Dear OP: Thank you for creating this thread b/c I'm in need for a new battery with a question!
My 5-year-old Optima Redtop needs a little attention, and it's about time to have a new one. I have no heavy I.C.E. or anything, so mine is a Redtop, but I have absolutely no complaints about my Optima.
But I was recently in a search for other brands, just b/c I was curious to see if I can find a better spec yet lighter than the Optima I have now. I've heard the brand called "Odyssey" batteries, but not as much as Optima's.. If I can get a JDM Panasonic "CAOS" blue batteries, that'll be awesome, but not a chance atm..
Then, I came up with Braille racing batteries. They're known to be very lightweight, (1/2 of a regular car battery's weight), but after seeing some discussions by members who used to track their Accords, they' were saying:
Sounds good. What kind of racing you gonna do? Drag, autoX, road course?
Also if you are looking for a light weight battery braille makes some good stuff.
I can't stand my braille. i left the dome light on for an hour one night and it completely killed it, keep in mind this was with it BRAND NEW. i couldn't get it to hold a charge and braille refused to warranty it even though I had had it for less then a week. it sat in my garage for about a year until recently when the battery in my accord died I tried it out of broke desperation and it started the car up and has been holding a charge for at least 6 months now. It BARELY has the balls to crank my car over with it relocated to my trunk. If I have my lights on it'll kill an HID trying to crank and barely turn the engine over enough to start, this is the battery that braille recommended for a stock accord and my engine is lower then stock static compression so, in theory, it should be easier to crank then a stock f23. It was also incredibly over priced, I'd never buy another and never recommend them to anyone unless I hated them.
Sounds like braille is out, and optima is the way to go for me.
I will most likely be going w/ the Optima's once again. But, here's my question:
Optima's website sells it for $200 shipped. Other online stores sell it for $160 shipped, being on the cheapest side.
(Now, when I get some AAA batteries for my clock or TV remote controllers from a cheap store that sells them for a buck, I have experienced myself that, those ones don't last as long. I've heard that it's b/c most of the time those ones have been overstocked and became old even if they're BNIB. Thus, outdated new batteries are sold cheap but they don't last long.)
Can it be said for a car battery also??
I'm sure Optima will sell me a freshly manufactured one from their shelf, if I pay $200. But how 'bout those other 3rd party online sellers selling them $40 bucks cheaper than Optima's official site? ← They're pics of the Optima battery's label seem different (older, outdated?) than Optima's official pic's. If this is all true, then there would be a common phrase that I can be aware of: "You get what you pay for" meaning that there would be a $40 risk of the battery that it might only last for 4 yrs, as opposed to getting it from Optima's site and run it for 5 yrs or something like that. ($40 x 5yrs = $200, so $40 cheaper might be lasting 4yrs is my guess lol.)
Sry for the long essay, but does a car battery really age, even if it's not been used, BNIB?