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HomeAutomotiveReplacement PartsBatteriesOptima Batteries 8052-161 D31M BlueTop Dual Purpose Battery |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review:
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Short Warranty period Oct 11, 2008
Although this IS a great battery, it ONLY has an 18 month free replacement warranty with an additional 18 month "pro-rated" warranty period that drops off quite dramatically. (I.E. after 27 months I ONLY got $50 credit towards a new battery!!) For a battery with this kind of premium price, I would expect it to have a longer replacement warranty.
Also I had a hard time finding a dealer to replace it. All (including optima customer service) told me to take it back to the selling dealer. I had to get the area rep involed. A lot of hassel!
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
 Best way to get power without hassle Jan 07, 2008
The Optima batteries carry a price premium because of their design, however their long life and ability to work in any orientation and in rough environments is what you are buying. Additionally, you do not need to worry about acid spilling out like you would with traidtional deep cycle marine batteries. Cost, however, is substantially higher.
I ordered mine through amazon and it was shipped ground from their fullfulment center in Sacramento nearest to me in the bay area which meant it arrived overnight. I was a little disappointed at first getting ground service as a prime member, but overnight beats 2 days and their fullfillment centers are across the usa so chances are you will get yours in 1-2 days by ground ups.
I have used Optima batteries since I killed my first battery in my H1 humvee offroad in Alaska doing 60 MPH over rock roads from the Yukon territories to Alaska. Ordinary car batteries just don't do well to the vibrations the H1 hummer can produce. Additionally when offroading, the H1 may tip up to 40 degrees on sideslope which will spill the acid out of a normal car battery while the optima does not loose any acid or liquid at all.
You *MUST* match the color code of the optima battery with YOUR intended purpose as follows:
BLUE (this one) - DEEP CYCLE applications - RV's, inverters, UPS systems basically applications where you plan to drain the battery dry every time then recharge it pretty soon afterwards.
YELLOW (what I use in the H1 Hummer engine) - Has both deep cycle ability and engine starting ability. If you drain a NORMAL engine starting battery dead you take between 5-10 percent of its life away right there. The Yellow Optima batteries can take deep discarge running lights and accessories with the engine off and still start the engine then recharge from the alternator provided they are not totally dead.
RED - these are just simple replacements for engine statring ONLY - they are NOT meant to be deep discharged and will suffer a shorter lifespan if you do drain them. They still have all the benefits of the Optima design of being sealed, vibration proof, and spill proof.
Hence for cars, I always choose Yellow tops, and for boats or RV's & UPS systems I use blue tops. Honestly I've never bought a Red top because I normally want a battery that can run accessories on a vehicle with the engine off for a long time.
This battery is rated 75AH and I realize you can buy alot more AH in a deep cycle marine cell with liquid acid for less money. I have no concerns anchoring this battery down inside my vehicle because I know it will not spill acid if I accellerate or corner sharply or go off road. I know that the wet cell deep cycle marine battery will spill acid under many conditions - even just climate changes or charging rapidly.
You get what you pay for in the Optima batteries. Considering Amazon does not charge more that 5 bucks to ship a 62 lb battery to you and does not hit you with a core charge it's not a bad deal to get it on your doorstep overnight. All together it proved to be an excellent piece of my inverter system (see Xantrex Technologies Prosine 1,000 to 1,500-Watt Power Inverter #1000 for the inverter I used)
The optima battery can deliver high enough currents for the Xantrex true sinewave inverter to start an air compressor which is a difficult load to deal with. Other batteries I tried refused to provide the inrush current to start the compressor.
Finally, there is a pamphlet stuck to your new battery on how to care for your Optima cell for charging currents on the D31M model. One of the cons of the Optima design is that they do not take equalization charges like wet cells do so it is best to maintain a constant voltage of about 13.6 VDC on the battery when you are able to to prolong its life.
This is professional gear and will deliver excellent results when used properly.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Top Quality Aug 15, 2007
Optima batteries are one of the best on the market. I am very impressed by their longevity and high power delivery. I have had a yellow top Optima in my 4wd truck for 9 years now and it is as strong as the day I installed it. Other great features of Optima batteries are the facts that you never have to add water, they can be mounted in most any position and the terminals never corrode.
This purchase was a second blue top D31M. I use two of these batteries in parallel to power a 2000 watt inverter. I tested it by placing a 1500 watt load on the inverter which drew 137.5 amps from the two batteries in parallel. They were able to sustain this load for 27 minutes. That is like cranking a 6 cylinder engine for half an hour. I previously used marine deep-cycle flooded-cell batteries for my inverter but they would only last about two years and I constantly had to check and add water as well as clean corrosion from the terminals. The bottom line is even though you pay more initially to buy an Optima battery the long life and power delivery quality actually make it cheaper than other batteries when you divide the cost by the number of years of service.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Different quality Jun 13, 2007
Although both batteries were ordered at the same time in the same way, one performs good to excellent and the other one performs below specification (one batterie is older and was discharged when received). Only with a sophisticated computer-controlled recharging I was able to equalize the status of both batteries purchased at new. Your supplier/the batterie manufacturer should test and float batteries before shipping. Manufacturer did not supply any specification.
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