New Optima 12v Yellow Top D51 battery with Pencil Posts

Sorry Jim if you felt slighted because I thought you were in sales. You ARE after all selling lots of these to us by being on here.

Thanks for the detailed description of your batteries.

 

usbseawolf2000, as drees mentioned, reduced internal resistance allows for improved performance. Also, an Optima's round cells, high-grade materials and compressed installation process offers very good power output for their size and weight, while the cells on FLA batteries are often inserted into their cases by hand. Our YellowTop batteries are all designed for deep-cycle applications as well. While that typically provides more capacity, that often comes at the expense of cranking amps. For example, our Group 34 RedTop is rated at 1000 cranking amps and 100 minutes of reserve capacity, while our Group D34 YellowTop is rated at 870 cranking amps and 120 minutes of reserve capacity.

David, I don't feel slighted in the least at the suggestion that I am in sales. Because of the rules on most message boards regarding companies looking to pitch their wares, I do make a habit of clarifying that I am not involved in the sales end of things, as I really am here (and everywhere else) to help folks who either have our batteries already or have questions about them. I'd rather not get banned for offering that kind of assistance, if someone suspects my intent is to sell product and Optima doesn't pay a forum for the right to do that. I even take the same approach on the forums we do sponsor, as I'd prefer that our sales guys earn their keep and I have plenty to do on my end, without doing their job as well.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.powerpacknation.com

 

I received mine and installed it yesterday. Piece of cake to install--took about 15 minutes. Optima service was fast and friendly. IMHO, this is THE 12V replacement battery for the Prius.

 

With the free shipping mine arrived in just 3 days. Great service!

I chickened out on installing the battery myself (despite the confidence boost from usbseawolf2000) and went to Pep Boys. A tip for other reluctant DIY-ers: call the Pep Boys ahead to ask if they have a person who can work on a hybrid. I had to call around a bit. They quoted the higher hybrid price to me on the phone ($25) but ended up charging me only 15 bucks to install. That's a total cost of $215. Exactly what my local dealership wanted to charge me just for their battery!

 

Yea, let's see how long it will last.

 

I installed mine years ago and it is still working well despite abuse.

 

Can anyone point me at a post that includes instructions for hooking in a temporary 12v battery to preserve settings, etc? I've got plenty of 12v LiPo batteries from my RC hobby that will do for the job but I'm not sure where I should hook it up while I swap in the Optima on my '05 (111K miles, started showing a mileage drop about a year ago, the 12v battery hadn't occurred to me as a potential cause -- just went and did the diagnostic screen thing, 11.9v -- thanks Prius Chat! )


Thanks,
Peter+

 

Connect it under the hood at the "boost point". Use a bolt on the firewall as ground. I'd put a resistor in series, as the 12V battery in the rear will try to charge your temporary battery, or even better, a diode. Cathode to the boost point. A one amp rectifier diode will be fine, just don't touch the brake pedal and keep the FOB clear of the car so nothing in the car will be tripped.

 

Alternately you can do a shell game swap with the old battery:

1) Take the new battery and connect it to the jump point under the hood, using the firewall bolt for ground.

2) Disconnect the existing battery from the back. Be careful with the positive lead, as it is still powered due to the new battery connected under the hood.

3) Take the new battery around to the front and connect it to the same jump points. Do this *before* you disconnect the new battery.

4) Disconnect the new battery and carry it around back. Install it, being careful with the positive lead.

5) Disconnect the old battery from the jump points under the hood.

This method only works if the old battery is still serviceable. The old battery will most likely draw some charge from the new battery, so the new battery will not be fully charged at the start.

Tom

 

Could I just hook up my little Optimate battery charger to the jump points while I change batteries (to save settings, etc)?

(BTW, I don't need new batteries now but will definately buy Optimas when I do.)

 

Normally this will work. Some of the older chargers could get confused without a battery load, but any of the newer units should be able to float the 12V bus while you swap the battery.

