Optima Batteries not charging fully

[SkiDad]

Hi There, my boat has 2 D34M BlueTop deep cycle batteries . No matter how hard I try i can't get them to charge past 12.5 volts resting voltage. I read on the website these batteries are supposed to be at 13.0 to 13.2

the batteries are only 1 year old. I've been using my 6/2 amp smart charger.... it shows they are charged. this is my charger: http://www.sears.com/plus-start-batt...FU9LAQod13cLdw

I also used a neighbors 15/2 amp charger and it shows they are charged as well.

Do you think I'm using the wrong chargers, I'm just trying to exhaust my efforts before I warranty them.

 

[Alumarine]

Maybe it's your meter.
hat does it show on say a starting battery?

 

[dingbat]

Hope it's still in warranty... it's toast

I've had 3 Optima batteries. Not one made it out of warranty. All failed to take a charge.

Pretty common complaint according to the guy at the counter

 

[TyeeMan]

Yep, usually when a battery won't fully charge it's going south.

 

[ondarvr]

That type of charger doesn't always do a good job.

 

[rallyart]

AGM batteries don't like being discharged for much time. They also require a slightly different charge profile than a conventional lead/acid battery. Mage sure your charger has a setting for AGM batteries. Use an automatic charger on them when they will sit for an extended length of time.
My experience with AGM batteries is that when they start to fail they are not going to get better. There are many really positive things about AGM batteries, and the Optima brand they are perfect for some applications but they need some care.

 

[82rude]

My bluetop hasnt been out of the boat for 5 plus years and has never seen a charger ever.Winters can be long and cold ,i guess im just very lucky.

 

[SkiDad]

thanks guys, i checked my meter and it is good. My charger doesn't have an AGM setting. It worked fine on my other boat battery but was just the basic boat battery and would get it to 13.2 volts. But these are my 1st AGM batteries. I took them to autozone earlier today to have them tested - they said they were 62% charged and showed good so they were going to charge them on there smart charger for me. So I guess I will know more tomorrow when I pick them up.

If that works I'm going to look into the CTEK chargers.

 

[82rude]

Good luck.Bad batches of batteries are not unheard of.Couple of years ago my motomaster truck battery from canadian tire died within 2 months ,i stood in line with about 20 guys with the exact same issue ,all batteries were bought within a few days of each other.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Optima batteries suck

 

[SkiDad]

Optima batteries suck

you might be right - the sure do look purdy and this boat has the mounts for them, but if I have to replace them I'll probably go with 2 90.00 batteries and the black boxes.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Optima batteries made their name in the 80s and 90s. Then Johnson Controls bought them and moved production to Mexico in the early 00's and the quality dropped like a stone

Look into Enersys brands

 

[dingbat]

Optima batteries suck

Agree... I'm 0-3 out of the box

 

[82rude]

Guess im lucky,. my blue top has been a champ .5 plus years never touched,never charged,no maintainer and always starts .5 years would be minimum i would have to look it might be closer to 8 or 9.Best boat battery ive ever owned so far .Now that ive bragged on it this will be the year it dies,lol.

 

[SkiDad]

so i got the batteries back from Autozone and they said both were fine - when I got them home they both showed 12.4 volts. I wasn't sure if they charged them. So i took them to OReilys and i watched them charge them - they picked all the correct settings - AGM / Optima / Bluetop / Deep Cycle / 55 AH and they got up to 12.8 volts during the charge - i brought them home and let the rest and 30 minutes later they were back to 12.5

Am I out of luck ? Both places said the batteries test good but obviously not the correct voltage. I'm asking b/c it's a 2 hour drive to take them to the place they were purchased and I don't know if they are gonna say they can't replace them b/c they show good on the tester ?

 

[spoilsofwar]

What are you using to measure the voltage?

I'll agree with others that Optimas are overpriced and living off past glory, but if two shops put them on a load tester and they checked out good, I've got to wonder about why your results don't match up with theirs.

If you want to replace them, I recommend Odyssey batteries.

 

[SkiDad]

I do match theres. I'm using 2 different multimeters they both read the same within a few hundredths.

Thanks for the suggestion on batteries

 

[SkiDad]

just wanted to update my thread. With the several automatic chargers I could not get them to stay past 12.5. - i now have both batteries at 12.8 now.

What i did was get an old 10 Amp manual charger - i put a separate 2 hour charge in each one (used a timer on my phone) - Both batteries got warm when I did this (but not hot) - this raised them to 12.7 resting

I waited 2 days - then I put a 3 hour charge in both of them (this time they only got slightly warm) - this got them both to around 12.8 resting. And it's holding nicely I owe the credit to this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x-JfckAt20

i realize the batteries should be at 13 but I think 12.8 is a nice compromise vs buying new ones for now.

 

[dneedham]

Here is some info from optima's website. Looks like a Blue Top should be at least 12.4v to be considered charged:

https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/experience/2013/01/basic-information-battery-voltage

 

[ondarvr]

12.4 is to stop it from being damaged, it's not considered charged, 12.6 or close is considered charged on some, but undercharged on others.