Re: Optima batteries

[Jay Mackro <jmackro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 07:39 AM 10/31/98 -0500, Henry wrote:

>Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 20:54:23 EST
>From: Hanknum@domain.elided
>Subject: Optima Batteries
>
>Has anyone out there bought one of those Optima batteries?  Anyone know
>anything about them?  Are they worth the extra $?
>Please let me know.  I'm thinking of putting one in '78 308.

Optima batteries are the best!  I would definitely recommend them.
I bought my first one several years ago (jeez, it must be at least
five) for my '64 Giulia spider - I had just replaced the trunk floor
since its batteries over the previous 30 years had leaked acid -
what I liked about the Optimas was that as a dry cell battery
(yea, I know, they're not TRULY a dry cell, blah blah ...), they
wouldn't rot out my new floor, nor grow that weird white fuzz on
the terminals.

But what's also great about Optimas is that they seem to survive
better in cars that are used infrequently.  Normal wet cell 
batteries seem to have their lives shortened by long periods of
disuse.  It has been my observation that Optima batteries are
more resilient to this (I can't confirm this, nor provide a
reference supporting it).

I just bought another Optima - I did a web search on "Optima", 
and found several distributors (the manufacturer doesn't seem 
to sell them directly).  I got the best price from D.C. Battery 
Supply in Miami (email: sales@domain.elided, phone: 305 758 5041).
Of course, you lucky folks who live back in civilization can
probably just buy them over-the-counter - I had bought my first
one from a regular auto supply place in Cupertino.  Optimas aren't 
cheap - expect to spend about 2X what  you'd spend on a 5-year 
conventional battery.

Jay Mackro

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