Optima or Interstate??

[SicMonte]

In response to my earlier thread about my optima dying, I decided to put up a simple poll. Would you rather choose an optima or an Interstate (or any other non gell type) battery.

[Yelcamino]

I say stick with the optima. An interesting thing to note... I was in an Interstate battery store the other day and the owner told me that Interstate actually makes the Optimas. Who knew?

[NOT A TA]

I'm using Interstates in most of my cars and even when I've killed them from not using battery tenders and/or freezing them and then then cranking them to death I get new ones under warranty. That said however, I have been looking into trying lighter weight batteries for cars that see track time or drag strip duties. I bought my son one from Jegs as a present for his 10 sec 76 TA drag car w/ BBC and we'll see how his holds up.

[MonzaRacer]

Well Interstate doesnt make them they just bought the company, still ahve same factory and all.

[1FstChevy]

I'd go for optima, I'm not really disapointed with Interstate, as that is what I run in my Camaro, (at least until it goes dead, at which point an optima will take its place) but I run Optima in my Apollo and it cranks over every single time. I think they have a pro-rated warranty for 6yrs but I know folks who say they'll last 8-10, but all acid batteries inherently leak even if its really MINOR, so thats my main deciding factor.

And if you have a Sam's club by you I'd pick one up there!!! I know with the core charge or whatever taxes, an Optima red-top from AutoZone is about $190.00 for the top end one, and I think Sam's club had them for around $125.00 last time I looked.

[instro84]

i've had my optima red top going on 6yrs. completely drainded a few time and it charged back up ok.

[BRIAN]

optima is not the only dry cell battery out there. Try Deka or Dekka? they make the Intimidator dry cell for about $119 from Auto Barn and it's numbers match or are better than Optima and bolts to regular tray no problem. No fancy red top though. You can paint it red with the extra $50-$65 saved.

Amzing what great ads can do for sales.

[jy211]

optima hands down...I was a dealer for interstate for a year...never did I go through SO many batteries in customers cars...I've switched strickly to optima's in my classic's....

[Apogee]

Interstate doesn't make batteries...they make stickers that get put onto batteries made by other manufacturers. Most were made by JCI last I checked (about 3 years ago), but it varies by the product line, as do most batteries.

optima used to be a division of Mitsubishi and used to make a much better product IMO. JCI bought optima as they didn't have an AGM, valve-regulated product offering at the time, which Optima filled nicely. Quality on the Optima's have steadily gone down since then in my experience. My Optima's from 5, 6, and 7 years ago are still going strong...the one from last year died an ugly death.

I'm certainly no expert, but I did work in the lead-acid battery industry for about 7 years designing, testing, and installing automation equipment for the battery industry so I did learn a few things. IMO, the Hawker Odyssey is one of the best batteries on the market right now for the money. They're a bit costly, but really good quality and the most lead for the money. The Deka Intimidator (East Penn Mfg) comes in a close second and is much more affordable...it should be as it weighs about 4 pounds less than a comparable Odyssey. Rumor has it that they're shifting their production from East Penn to Enersys in Mexico though (to compete with JCI teaming up with Enertec in Mexico), so I'm a littly leary about what effect that will have on the quality of future units. Optima comes in third, not much to say except the price has gone up and the quality down. In a very distant last place, I would put the Exide products. I will never own an Exide battery.

My $.02 for what it's worth.
Tobin