[Vwdiesel] Speaking of Batteries

[pmdolan at sasktel.net]

In my exerience, Optima batteries have been a disaster.  They were bit 
talk in the Ford PSD community several years ago, and I bought a pair, 
as did many others.  They did not deliver any better performance than 
the original flooded cell batteries, cost a lot more, and did not last 
very long at all (actually shortest life of ANY I have used).  I also 
had 3 Orbitals in aux/winch position on my F450, and they were no great 
shakes. 

If you want really good batteries, you can buy AGMs from quite a number 
of suppliers now.  I paid far too much at Napa for the one in our 
MkIV, but we have bought several from West Penn for Ford 7.3, Dodge 5.9 
& 6.7, Miata, etc. and they have all been very good.  It has only got 
down to -37 this winter, and so far no battery issues with AGMs. 

HOWEVER:  you are dead on regarding chargers.  You can NOT use an 
old, low buck, analogue charger on your AGM batteries - either for big 
charge or as battery tender.  You definitely need the new generation 
of "smart chargers".  When I counted up the cost of all of the AGMs I 
have around here, I ran out and spent about $600 on one large 
charge/boost, one small charge/boost and a tender for them. 

On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:44:31 -0800, William J Toensing 
<toensing at wildblue.net> wrote:
If you have a vehicle that sits around a lot, use one of these battery 
tenders & a top of the line battery. I have not had a good experience 
with one Optima Battery I have as I couldn't charge it with a regular 
battery charger or a battery tender float charger. I have stayed away 
from the Optima as they cost well over $100 at Costco & Sam's Club, 
double the price of an ordinary battery. In my motor home I got 12 
years out of two lead acid 12 V industrial type batteries using a 
battery tender to keep the batteries at their full float charge. Maybe 
I have bad luck with one bad Optima battery & I have never bought one 
new. Would like to hear from the rest of you on how well Optima 
batteries have served you, how long they last, etc. 
> It would be nice if all of you would say what part of the world you 
> live in. I know Will lives in Alaska. Some of the problems & 
> solutions are climate related. Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA 
> _______________________________________________
> Vwdiesel mailing list
> Vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/vwdiesel
>
>