Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

gqroot

Hi folks,

I went to Costco and bought the Optima Blue Top battery rated at 55AH for $150. Is there a better one out there as far as brands and cost? I am looking for a battery that will have a high AH. Or should I just buy another Optima battery of the same model to extend the AH for that price?

mike95490

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

What is your purpose, and how do you plan on recharging it ?

gqroot

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

Hiya mike90045,

I am looking for an off-grid system to play around with. I want to power my shed, entertainment system and TV. I hooked this up to my entertainment system that uses about 330 watts and it lasted for less than 1 hour. The living room started to smell like some acid - I guess it's from the battery.

gqroot

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

My current solar config:

- 2x Siliken 205w
- Morningstar MPPT45
- Optima Battery Bluetop 55ah
- Sunforce 2500watt inverter

Cariboocoot

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

Congratulations! You now have a dead battery. Vis:

55 Amp hours @ 50% DOD (maximum) = 27.5 Amp hours * 12 Volts = 330 Watt hours.
Or about the estimated load of your entertainment system (plus losses including inverter power consumption) for that one hour of use.

Now an Optima might recharge okay after that. Any battery might. But it also might just be the end of it.
Sometimes you can get golf cart batteries at Costco for cheap ($150 range). Two of those in series would give you 220 Amp hours @ 12 Volts. That would run the entertainment center for about 3 hours. And your 410 Watts of panel ought to be able to recharge them nicely.

mike95490

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

gqroot wrote: »

.... The living room started to smell like some acid - I guess it's from the battery.

Odd, aren't those sealed batteries ? I know Optima makes several types of batteries, with different colored tops, what does Red signify ? Deep Cycle, or starter ?

Urbandialect

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

I think Red is for cars, Blue is for Marine, and yellow is the hybrid inbetween battery

rgk1

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

I think the red tops are everyday automotive, blue are marine, and the yellow are deep cycle. I think they are all spiral wound agm type so there must be some difference in plate thickness/structure. For the price of those, I got the UPG agms 110 amp/hr from our host as my starter batteries. Only been in use about 6 months, but so far no problems.

rgk1

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

As a side note - they say you can put them in any orientation, but if you look close, there is something on top of those that looks like it may be a vent. May not spill due to orientation, but literature at the local Sam's club says not to use in closed spaces.

niel

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

if that is a modsine inverter it could be that one of the items you plugged into it did not like the waveform.

was the smell during the charge cycle or discharge?

if that battery vented for whatever reason it is compromised, but we don't know how badly. what were the charge settings you placed on the controller?

as far as a good high capacity battery goes for the price, you should have checked our host's store.
http://www.solar-electric.com/batteries.html

dwh

Re: Optima Blue Top battery (55ah)

Optimas not only have top colors, but also case colors; Dark Grey case has cranking battery internals, Light Grey case has deep cycle internals.

Red Tops are cranking batteries (dark grey case) with both automotive top post and female threaded automotive type side connections.

Yellow Top is the same design, with the same connections, but has deep cycle internals (light grey case).

Blue Tops have different connections.
Blue Tops also have automotive type top posts, but do not have automotive type side connections. Instead, they have a set of "deep cycle type" threaded male top posts next to the automotive top posts.
Blue Tops can be had with EITHER cranking battery internals (dark grey case) OR deep cycle internals (light grey case).



The cells are made of rolled up lead plates (a design that they and others, such as Exide and Odyssey, refer to as "spiral wound").
They are AGM, so there is no liquid electrolyte to spill.
They are VRLA - they have a pop-off valve to vent over-pressure.



As with other deep cycle batteries, Optima deep cycle batteries (light grey case) CAN be used as cranking batteries.

As with other cranking batteries, Optima cranking batteries (dark grey case) should NOT be used as deep cycle batteries.