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nyryan2001, that is another great question and one I am more than happy to answer (ask as many as you'd like). Optima sells more batteries than all of the other brands you mentioned combined...several times over. As a result, there will be far more conversations about our products, both good and bad.The quality of our products has always been excellent and the batteries we are manufacturing today are the best we have ever made (and we do manufacture all of our own batteries in our own facility).
AGM batteries by their design have far lower internal resistance than a traditional flooded battery. This allows them to deliver current far longer than their specified ratings. That can mean more power when someone needs it, but it can also result in a battery becoming more deeply-discharged. Many battery chargers will not recognize or charge any battery that has been deeply-discharged below a minimum voltage level, usually around 10.5 volts. As a result, many of the “bad” batteries returned to us under warranty are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly-recharged.
This isn't unique to Optima, in fact, other brands have dealt with this by simply voiding the warranty on their battery, if it is found to be discharged below a minimum voltage level. We sell too many batteries and would have too many irate customers if we did that with our warranty, but we did create this YouTube video, which explains how to recover deeply-discharged batteries. We are also now the presenting sponsor of the ChumpCar World Series, which may not seem like it has much in common with discharged batteries. However, when we receive these “discharge-only” warranty returns, we can't re-sell them, so even though there was nothing wrong with them, we ended up sending them to the smelter for recycling. Since sponsoring ChumpCar, we've outfitted entire fields of race cars with someone else's “dead” batteries.
As far as warranties and customer expectations are concerned, that can be a challenge for any brand or manufacturer. We've eliminated pro-ration periods from our warranties and now offer only free-replacement, in an effot to minimize confusion and frustration for both consumers and our retail partners. BlueTops used to have an 18-month free-replacement warranty, followed by 18 months of pro-ration. Now they have a straight 24-month free replacement. The reality is, if any battery fails from a manufacturing defect, it is likely to do so well within the first year of use, if not the first month. If you look at the store brand marine batteries at any big box retailer and their automotive equivalents, the only differences you'll see besides the marine terminals, are the price and the warranty. Internally, they're probably identical batteries (our YellowTop & BlueTop batteries are, except the 34M), but because so many boat owners don't maintain their batteries when they are in storage, the marine warranties tend to be shorter.
Some folks think it is also reasonable for a battery warranty to re-set with each replacement, which would essentially be a lifetime warranty. I'm not aware of any retailer or brand that offers such a deal, yet we do have customers who are more than a little upset when we don't continue to supply them with free replacements after their warranty has expired.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries
AGM batteries by their design have far lower internal resistance than a traditional flooded battery. This allows them to deliver current far longer than their specified ratings. That can mean more power when someone needs it, but it can also result in a battery becoming more deeply-discharged. Many battery chargers will not recognize or charge any battery that has been deeply-discharged below a minimum voltage level, usually around 10.5 volts. As a result, many of the “bad” batteries returned to us under warranty are just deeply-discharged and work fine, when properly-recharged.
This isn't unique to Optima, in fact, other brands have dealt with this by simply voiding the warranty on their battery, if it is found to be discharged below a minimum voltage level. We sell too many batteries and would have too many irate customers if we did that with our warranty, but we did create this YouTube video, which explains how to recover deeply-discharged batteries. We are also now the presenting sponsor of the ChumpCar World Series, which may not seem like it has much in common with discharged batteries. However, when we receive these “discharge-only” warranty returns, we can't re-sell them, so even though there was nothing wrong with them, we ended up sending them to the smelter for recycling. Since sponsoring ChumpCar, we've outfitted entire fields of race cars with someone else's “dead” batteries.
As far as warranties and customer expectations are concerned, that can be a challenge for any brand or manufacturer. We've eliminated pro-ration periods from our warranties and now offer only free-replacement, in an effot to minimize confusion and frustration for both consumers and our retail partners. BlueTops used to have an 18-month free-replacement warranty, followed by 18 months of pro-ration. Now they have a straight 24-month free replacement. The reality is, if any battery fails from a manufacturing defect, it is likely to do so well within the first year of use, if not the first month. If you look at the store brand marine batteries at any big box retailer and their automotive equivalents, the only differences you'll see besides the marine terminals, are the price and the warranty. Internally, they're probably identical batteries (our YellowTop & BlueTop batteries are, except the 34M), but because so many boat owners don't maintain their batteries when they are in storage, the marine warranties tend to be shorter.
Some folks think it is also reasonable for a battery warranty to re-set with each replacement, which would essentially be a lifetime warranty. I'm not aware of any retailer or brand that offers such a deal, yet we do have customers who are more than a little upset when we don't continue to supply them with free replacements after their warranty has expired.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries
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