Tired Optimas

[Sip]

Hi

I have four optima batteries, two red, two yellow. They are about eight years old and a bit tired.

My question is, would an 'intelligent' charger (probably expensive) bring them back to life.

They take a charge, but don't last. Wouldn't winch much without engine running, if you know what I mean.

Whats the best way of checking battery condition? They show 12.5v when charged but that doesn't reflect on its 'oomph', (good technical term there).

Would I just be wasting my money, a battery is just dead when it has reached the end of its life?

I like the Optimas, purely because two fit easily into battery box but they are expensive.

Can of worms time, what are the alternatives?

Cheers

Neil

[TSD]

In my experience, they will improve with a decent intelligent charger, but they wont be anywhere near good-as-new.

The last two I had that were 'tired' - they still started a tdi with no trouble, but discharged very quickly into light loads.

I measured the capacity of both of them at around 16Ah, a good bit less than the 55Ah they should be when new!

Careful charging and discharging (copying the profile of one of the intelligent chargers on the market) got them back to around 35Ah, but no amount of fiddling would improve them past that.

(I have a computerised test rig that can charge/discharge batteries almost any way I want, and test them)

I put them in my 'spare' truck and they do fine there. I bought new optimas because they fit my custom battery box, but I probably wouldn't have bothered otherwise - I don't think they are anywhere near as robust as they were 10 years ago.

BTW are you switching a yellow top onto a red top with a split charge relay? I suspect (but have never proved) that the red top won't have a long and happy life used this way.