santalars Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Why are optima red tops so famous then when they only have 50Ah and 815CCA? Is its due to the gel? Also the ampere hours (Ah) show the total capacity of the battery. Means a 55 Ah battery will deliver 55 A for one hour or 1A for 55 hour when fully charged. However, as I stated prviously, you only can discharge a lead acid battery to maximum half of their capacity without damaging it. This means you have a capacity of 27.5 Ah available. Also, forget the lights a couple of times and the battery is gone. Deep cycle Gel Batteries provide approx 90% of there total capacity. Therefore, in order to get the same amount of power from a lead battery you will need to by almost double the capacity if you want to keep it for longer. Referring to this, the price difference is not so bad anymore. I have a yellow top optima (55 Ah) and a 20 Wp solar panel to keep it fully loaded over longer breaks. This does all jobs incl. winching without problems and regardless the temperature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santalars Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Just wanted to add that generally it was a good choice to go with th 95 Ah capacity. If you don't use it for winching and if you always switch your lights of it will properly do its job for a long time. (Don't want to get misunderstood as advertising optima as they definitely are f****** expensive) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted November 3, 2008 Share Posted November 3, 2008 Cost me £115 including VAT, which is much better value than the Halfords ones... i wonder if i used that special invisible font when i typed post 16 here - £60 would have got you a very robust battery from any of the numerous farmers shops in or around stafford - the one i'm currently using is well over 5 years old and has never onc elet me down dispite daily abuse you'll not find a real farmer using one of those fancy expensive batteries in any of their vehicles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retroanaconda Posted November 3, 2008 Author Share Posted November 3, 2008 Your font wasn't as invisible as the farmers shops....I couldn't find any so decided to go to an auto electrician instead. I may have not looked hard enough, but I don't think it really matters to be honest. I don't think I paid over the top for what I got, in line with the sort of thing FridgeFreezer suggested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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