Tom

 

Nobody has commented on this, but the truth is that eLearnAid will still sell you a yellow top and a conversion kit for $170. Bernie Littman does a good job on warranty backup, too. I just had to replace my 18 month old Optima. He would like to sell the new, direct fit battery, but, at least for the present, it is only available via the Optima online store. Optima will not sell it to Bernie's distributor. Seems to me like cavalier treatment of someone who has worked hard for over 4 years to develop the market for Optima. Sorry to point this out, OptimaJim and Danny, but someone needs to speak up for a fellow Prius owner who worked out how to use an Optima in his Prius and then built a kit for others to use, developed instructions (with the help of users) for the installation process, and worked hard to create the market for Optima. My vote goes to continuing to support Bernie and eLearnAid

 

baumgrenze, I appreciate your comments and will certainly forward them to the appropriate parties, as I am not involved in the distribution end of things at all. I can say that I understand Bernie's frustration, as it is also frustrating for us at times, that all of our retail partners do not carry our entire product line (although I can understand why someone selling batteries in the desert may not have much marine business).

I don't know what Optima's plans are for distribution of this battery going forward, but I do know they certainly want to make it available to as many consumers as possible. Please keep in mind that this is a very new release for us and were it not for our ability to sell direct from the factory online, this battery may not have made it to the US market as quickly as it did.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries

 

If elearnaid can get it and ship it to me cheaper I'd buy one, but I'd also be fine buying it from Amazon, or tirerack.com, or newegg.com for that matter. Pretty much anybody that is a reputable e-tailer would work for me.

I'd like to buy a Optima battery for my Prius but $200 is just too much. I know I can buy the yellow top that isn't Prius ready for $140, it's worth a few dollars more for convenience of not having to modify the battery terminals. Get it out there somewhere somehow that I can buy it at a reasonable price and you'll sell more of them and I'll assume the extra sales will more than offset the lower price.

I guess marketing wants a few months to see how many sell at $200 before they try lowering the price. I just hope they don't run that experiment too long and lose customers to cheaper products.

 

I'm still on my original battery since August 2004 - 7 years, 2 months.

 

dhanson865, we did offer a significant discount on our Prius battery when we released it last month and that discount was heavily-promoted on this site. Since you mentiond several online retailers, I should point out that not everyone who sells one of our products online is an authorized retailer.

Any retailer from which you purchase a new Optima should provide warranty service for you, for the full duration of your warranty. However, there are some online retailers that do not. We strongly recommend that you find out the warranty procedures before making a purchase. If the seller’s procedure is to contact the manufacturer or if they do not provide a customer service phone number that they answer (not the Optima batteries customer service number) we recommend looking elsewhere.

In the event that product support service is needed, online purchases must be shipped back to the original seller and can take several days to be processed and returned.

OPTIMA-authorized online retailer requirements:
• Ship Optima products in approved shipment packaging
• Answer a toll-free service phone number during business hours
• Adhere to and honor the Optima factory warranty policy
• Provide an in-house warranty program


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.facebook.com/optimabatteries

 

Can you give me more details on the promotion. Do you mean a banner ad, a coupon, rebate, discount, just the mention of it?

I saw plenty of discussion but if there was a discount of some kind I must have missed it.

 

We had a promotion we ran in banner ads on this site, which offered coupon codes for the Prius battery. I don't recall for sure, but I believe it may have been a 15% discount. I'm sorry you missed out on that opportunity. I know we have run other promotions for people who enroll in our Power Pack Nation program (which is free), although I don't know what promotions they have planned in the future.


Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
OPTIMA Battery Power Pack Nation

 

Not everyone gets banner ads. In the future it be a good idea if you or a Priuschat staff member mentioned the deal in a new thread if you want to be sure it gets in front of all the possible eyes.

 

August 2005 (72,000 miles) for me. I'm starting to get a little nervous because if the 12V battery in the Prius dies like they do in other cars the first indication will be a deathly silence when I push the ON button.