phantom mind your business. Just stated optimas are a waste of money and offered three differnt subsitutes. Get a life.

I've ran Optima's for about 12 years now. Never had a problem. They are the best I've tried. All of my boats have had 3 plus batteries. If something did go wrong I have my receipts and know the interstate batteries store here would honor the replacement. I also don't expect that batteries will last long in the marine world. I would say three years is a stretch. The Eddie Marine battery boxes look awesome with them too.

Ran two blue top 34M Optimas in my old CL. After 6 yrs of use, and sitting in storage for 2yrs they cranked my 496 right up without a charge. They went with the boat when I sold it and they are still cranking right along. Loved them!

I was running blue tops and they worked about as good as any other battery, however there customer service is horrible and I would never buy one again.

The Interstate battery store in Dallas Texas sold me four new blue top batteries that were stamped a year old when I bought them. Long story short, I was in Oklahoma for a poker run and had trouble with one of the batteries.

I pulled the batteries and had them tested at the Interstate in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My receipt for the batteries were only a couple months old when I had one go bad, the "date code" that was burned into the battery was out dated and over a year old. (although I bought the batteries new three months before) I could not get Optima or Interstate Batteries to do anything for me.

The $10 idiot at the counter didnt care a lick and the Optima customer service was even worse. I ended up at walmart buying a couple of cheap batteries to get me through the poker run. I think the Optima batteries are good but way over priced. ($200 each x 4 batteries = $800 plus some tax) And still missed half of the poker run.

So...if you buy new batteries make sure the "code" that is burned into the casing is current and you are not buying a battery that has been sitting on the shelf for ages. Sorry for the rant but the hole Optima deal was a rip-off and border line scam.

Found this today to show who makes a lot of batteries and there are really only three major manufactures. People who make optima make duralast even. Found it interesting

Delphi:
--AC-Delco
--some EverStart (WalMart)

Excide:
--Champion
--Excide
--Napa
--some EverStart (WalMart)

Johnson Controls:
--DieHard (Sears)
--Duralast (AutoZone)
--Interstate
--Kirkland (CostCo)
--Motorcraft (Ford)
--some EverStart (Walmart)
--Optima
--EverStart
--Duralast
--Energizer
--Alliance
--Autocraft
--Acura
--DieHard
--Mitsubishi
--TrueStart
--Mazda
--Kirkland Signature
--Honda

interesting....

East Penn makes Vita-Plate and Deca which I have had excellent luck with...

I've been staying out of this, but......

Cheap batteries work just fine if they are maintained properly. By that, I mean that they need to be kept from going below 11 volts, they need to be recharged to the correct float voltage ACCORDING TO THE CELL TEMPERATURE, and they need to be protected from vibration. They also need to be kept out of freezing weather.

If you do that, then cheap batteries will last forever.

If you use a cheap charger, don't bother calibrating your voltage regulators, and don't pay any attention to the lower float voltage needs of hot battery cells, vibrate the heck out of them, let them go dead as a rock, or leave them out in freezing weather, then the most expensive batteries made will die.

I have a diesel powered cruiser. It came with a nice beefy Pro Mariner ferroresonant 3-bank charger. Had to add almost a gallon of water a month to the 6 batteries. Summer, winter, didn't matter.

Batteries lasted 2 years, they were brand name marine batteries.

Replaced batteries with Die Hard Marines.

Batteries lasted 2 years.

Replaced the batteries with Autozone gold (regular old normal car batteries).
Spent $700 on a Newmar electronic charger with separate temp probes for each bank of batts.

This was in 2000.

This is 2011.
Same batteries. Have added maybe a pint of water to each battery in that entire 11 years.
Batteries still going strong with no signs of weakness.
Engine compartment of the boat stays above 50 degrees in the winter. Charger stays connected and turned on 24/7/365.

It's all in how they are treated...

Now, if you are confident that you will regularly run your batteries down to the point that the stereo cuts out, then just plan on buying batteries often. I would advise using a low voltage cutout breaker. When the batt voltage drops below a preset, the breaker opens the circuit. You can then manually close the breaker if needed for restarting, etc (although you should keep a starting battery on a separate circuit if it's your plan to run the house batts down).

MC

thats not to say that different people like Optima do not ask for different specs. But its still made my by the same people using the same equipment, and same materials. If JC is making optimas I can not imagine rest of their stuff is junk

Sorry.....you're just a tool with a fuggin Google opinion about everything. You're a junior Chris Sunkin.