are they worth the price? they cost twice as much as the exide deep cycle batteries that Academy carries.

Yep.....

They cost twice as much but last 5 times as long and the hold a great charge.

Im running 2008 models in my boat, no issues....

Someone said they had gone downhill quality wise. Anyone else heard this?

How much are they at Academy? Is it the blue tops?

The only issue I've had with them is that if they go completely dead, they don't charge up with my 3 bank charger.
I have to jump start them with a manual charger. Then, they are good again until they go completely dead.

Overall, they are very good batteries that every guide or tournament fisherman should have.

I just replaced a deep cycle blue top after 9 years. Amazing! Anyway, I shopped around and found the best price at Walt's Automotive NAPA dealer in Terrell. He carries all color tops, all at same price.

A battery is a battery IMO. The $75 Wal-Mart Everstarts have been working for a long time for me. I can't imagine paying $200+

Never had one last 9 years like sparkywags, but I've never had one leave me hanging that wasn't at least 5 years old either. Just my $.02

I have 4 blue tops in my Ranger and they seem like good batteries. Like Mr. White I have had the same issue when they reach a "very discharged" state my charger basically treats it like a battery is not hooked up to the charger and it's a newer high end MK 4x15 amp charger that says its compatible for AGM batteries. Plug in a standard charger for a little while and it reads it again. Overall good batteries!

Sounds like the over discharge issues you guys are having getting them back up to full charge might be a charger problem and not a battery problem. I have 4 blue tops and run 3 of them down pretty far fishing at night and both my AC and DC on board chargers bring them back up to full charge fine. It takes a while for them to cycle through the entire charging process but they do bring them back up to full.

I ran an optima blue on cranking for 8 years on last boat. When these die on the new boat will most likely replace with optima.

I had nothing but problems from them. 2 trolling and 1 cranking all 3 were replaced at least once. After 1 year I was fed up and exchanged them for different batteries. I'm thinking it was a charger issue but my Sears Plats have not given me a single issue after 2 and a half years with the same charger. I also ran 2 Optimas on my truck they would go out at 18 months and need to be replaced. When I first put them on the boat I convinced a buddy of mine to swap his to Optima as well. He got rid of his as well due to problems.

My last Everstart was junk.

Been running them for almost 20 years, had one battery [censored] out on me, they replaced it no questions asked.