I can get either the Red top starter battery or the Yellow top deep cycle for the same price. Both have 650 CCA. car is stock except for MSD box and Two Alpine AMPs. Which one should i get?

 

The Red Top is a starter battery. The Yellow Top is a deep-cycle battery. Using a deep-cycle battery for starting the car is bad for the battery and will also void any warranty on the battery.

 

My read of the info on the Optima web site has it the other way around - you can use a Yellow Top as a starter batt as well as a stereo batt, but letting a Red Top be used in a deep cycle mode will kill it. This is consistent with normal battery usage i.e. never deep discharge a starter type battery. See the usge section of the web page.

 

While completely discharging a starter battery is not a good idea the optimus batteries are pretty good at taking it. We use these batteries in out formula lighting car here at WVU. For those of you who have never heard of FL cars, most people haven't, they are electric powered formula cars. We run 38 red tops in series for 532 volts which is converted to AC and make about 200 hp from
2 rpm's to about 15,000 rpm's. These batteries get abused regulary and the batteries are deep cycled from time to time. They hold up fairly well considering. For you application you should use the red tops when the car is running it should keep up with your stereo but if you happend to run your battery dead while listening to stereo with the car off I wouldn't worry bout it too much.

 

go yellow top,

its powerful and great, you will have to beat the tray a bit, but itll fit...

pics in sig....

 

FiReBReTHa - how long have you used a yellow top for?

 

red top

 

hmm..... four-five months...

went thru some serious temps, bad as$, and its been drained a few times as well.

 

after reading posts and talking with Optima I've decided to go with the Red top. Thanks for your replys!!!

 

yea,,, well,...... your red top aint as sexe!