When I bought the AGM batteries for my boat, I looked at the Optima's
but the battery shop told me they were identical inside to the much
cheaper ones I bought. I figured they were just fancy packaging and
hype.

Recently, while pondering a friend's charging problems, I thought back
to what Larry has posted about AGM's suffering from the lack of
electrolyte circulation to help cool them. This makes me wonder if
the Optima's case that wraps closely around each cell is more than
just styling. The increased surface area and getting the case closer
to the cell bundles should promote better cooling. The question is
whether the difference is significant in the real world. I'm sure it
still wouldn't bring them close to wet cells in cooling effeciency but
it might help.

This is what they look like in case you wonder what I'm talking about:

http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/

--

Roger Long

Roger Long wrote:
When I bought the AGM batteries for my boat, I looked at the Optima's
but the battery shop told me they were identical inside to the much
cheaper ones I bought. I figured they were just fancy packaging and
hype.

Recently, while pondering a friend's charging problems, I thought back
to what Larry has posted about AGM's suffering from the lack of
electrolyte circulation to help cool them. This makes me wonder if
the Optima's case that wraps closely around each cell is more than
just styling. The increased surface area and getting the case closer
to the cell bundles should promote better cooling. The question is
whether the difference is significant in the real world. I'm sure it
still wouldn't bring them close to wet cells in cooling effeciency but
it might help.

This is what they look like in case you wonder what I'm talking about:

http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/

I replaced my starting batteries with Optima's, bought at discount
from the Pep Boys for about $100. I'm not sure where I could have
gotten them much cheaper. Given the low charging current (they're fed
by a EchoCharge that's only going to put out a few Amps most of the
time) I don't think overheating is a problem. Since these batteries
are tucked out of the way, I appreciate the zero maintenance and low
self discharge.

My house bank is Trojan T-105's - the most bang for the buck.

The one in the stepvan, a red Optima, sure got hot when it shorted out
inside, but amazingly didn't explode. It was a bad battery and was
replaced. The Air Force put these batteries in the stepvan before they
sold it on the market. I'd never buy one, myself.

By the way, the two red Optimas are paralleled to crank the 6.2L diesel
V-8 by GM. I have a marine ON-OFF 350A simple switch that connects the +
terminal of my L16H twin house battery beasts, in series of course, to
the Optimas' + terminals before I shove off to work in the mornings. The
switch is on the sidewall under the driver's left knee plumbed in with #0
welding cable. Unless I'm going to stop and operate the shop off the KW
inverter for long periods of time, all the various batteries stay in
parallel, charging off the one 80A alternator on the diesel when it's
driving down the road. This setup has worked fine for several years. So
much for the bull**** about paralleling wetcells with AGMs or Gelcells
for charging. It worked most all day that way, today. Noone died, no
animals were destroyed...(c;

In the organ monster....
A little 47uF, 25V tantalum electrolytic in series with the pedal audio
filters made a terrible rumbling noise in the big 15" woofer in a Leslie
speaker cabinet, leaking like a sieve. Took me nearly an hour to track
it down! Someone else had given up trying to fix it in Orlando....(c; I
love it when I fix a real dog...(c;

The people in the back row of the church can sleep more peacefully next
Sunday....



"Roger Long" wrote in news:ILxkg.45773$8G3.349
@twister.nyroc.rr.com:

When I bought the AGM batteries for my boat, I looked at the Optima's
but the battery shop told me they were identical inside to the much
cheaper ones I bought. I figured they were just fancy packaging and
hype.

Recently, while pondering a friend's charging problems, I thought back
to what Larry has posted about AGM's suffering from the lack of
electrolyte circulation to help cool them. This makes me wonder if
the Optima's case that wraps closely around each cell is more than
just styling. The increased surface area and getting the case closer
to the cell bundles should promote better cooling. The question is
whether the difference is significant in the real world. I'm sure it
still wouldn't bring them close to wet cells in cooling effeciency but
it might help.

This is what they look like in case you wonder what I'm talking about:

http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/