I bought a boat this past year with 3 optima blue tops. I checked my cranking battery and it was purchased 3/11/16. I had it tested at Autozone and it tested good with 100% charge. How long should I expect one of those to last? That seems old to me.....based on my experience with interstate and the like. Thanks.

Optima is superior IMO to the interstate battery. I had a red top on a skeet thrower that I charged and charged for about 8 years before ot finally quit taking a good charge.

You may have one from before the company changed hands , they are not the same after keep running it

My cranking battery, an optima group 34 Bluetop, I removed from my previous boat 3 years ago. It is still the first to go “full charge” every time I plug in the boat. No signs of slowing down. My house battery is a bluetop group 27. It is discharging a little more these days. It was one of trolling batteries from the last boat. One of the group 31 blue tops is now in my truck.

The life cycle of any battery is determined pretty much by the amount/number of deep discharges. They are a better battery than a lot of other brands. But, like a lot of things, they don’t last forever.

Optima has priced the new batteries a lot higher…close enough to make the lower cost lithiums a close topic when decision time eventually comes along.

I have had Optimas last over eight years, I sold the boat and don’t know how far they went.
Make sure your charger supplies 10 amps and up to 14.6 volts to EACH battery.

If it does NOT your batteries will last about a year. You will lose capacity after each charging session.

yep, johnson control (wally world batteries) owns them now and the quality seems to have dropped.

I am not going Lithium...yet. What brand of batteries are recommended since Optima has slipped?

For cranking and graphs I use a 200 minute group 31 AGM made by East Penn

But for trolling motor Amped outdoors single 36 and I will never use anything else


If weight isn’t and issue the above mentioned group 31’s are animals for TM

This duracell is an east penn as well as deka. Both come in agm

Thanks guys. I bought the Duracell 31 AGM at Sam's yesterday. I captain a HS team that has back to back on Ray Roberts this weekend and I couldn't afford to have a battery issue this weekend and I didn't have time to shop anymore. Gonna roll with the Cell!

Lithium seems dangerous. Do a quick YouTube search on lithium phone batteries catching fire. Holy cow! And that is a super small lithium battery. Can you imagine the fire and related damage from a 60 lb lithium battery on a boat?

Different kind of lithium. Marine ones are LifePO4 not a hazard like cell phone batteries

Did not know that. Thanks for the info. Was concerned that if a 5 oz. lithium cell phone battery can bring down a 747, an 800 oz. lithium battery might destroy a small town.