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charging a DEAD optima battery?

48K views 25 replies 14 participants last post by  OptimaJim 
#1 ·
Got a yellow top in my truck....its been parked for about 8 months and the battery is DEAD. I put it on a charger for about 7 hours and it doesn't seem to have budged....any advice?
 
#4 ·
How dead is it? How many volts is it resting at?

Usually if a battery rest below 6 volts, the cells have already sulfated and won't take a charge again.

Your best bet to revive it, not a guarantee, but try charging it at 1 amp for 12 hours. Remove the charge, let sit for 4-6 hours and see where its resting at. You may need to do this over the course of a week.

But its not common to bring a battery back and it be reliable after being drained below 6 volts.

Shawn
 
#5 ·
Idunno what its at.

My buddies efan drained his battery and it just clicked....so I took mine out of my truck to try it and it didn't even click when we tried to start it.

Guess I will put it on the trickle charger and hope for the best. I'm kinda committed to using an optima due to its relocation and I really don't wanna have to buy a new one right now lol
 
#6 ·
Here you go here is what I did way back:

So I have been reviving this battery, and so far so good.

I have a 200/40/2 amp charger.

The voltage of the battery before I began charging was 9.8v (yep that's right even after the auto store supposedly charged it and tested it. and yes I know that means it was deeply discharged.) So I followed some instructions by a company that uses Optima batteries all the time.

-First, I charged the battery at 200amps for 10min. then let it cool down for 15min.**
-I repeated that 4 times.
-Then, I charged it at 2amps for 15hours.
-I checked the battery voltage: 12.75volts.
-24hours later I checked the voltage again: 12.75.

So.... it is looking promising so far.


**I would not recommend this on a regular battery**
 
#8 ·
from a Jeep Liberty diesel TSB regarding charging spiral cell batteries:

Vehicles equipped with a diesel engine utilize a unique spiral cell battery. This battery has
a maximum charging voltage (14.4) that must not be exceeded in order to restore the
battery to its full potential. Failure to use the following spiral cell battery charging
equipment could result in damage to the battery or personal injury.
Battery charging is the means by which the battery can be restored to its full voltage
potential. A battery is fully-charged when:

·
Open-circuit voltage of the battery is 12.65 volts or above.
·


Battery passes Load Test.
NOTE: The Midtronics Micro-420 cannot be used for testing spiral cell batteries.
After the battery has been charged to 12.65 volts or greater, perform a load test as follows
to determine the battery condition.
NOTE: The battery charger used must be capable of charging a Spiral Cell Battery.
1. Fully charge the battery.
2. Remove the surface charge by loading the battery to 300 amps for 15 seconds.
3. Load the battery to 1/2 of the Cold Cranking Amp (CCA) rating of the battery for 15
seconds. Does the voltage drop below 9.6 volts?
a. Yes >> The battery is faulty and must be replaced.
b. No >> The battery is good, return the battery to service.
The following approved battery charges, with Spiral Cell Battery capability, are available
through teamPSE:
·


Associated W-6003A
·


OTC 1 Step OT-3641
· Midtronics MT-GR-921

 
#9 ·
Your best bet is to get a smart charger, one that regulates the battery and it cycles. then once its where it needs to be it will float charge to keep it good. I have revived several optimas this way and they work fine.
 
#10 · (Edited)
From Optima

http://www.optimabatteries.com/product_support/charging.php


http://www.optimabatteries.com/product_support/faqs.php

How do I charge a deeply discharged battery?

