Dodge Durango Forum II Archive

Optima Battery Company has been bought out!

Flyin' Hawaiian[[CA]2K CPR 5.9 ft4X4]
durango@kolohe.net

Got this from another board I hang out at. Kinda annoying to me too, I'm sure anyone with an Optima will not be too happy about the new specs!
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I have two yellow top deep cycle Optima batteries in my truck. I bought them a little less than a year ago. They are rated at 750
cold crank amps with a capacity of 65A/h. Lately, I noticed that Optima lowered their ratings on both the red top starter and the
yellow top deep cycle batteries. For the yellow tops, they are now 550 cold crank amps and 55A/h capacity. I thought this was
strange and as you all well know, cold cranking amps is very important for winching, so I was a bit concerned. When I wrote
Optima to inquire about it, this what they wrote back....
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Hi Brian,

What has happened is a buy-out. We were recently bought out by Johnson
Controls Inc. We have decided to go with a more conservative rating,
however the design of the battery hasn't changed.
Thank you for your continued support and interest in Optima Batteries, a
Johnson Controls company.

*****

Naturally, this is a bit unsettling. I'm a real fan of Optima, but I'm not sure what to make of this response. Does this mean that my
batteries were overated and I'm really using a 550 cold cranking amp battery to winch off of or what? WARN recommends a
minimum of 650 cold cranking amps. Now I've winched plenty of times without any problems, but I'm still a bit upset about this
whole rating thing. If I paid the $$$ for a darn deep cycle battery that says it's 750 cca, it, I want 750 cca, not 550 cca. The
BCI test for rating "cold cranking amps" and A/h is very straightforward. If the batteries are exactly the same as Optima claims,
either they overated them then, or they are underrating them now. I just want to know which one it is.

When I inquired as to more detail about what happened, Optima just ignored me.

I just thought you guys should be aware of this, since the battery specs are extremely important. Also, I'd be interested in your
take on this....Thanks.
EOM+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Well doesn't this just bite?!?!?! The way corporations are buying up the little companies out there, soon there'll be only one corporation in this world!!!
Chris

Fri Nov 30