i have an optima yellow top in my xb with 500 cold cranking amps. i was wondering if the higher yellow tops with 900 cold cranking amps have any power advantage or can sustain power draw better than the latter? or does it even matter?

 

....

 

i would think it would have an advantage......but don't hold me to my word...

 

i thought yellow top was for marine boats. i not sure why but i have always been told to stay with red tops for cars.

 

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the idea of using a deep cycle battery in a daily driven car. They are great because they suffer no ill effects when discharged, but they are tougher to recharge than a "car" battery. It makes sense if it's a show car that with a system that plays long periods of time with the engine off. In my opinion a Sears "Die Hard Gold" is tough to beat. I always buy the biggest one that will fit my car.

 

badtouch......are you running a large system or anything???? if not then i wouldn't worry about it.....if you are running a system and having light dimming problems, just get a 1.0 farad capacitor...

 

The blue top is the deep cycle marine I've got one.If you have a big system and a whole hell of a lot of lighting you need this one. If you drain the yellow top it takes forever to recharge, the blue on the other hand is made for things like this.

 

With a big system, that 1 farad cap isn't gonna do anything at all. Trust me I've been there. I have a 20 farad cap and I'm straight now

 

I really must CHIME-IN here.........
Red Top Optima's have absolutely NO warranty in applications where High current draw stereo systems are used in the same vehicles! Check with Optima for yourself!
Yellow Top Optima's are the only ones that will be warrantied in that application.
NOW Red Tops do have a 5 year warranty, TRUE
Yellow Tops have a 1 year warranty.
and just so you know BLUE TOPS are specific for marine applications!!!
Most of the cheaper stereo shops in our Great Land use Red Tops because honestly they don't care about your warranty, and Red Tops are cheaper for them to buy! So they get a battery that will work for the job,and make them a better profit margin AT THE TIME OF THE SALE! Now when you come back saying Hey my Red Tops NOT holding a charge properly, they'll kindly tell you YOUR warranty is with Optima NOT them and ultimately it's YOUR problem, BUT hey they got the initial sale.
I'm personally in the 12VOLT industry & have been for over a Decade, so I do know this 1st hand to be true! If your a real SPL GUY/GAL there are many other manufacturers for even higher current draw systems out there! Sorry about the long post.......

 

isnt it something like keep a red under the hood and yellows in the back? plus some caps and what not

 

im running a Alpine DVD head unit, a JL 300/4 amp under my front seat, and a JL 1000/1 in back powering my two JL 13W6v2's. i get dimming but i also dont have a cap yet. . . but ive always tried to stay away from caps. no idea if a deeper draw battery would help but now it looks like its going to come down to getting a cap.

 

yeah......prolly a batcap©.......I'm not talkin a 1500+ watt system....I had an infinity 1000 watt running mono on 3 mtx thunder6000 12" and a kendood 4 channel 400 watt amp runnin mb quart PSD 216 components and my lights dimmed....i bought a 1.0 farad cap and problem was solved.....then again....I've seen 600 watt systems with 1.0 farad caps the still dimmed lights.....so it varies by system...or car...or something....

 

yea it varies by car...if you took a 1000 watt system and put it in 5 different cars i bet soem would dim more than otehr or soem not at all

 

Capacitors are worthless.

There is also no difference between Blue Tops and Yellow types besides the connectors and the MARKETING!!!

Deep Cycle vs Standard Battery:

A normal lead-acid battery will be damaged if it is completely drained (even if it's only one time).
A deep cycle battery is designed to survive being drained multiple times.
Deep cycle batteries have more reserve capacity but have less cranking amps for a given size.
A standard battery would have more total surface area on its plates when compared to a deep cycle battery of equal size. This extra surface area provides more area for the chemical reaction to take place and therefore produce a higher output current.
The electrolyte in a deep cycle will be a slightly more concentrated sulfuric acid than a standard battery.

And done.

 

...the blue tops are water proof...and have blue tops

 

Waterproof, eh? No different than a Yellow top.

 

well...blue tops are proof to more types of water...and the tops are still blue pssh

 

Anyone know what the smallest battery that will still Crank up? Not worried about stereos with huge power draw, just looking for the lightest battery that we can use.

 

watch batteries....or if you got a really long extension cord...

i dunno arent all batteries basically the same more or less in terms of weight and size ...i know thers a few odd ball batteries but none the less

 

PS pep boys sells Red tops for 50 - 65 bucks...
yellow tops for 110 - 135...

there can't be that much mark up on a product that costs that much less...

Most good car stereo shops will give you two options: yellow tops for show cars or cars that get deep cycled a lot, or red tops for moderately larger systems that still need an upgraded battery... Yellow tops do not like being charged and worked at the same time... that's why they are reccomended for show or SPL cars... which hardley get driven and often get drained...

there are orbital/rockford batteries (which always get dropped off by an EXIDE truck) which are slightly more expensive then yellow top optimas that also can put out and are good for constant abuse while charging... the rockford battery is similar to the orbital (relabeled perhaps?)

wasn't there another post on this?