I just bought an Optima Orange Top Battery. I don't know if it is new but it is not listed on the website. The great thing aboiut this battery is the terminals are on the right side of the battery and the cables do not beed ot be stretched. Anyone ever see this battery before? I will scan pics tomorrow. I called several shops trying to compare the price of the place I bought it from to others and a few insisted that there is no such batery or it is not an Optima. Well my eyes must really need checking or this is the most "bootleg" battery I have ever seen!

Orange tops do exist but i don't remember what is different about them versus the red top, yellow top or blue top.

We sell them at work. IIRC they run about 189

Rick

If you don't mind my asking, what makes this battery better than my cheap-o discount auto parts battery? :D Thanks!

Ju§tin

The orange top Optima is buried in Optima's website. They offer a technical description, downloadable as a PDF.

http://www.optimabatteries.com/products/starter/technical.asp


Also, here's a company (with a pic) that sells 'em with an advertised price of $145.00.

http://www.absbattery.com/optimaorangetopnewproduct.htm

And, lastly, I don't know how much you are into dressing up your engine bay, but I typed in Optima Battery in an ebay search, and listed among the batteries was this: Optima Billet Battery Box

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1837041952

GS

man that billet box is nice as hell!! i think i may have found my red top a new home....

http://www.absbattery.com/images/optimaorangetoppic.jpg



What is the same with the Orange Top?
Same Rugged SPIRACELL Design.
Same Completely sealed AGM technolog.
Same extreme performance.
Same great OPTIMA performance value.

What is new with the Orange Top?
Fits most European cars
Well......it's....... Orange!

Basically it is the same great battery designed to power European Automobiles.


Look at the terminals fellas. If you turn the battery backwards it fits out cars w/o stretching the cables. SWEEET!

That's a nice battery Pretty White. You know, you can buy other batteries that come with the terminals reversed from what is typical. I like to buy ones with side and top posts on them, then I can use the other positive to power all my add on goodies. Good question Crono. For what it cost I could buy three of my battery, not to mention I could wire them in parallel and have 3000+ CCA! :) Plus about 80-100 pounds of extra weight. :( They're nice looking though, but they ought to be for $150+ :) That hold down is nice as well, why they called it a billet box I don't know, they must have billeted it all away. :)

Yes, but I still do not understand why they are better??? :confused:

same here... but my guess would be they hold more power. more reliable spark power?

They are better batteries.... some are designed to be able to last longer without charging (i.e. blasting your stereo with the car off) and IIRC some are designed to last longer in terms of providing power to start your car

Jose...

My guess is that each cell has more lead surface area exposed to the acid than typical batteries and being that it is sealed, it will never loose any fluid, reducing storage capacity.

Ok, I did some research into the benefits of these Optima batteries. Basically there are 3 main benefits from what I can tell. All the information I am summarizing here can be found at
http://www.se-r.net/about/200sx/scc/dec97/december.html (http://www.se-.net/about/200sx/scc/dec97/december.html) Just scroll down until you see the subheading Engine Compartment... This is just a summary of what Mike Kojima has already done for us....

1) The one battery mentioned in the aforementioned article has 850 cold amps w/ 125 mins of reserve power. So if you are into showing off your stereo system without the engine being on, you'll have more time to listen to it.

2) Because of the gel-type construction, the battery isn't going to spew corrosive acid of vapors in the engine compartment. Great for all of us who care what it looks like under the hood. This also means that it is less likely to spew acids in the event of an accident.

3) It's heavier! This is one of the few times heavier is better. As Mr. Kojima pointed out in his article, the manufacturers put the battery in a specific location to help as a sort of damper for the vibration from the engine. This is espeically good news for all of us who have or plan on putting in performance motor mounts, since they vibrate like a mofo!

Personally I think that right there makes it worth the money to buy one. I hope this helped someone else beside me!

I bought it because
1) It looks cool!
2)My stereo was draining the hell out of my battery. With all the accessories my voltage would go to a low 10-11V and the amps would clip.
3)DIEHARD sucks. I used to go thru them like water thru a river.
4)This Optima has the terminals in the right places. DAMN, I didn't take a pic yet. Lemme go outside with my camcorder..........

Ok, it is dark outside and this 1/2 ass camcorder does a decent job. So here goes:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid23/pf819fd5ecf3b8915eb45cafc30670785/fda207b8.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid23/p6cd486dd6af153d9ea4f1168079ebbe6/fda207b9.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid23/p8b6aecbe155ce11e1746ea68301b224f/fda207bc.jpg
This is how it looks in our cars. See the +(pos) terminal in the correct spot? Cool. And yes it is orange!