I'm in need of a quality AGM NA/NB Miata battery. Since the car will see track use I am avoiding conventional "flooded" batteries.
Some poking around indicates that it is surprisingly hard to source a decent AGM battery these days. I am not buying an Optima due to prior poor experience.
If I want to buy a quality AGM battery, where do I go? What brands are okay?
I use Odyssey batteries in mine. PC680 for a four cylinder, PC925 for the V8 or if I need a little more reserve. They'll happily sit for months if you disconnect them.
I buy from whoever has the best price.
Check rockauto for Deka
I dunno... I put an optima, not that Mexico crap from a few years back, in the wagon recently and it starts like a FI car....
Ranger50 said:I dunno... I put an optima, not that Mexico crap from a few years back, in the wagon recently and it starts like a FI car....
So you have to pre-heat all the fluids and have a full support team on hand with an external starter?
The "Mexico crap" has made me leery of trusting Optima again, we were selling Optimas at that time and the return rate was phenomenal. I was even mocked by one of their reps on this forum who chose to be an ass instead of help out one of their vendors who was having trouble. So I would only use another if there were no other options. And luckily, there are lots of good options that don't spend all their money on advertising instead of support.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
It is a capitalized "I", not a 1.
This is my first Optima ever. I've either ran same sized lead acids or u1/u1r batteries.
Well that changes things :D
I got a Die Hard AGM from Advance Auto last winter for the Expedition. So far so good.
I've been happy with Interstate. I've bought them from both the Interstate stores and Costco. Both batteries have done very well.
I'm fortunate enough to have Pasco close by. 10lb of problem free cranking
I always go to our local Battery Warehouse for batteries. (Standard and AGM)
Yeah I probably could of saved $10-20 online. Walking in with monies and walking out with parts with warranty is a nice thing.
Plus the main guy is a car guy ;)
pointofdeparture said:I am not buying an Optima due to prior poor experience.
Bad experience with a Redtop I assume?
I would not put a redtop in a car if it was given to me. I've never had a bad experience with a Yellowtop. The current one has been in the racecar for over 4 years now. Came from Oreilly's.
When customers came in with issues related to a battery 9 out of 10 times it had a redtop in it that went straight to the trash.
Costco
Who has the best warranty?
Olemiss540 said:Costco
That's where I tend to get all my batteries for the regular vehicles. Their prices are hard to beat.
For motorcycle batteries and the like, I wander over to Batteries Plus that's in walking distance from Costco, but I don't go there to save money.
I got a Duralast Silver AGM for the theater to power my inverter. It's nice for things that roll out on stage and need some kind of power without wires getting in the way.
It has operated a huge inverter running a 1000w light fixture AND a fog machine at the same time. I could do 2 or more shows per charge on it, but since it's not a deep cycle I charged it after every show. It did 10 shows of that, 13 shows of running a 12v water pump for Singin in the Rain, and then sat for 20 months of the pandemic. When I was brought back to the theater, I put the charger on it and it's still A-ok.
Granted, it's a huge monster H1 size with something ridiculous like 109Ah, but I've been happy with it. I think I paid $169 for it about three years ago. So far its life has been sitting on the workbench for months at a time, then intense use, then sitting for a few more months and hasn't broken a sweat yet.
I will likely get another one in the deep cycle flavor for the camper van
Patientzero said:pointofdeparture said:I am not buying an Optima due to prior poor experience.
Bad experience with a Redtop I assume?
I would not put a redtop in a car if it was given to me. I've never had a bad experience with a Yellowtop. The current one has been in the racecar for over 4 years now. Came from Oreilly's.
When customers came in with issues related to a battery 9 out of 10 times it had a redtop in it that went straight to the trash.
All the problems we had were with yellowtops. Pretty big sample size.
In reply to Keith Tanner :
How long ago? I can remember issues back in the late 90's with the yellows.
Olemiss540 said:Costco
Is where I got the Interstate in the Fusion. I didn't mention it because it's not AGM, though.
In reply to bobzilla :
Approximately a decade ago. I can't put a solid year on when we started and stopped, but it was in the 2008-2010 timeframe. Not the late 90's. At least some of them had internal continuity problems - never cut one open, but they were acting like the terminals weren't actually connected to anything. I didn't examine all of the ones that came back but the failure rate was absolutely spectacular.
They may have solved their problems, and even then the high failure rate didn't hit 100%. But if there are alternatives, I would recommend the alternatives. I've had very good luck with the Odysseys I mentioned, and I've been buying them for at least 15 years. Optima does a good job of supporting aspects of our hobby which is great, but you need a quality product to back it up.
mikeatrpi said:Check rockauto for Deka
This! I have had great luck with these on El Rabbitto.
Thanks for the recommendations.
I hear good stuff about Odyssey but I'm a little hesitant to use one in a car that's a daily driver based on what I read elsewhere. (Long story short, NC battery relocation that uses a NA/NB battery, and my car is not stripped out.)
RockAuto shows no stock so that's a bummer but I'll keep it in mind for the future.
I do have a Costco membership that I don't use a whole lot so if I can get an AGM from them I will probably go that route.
Re: Optima, I had a red top in the "good old days" that was great, so about 10 years ago I bought another one, and it was cooked within six months. At that point I read about all the craziness with the company sale, horrific DOA rates, etc. I don't remember why but warrantying the one I had just bought was a giant PITA, and combined with the horrors I've seen online in the years since, I don't plan to give them my money again. (If the red tops are the "E36 M3ty one" then they shouldn't even be sold, IMO.)
I've used Odyssey on a daily driver. About the only thing you have to watch for is if you've gone small to save weight, you simply don't have the power reserve if you get into a "hard to start" situation. Go with a bigger unit like the 925 and you'll never have a problem. It's a bit smaller than a stock Miata battery still. Plus you can run them upside down if you want :)
The nice thing about using an NA/NB battery is that there are a good number of AGM options out there that drop right in. Westco is a long-time standard and I've heard good things about the Autozone one.
AutoZone duralast Platinum has worked well for me.
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