fail. I also use them in all of our generators at work. If a single yellow top and start a 16L V10 diesel they must be doing something right

 

[Old.Tony]

FullRiver are being used widely in the Australian caravan industry. Not sure if that's a marketing thing or a reliability thing - traditionally the two rarely mix (look at Windows - hardly reliable, brilliantly marketed = worldwide domination).

However, they're AGM batteries which puts them ahead of gel batteries. Being near-fully sealed (they do have pressure relief valves), you can dunk them with confidence and should never have to maintain them.

The Optima yellow-tops are near-military grade spiral-wound batteries. They are very sturdy so if ruggedness is needed it's a good choice. How rugged do you need, though? With an un-sprung camper trailer bouncing around the forest trails the Optima would be better but you can belt the crap out of the FullRiver batteries and they'll continue just as well.

Maybe you could look at the $ per Ah, and the longevity - the Optima D31A is only 75Ah (you can safely use 60Ah). The FullRiver is 105Ah - you can safely use 84Ah.

I've got an Optima D31A - great battery - but my next one will probably be a FullRiver for the increased capacity.

 

[mike1303]

i have 2 century AGM in the back of my truck

 

[user 12270]

Thanks guys, a Mate and I are finding it hard to decide, he said that Optimas can be left for ages before charging up for a trip again, he is leaning towards the Optimas for the name. I am leaning towards the Fullriver for cost and the good words i've read and heard about them.

I spoke with Optima today who said "they are 75ah though are as good as a chinese 100ah as they can be run flat" This was a salesman and 99% of salesman spin crap to sell their product so not sure if I can trust a salesman.

 

[Old.Tony]

Good - don't trust that. Any battery run to below 20% of its capacity will suffer some permanent damage. In fact, they start to do it at anywhere below 100% charge, but the quite minimal effect gets worse and worse and by 50% charge it's not doing the battery any favours at all. Deep cycle batteries just weather the hurt longer - and while the Optima is a very rugged battery, unless you need something that can serve as a cranker as well (the D31A can dump 900CCA - more than the starter under your bonnet!) the advantage is in the FullRiver for $ per Ah over the battery's lifespan.

 

[robmacca]

I was told that the lead that is used in the optima is a more pure based lead whereas in other batteries, there is more impurities. Add to this on how they are designed, this is why they can perform as good or if not better than your normal designed batteries. On the Optima website, they claim u can use a 100% of the capacity, they still claim also that 100% flat battery is at 10.5v or there abouts. Not sure what all that means in the end but it was described to me that u are more likely to be able to pull more of a constant load out it right up to the end where as the others ability slowly decreases in performance as it gets down in volts......

That's the way it was explained to me but I have not seen this in action to know whether its correct or not...... Would imagine if u did a google that u would get some good info to help u in making your decision.

 

[Old.Tony]

I've actually dragged my Optima battery down below 11V and the fridge gives up, turns off and waits before trying again. The battery doesn't seem the worse for it - it still provides what seems to be all of its power.

The problem for us is that we simply cannot let the battery get that low. I'm sure there are other devices that are voltage-sensitive too - and 10.5V is well below that threshold.

If the battery has more pure lead in the plates - and I wouldn't dispute that - it makes for a very sturdy battery (to which I can attest, mine is). I still would consider $ per Ah though - because sometimes we have to live within a budget that just doesn't stretch that far.

 

[user 12270]

Thanks for your help guys, I did got the 105ah Fullriver which I got for 330 from R&J Batteries, it was the one that they recommend and they stock Optima. My mate ended up getting a Optima Yellow Top 75 for cost price of 333. I guess we'll see how they go.

 

[sparra04]

i run 2 optimas as aux batteries
you get what you pay for

 

[RustyNav09]

Sparra04 has it spot on. You get what you pay for I purchased a SSB Dry Fit deep cycle AGM and have had no trouble even charging it back from 9.8v which is dead using the ctek unit d250s. It has been faultless for 2+ years now. Looking at putting a smaller 50ah unit behind the seat just incase I run flat again and also the extra accessories.

Rusty