Optima Yellow Top without Venting?

[planedrop]

Hey everyone, just a quick question for you all, I've been reading up on battery venting lately and got curious. I wanted to put 3 Optima Yellow Top batteries in the back of my van, but I was wondering if that's safe WITHOUT Venting? The Optimas are sealed so I've read the chance of them venting anything is super low, but I of course don't wanna play with my life. Anyway thanks for any help.

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[Boomin_tahoe 5,000+ posts]

Do you have your heart set on Optima? Reason being is because they don't last as long as they used to.

I would suggest another battery for running audio.
@adulbrich should be able to help ya since he's a battery guy. Don't think batteries need venting. Unless they were "leaking" something toxic, or whatever still isn't a good thing. Whoever told you that isn't true.

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

Hey everyone, just a quick question for you all, I've been reading up on battery venting lately and got curious. I wanted to put 3 Optima Yellow Top batteries in the back of my van, but I was wondering if that's safe WITHOUT Venting? The Optimas are sealed so I've read the chance of them venting anything is super low, but I of course don't wanna play with my life. Anyway thanks for any help.

Do not buy any more Optima batteries. They're trash. The new ones cost the same as the old ones did, but they're now made in mexico with inferior lead. The lead isn't as pure since they switched suppliers for raw material. Because of this, we stopped carrying Optima at the shop. Too many warranty issues.

That being said, an AGM battery should not be venting. You are overcharging the battery, or there is another issue. How old is it and what voltage are you charging at?

The hydrogen gas that gets vented is both toxic and explosive.

You should buy either and East Penn (Deka, Duracell, ect.) branded battery or Exide. Both companies produce superior AGM's.

 

[wew lad 5,000+ posts]

only time you need to worry about venting is with either a massive amount of batteries, or with a completely sealed waterproof compartment. agm's definitely vent, just not nearly as much and i believe the outgas is different

whoever is recommending people optimas anymore is wayyyy out of date. they're literally riding the old quality name but replaced their product with cheap chinese junk lead

 

[planedrop]

[quote name='Boomin_tahoe']Do you have your heart set on Optima? Reason being is because they don't last as long as they used to.

I would suggest another battery for running audio.
@adulbrich should be able to help ya since he's a battery guy. Don't think batteries need venting. Unless they were "leaking" something toxic, or whatever still isn't a good thing. Whoever told you that isn't true.[/QUOTE]

No I don't yet, but I do already have a YellowTop Optima battery, don't really feel like attempting to return it, and in that case I need Optimas for the back too since they're supposed to be identical batteries (as I have read in like 300 places lol correct that if it's wrong). Are they really that bad now? They seem to still get good ratings on retail sites. And alright yeah some say venting AGM's isn't necessary, others say it's a good safety precaution, but it's a very very rare circumstance.

 

[planedrop]

Do not buy any more Optima batteries. They're trash. The new ones cost the same as the old ones did, but they're now made in mexico with inferior lead. The lead isn't as pure since they switched suppliers for raw material. Because of this, we stopped carrying Optima at the shop. Too many warranty issues.

That being said, an AGM battery should not be venting. You are overcharging the battery, or there is another issue. How old is it and what voltage are you charging at?

The hydrogen gas that gets vented is both toxic and explosive.

You should buy either and East Penn (Deka, Duracell, ect.) branded battery or Exide. Both companies produce superior AGM's.

I'm not currently using the Optima, but I do already have a YellowTop and just wanted to check about the venting issue before putting one in the back of my van lol. Everyone seems to be saying they've turned to crap, I always thought it was the gel cell design that made them so good, not the materials they were made of (not saying that doesn't matter equally). But it's good to know I don't need to vent.

 

[planedrop]

only time you need to worry about venting is with either a massive amount of batteries, or with a completely sealed waterproof compartment. agm's definitely vent, just not nearly as much and i believe the outgas is different
whoever is recommending people optimas anymore is wayyyy out of date. they're literally riding the old quality name but replaced their product with cheap chinese junk lead

Alright cool thanks, seems everyone has the same idea that venting isn't necessary, I read a few forum posts where some said it was a good safety precaution, but from what I've seen if the battery starts to vent the actual venting is the least of your worries lol (I would be more worried about the too high voltage, too high current draw, possible exploding batteries, etc...).

Hmmmm well so far everyone has said they're not good, so that bothers me since I already spent 200 bucks on a YellowTop, from Amazon so I could return it but that's a pain and the return shipping charge would be lame. Maybe I'll get lucky with it. I won't be putting more in the back for 6 months or so (starting off with just 2 SSA DCON's with a single good front battery so no need for rears for now, but moving up to a Sundown TEAM on 7K later down the road as long as cash permits), so I will probably just use this battery for 6 months to a year and then replace it with something better.

My questions for you though is, how can I have good deep cycle batteries in the back, without a battery isolater, if most deep cycle batteries cannot start (the YellowTop being the only one I know of that can start and do deep cycle)? Or do I just use all starting batteries? Or should I just go with an isolater (seems like a pain to me)? Or do I not need identical batteries for the front and back? Do you have particular brand recommendations, XS Power, Stinger, etc..? Sorry for all the questions lol, thanks for the help!

 

[adulbrich 5,000+ posts]

I'm not currently using the Optima, but I do already have a YellowTop and just wanted to check about the venting issue before putting one in the back of my van lol. Everyone seems to be saying they've turned to crap, I always thought it was the gel cell design that made them so good, not the materials they were made of (not saying that doesn't matter equally). But it's good to know I don't need to vent.

You can run different AGM's together. Don't waste any more money on yellowtops.

 

[mrpep]

I also have a yellow top under the seat and I've had no issues. It stays room temp warm and no ones died , lol. As far as quality , so far so good. I've had it for about 2 years . It's a second battery so I assume will last at least 5 years... maybe more ? We'll see I guess

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