newracer previously posted:
"I hope you got a good Optima, they have been hit and miss since moving production"
I bought one of the original Optima Red Tops in the early 80's and it lasted over 10 years in my CJ7. That was when Gates here in CO was the manufacturer. Gylling a Swedish company also in CO purchased Optima in the early 90s. Finally Johnson Controls purchased Optima in 2000. Johnson Controls, also manufacturer of Interstate Batteries, moved manufacturing plants off shore (not sure date). East Penn manufactures Deka. NAPA, and AAA batteries. East Penn is the last of the major battery companies producing batteries in the US. Johnson Controls was recently purchased by Clarios and the other major battery company Exide has filed for Chapter 11. I had the opportunity to talk to a battery engineer a few years back and he said the Optima 6 pack was a clever design but in his opinion had more to do with marketing than battery performance as the voids between the coiled cells were wasted space as compared to the stacked plates in for instance an Odyssey battery. IMHO, next time I need a battery I will be looking at AGMs manufactured by East Penn and Enersys (Odyssey/Northstar). BTW there is a currently a world wide shortage of automotive batteries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One more note, I have been using Deltran battery tenders for years on my Jeeps, boats, RVs. The tender significantly extends the life of batteries that sit for any period of time.