If an OPTIMA is deeply discharged (below 10.5 volts) most basic chargers will not supply a charge. Also keep in mind an OPTIMA will not recharge properly if treated as a regular flooded or gel battery. To charge the battery, you can wire a second fully charged automotive battery (12+V) to the discharged AGM in parallel (+ to + and - to -). Then hook up the charger to either battery, setting the charger at 10 amps. Leave for two hours, monitoring frequently. During this process if the discharged battery gets very hot or if it is venting (hissing sound from vents) then stop this process immediately. When the discharged battery reaches 10.5 volts or more, remove the standard battery and continue charging the AGM until fully charged. For normal charging a relatively low current, such as one or two amps can work well, but when the battery has been deeply discharged, some sulfation of the battery plates may have occurred. If you charge at 10 amps, the higher current will help to break up this sulfation.
If you have an automatic charger, let it run until the charger indicates charging is complete. If you have a manual charger, you can get a rough estimate of the charging time in hours of a completely discharged battery (11.2V) by multiplying the capacity (amp hours or Ah) of the battery by 1.2. If your battery is not completely discharged the time would be less.
In most cases these steps will recover the AGM battery. It's okay for the AGM battery to get slightly warm during the charging process. If it's hot to the touch it means there's a short and the process should be discontinued.

Now I have heard from 3 different places (1 battery shop and 2 stereo shops) that the sulfation can be broke up by taking the battery and dropping if from about a foot off the ground 3-5 times. I have never tired this. When the plates (spiral coils in this case) have been broken up enough to expose the plates/coils, the normal charging "revives" the battery. The guy at the battery place is from the base that I work at. He did this 4 times and since the store exchanged the batteries with the original owner, he was able to "acquire" them for his 4 vehicles. If you do try this, do it out in the driveway, wear safety glasses and inspect the case for cracks each drop. Most times its the redtop that the stereo guys discharge instead of using the yellow top for deep cycling. TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK!
 
#14 ·
Hi Adam, I'm sorry to hear about the problems you've had with your battery. JamminWagon has linked to some good information from us on proper charging procedures. If you are following those procedures and the battery still hisses or is hot to the touch, you should discontinue charging immediately. We do not recommend dropping our batteries or charging them at a rate higher than 10 amps.

If your vehicle regularly sits unused for extended periods of time, a battery tender or maintainer is a great investment, which will help extend the life of your battery. The best units are microprocessor-controlled and offer specific settings for AGM batteries. If you have any questions relating to our batteries, I'll do my best to answer them.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries
 
#16 ·
Without tearing the battery down, it's difficult to say exactly what is causing the hissing. What was the voltage of the battery when you first started charging it? Did you check the voltage after charging it at 6 amps and if so, what was it? How long was it charging at 2 amps before you noticed the hissing noise? Thanks!

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries
 
#17 ·
Cool did Optima join just for this thread. Awesome if they did.

I swear by optimas. I put one in my moms car as she has a horrible problem with leaving her lights on. She has killed that optima 7 times and counting and it takes a full charge on a 10 amp charger for 2 - 3 hours each time.

Love my optimas.

Posted via LXFMobile
 
#20 ·
I have yellow tops in both of my Dodges, love em. My crew manages to leave my truck ignition on acc and run them down often. Do not charge with the battery cables connected, gives Hal a headache.:)
 
#21 ·
Adam, as I re-read this thread, I noticed you indicated you were using a charger that does not shut off when the battery is fully-charged. If that is the case and you don't know how long the battery had been hissing, overcharging your battery is the likely cause. I don't know to what extent you overcharged the battery or what damage it may have caused. Does the charger you are using now shut off when fully-charged? If so, check the voltage once the battery is fully-charged (it should be appx. 13.0-13.2 for YellowTops) and leave it sit disconnected from any draw for 12-24 hours. Then, check the voltage again. If the battery is still healthy, the voltage should still be close to the maximums listed above.

Even if the charger you are using now does have an automatic shut-off, it's possible the battery was damaged when you were using the charger that did not. Hopefully, that's not the case, but please keep me posted.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries
 
#26 ·
I can't speak for other AGM manufacturers, but I don't know of a consistent recommended voltagel evel across manufacturers that someone shouldn't exceed, We recommend a maximum rate of 10 amps at 13.8-15.0 volts for our batteries. Batteries may get hot and hiss/vent if they are being overcharged, but sulfated batteries, batteries with internal shorts or other issues may behave the same way.

Sergeo, I'm sorry to hear about the issues you've been having. Can you describe the conditions under which you were experiencing problems and do you recall the voltage level of any of the batteries?

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries
 
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