Ok, before you just start posting how UBER the Optima Red top is, let me start off by saying " I know already". FYI : I've gone through about 3 of them through, replacement after replacement (mainly because they drained after sitting so long) and I can definitely confirm that it is a strong battery. My situation is that I had a red top in my ride, and lets just say it disappeared when someone was working on my car... sucks.. ages ago.. what can you do. Moving along ... I need a battery very quickly and don't have the cash on hand for another Red top. I do have funds available through good o'le "Sears" and they have their Die Hard Platinum sealed battery. Its $189 and is getting good reviews all over the place. It also has a good warranty. Although this is likely more expensive than a Red-top, would this be a suitable replacement if not better? (consumer reports supposedly ranked it over the Red top optima) Anyone using the Platinum? ---------- I found the thread about consumer reports. http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...hlight=red+top

My experiences with optima period have gone down south this year and I have stopped using them.Ive been through 2 yellow tops and a redtop in one year.Ive had crappy motomaster batteries perform better..and were way cheaper lol.

I think the platinum will do just fine,I only recommend while your in the process of a battery swap to super clean your battery wires first and make sure the ground to frame connection is mint.At first when I killed my redtop I thought maybe it was from the wires being over 20 yrs old.I upgraded to a 140amp alt.,2ga wire for power and grounds,added 4more 2ga ground points..then tossed in a yellow top. yes it put out alot more cold cranking amp and i barely ever ran my stereo with the car running.. and from one day to the next literally after3 months..i had dead cells.Tried charging it over 3 days very slowly and it wouldnt come back to life.

Onto the second yellow top and same exact thing.had a few others returned from the batch of 6 i orderd.Now im using a true perfomance battery its a kinectic and for the price maybe 20 more than yellows.. i bumped my car hard for a good hr out of the box and it fired my car up with true ease.never heard my starter so happy with good amperage lol.

I opted to go with the Platinum battery. I havent had a chance to plug it in, but will today and will post my experience with the battery later in life.

This is interesting as I have 2 vehicles with "Red Tops" one of which is my DD. I've had both these batteries for about 2 years. I don't have any problems with the one in my DD but my Z is only driven occassionally and the voltage loss over time is noticeable. I've done a circuit test and the only draw is from the radio , ECM and Quartz clock(this is a real draw). I find it neccessary to keep a trickle charger on my Z. And the problems noted with the "Yellow Top" is interesting and not the first time I've heard. I was thinking of going to these because they are the deep cycle ones. Please let us know how the Die Hard Platinum works out for you.

I am running a Red Top and I have gone through 3. Once they die on my car, they do not come back to life. But again, this is when I am working on my car and leave the power on something or a short. Currently all my electrical is fixed and I have subs and stock Alt. and it is sitting for weeks at a time with no power loss... So I do not know. Just dont let them drain completely or you cant trickle them or anything.

I switched to a red top 4yrs ago, never thought my head lights could shine so bright at night.

3yrs down the road, and trying to start a new combination, cranking and cranking, eventually the battery died. I took it back down to the parts store, put it on the machine, and they deemed it dead. Handed me a new one, and out the door I went. Personally I wouldn’t ever give it up, not unless I had an opportunity to get a different, comparable battery for a great deal.

Let us know on the Die Hard.

My last red top lasted 3 years (then after sitting for 10 months, it died). So I'm on my second one. So far, so good. I don't have any experience to offer on the die hard battery though.

I have had a red top in my Iroc for several years now and went through several of them from draining down while just sitting a couple of weeks. I was able to get them replaced under the warranty without a problem but it seemed strange they would drain like that. After doing some testing, I found that my alternator (Reman from NAPA) was the culprit. I replaced it with a new 140 amp powermaster alternator from Advance Auto and have not had a problem since even if the car sits two or three months. By the way, NAPA would not honor the warranty on their alternator since it was bought at another NAPA store and not at the one I took it to.

I have the red top... Got it from a friend after he blew his engine. Even after sitting in his garage for almost two years, it wasnt completely dead, and took a charge and held it the first time. The first time I charged it, it passed my load test to the maximum on the scale (900cca). Very solid battery, looks good too.

I'm using 2 Yellow Tops. I have the sound system powered on one and the car's electrical on the other. Both are connected to the alternator (140 amp) through a diode isolator. I am able to play the stereo very loud for a few hours and still be able to start the car. Last time I did this, I drained the stereo's battery to less than 10.5 volts, I shut off the stereo, started the car, and after a few miles I was able to do this all over again.