I have a blue top optima on my cranking. Can't complain

They only way to be sure who makes a battery you are interested in is to check the MSDS sheet.
Batteries for a company can be made by different manufacturers especially once you start looking at private labels and can change year to year or even by region. Buyer Beware!
Once you get into specialty batteries it really gets confusing and hard to figure out, check the MSDS information.
Walmarts EverStart car & marine batteries should be made by Johnson Controls and has a good reputation.

I have had good luck with Exide from Academy. Reasonably priced and last 3 or so years.

Just don't waste your money on Optima as they are junk!
Race car drivers use them because they are light and they don't need a dependable battery ...... WE DO!
Besides, the money it costs to build a race car, then pull to the track and race it, $250 for a battery is cheap!
I use Walmarts biggest, best battery and they last a long time if kept on a battery maintainer.

I'll be replacing my 6 year old continentals here in a couple of months. Probably going to the Walmart brand

Cannot agree with the dis on the Optima.. finally had to replace a bluetop that was installed in my Lund Tyee in March 2004. That's almost 13 years of dependability, my friends. The boat has an onboard 3-bank charger that gets plugged in as soon as the boat gets parked in the driveway. We sell Exides where I work (farm tractor dealership) and they are an okay brand, but I have never seen those or any other battery last more than 4 years, AGM or otherwise. So I shelled out the $229.00 for another Optima bluetop.

The nice thing about Optimax is the slow drainage. I need 1000 mca and a constant voltage for electronics and thus far have been happy with one as cranking battery. I use the wal mart for deep cycle due to easy availability.

The way you maintain your battery, how deep you discharge, buying the correct size and type of battery, type of charger you use are just a few things that can greatly affect how long your battery will last. When talking about how long your last battery lasted compared to your neighbors is not normally comparing apples to apples.

OK, so MCA and CCA I get. But there seems to be a lot of differences between how Ah (amp hours) and RC (reserve capacity) are measured by the various manufacturers.

anyone want to take a stab at explaining these 2 items, and why they are important?

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/

Try this website, it will be easier to read a experts explanation. I would be very care about taking advice from
us normal people, there's a lot of misunderstanding with batteries.