Had drained the batteries on the war-pig and the saga towards keeping the batteries charged was painful. I thought I had fried the computer in the truck for certain (crazy noises from the dash, speakers making noise, all the lights flashing on/off, no crank, nothing) but it turns out the batteries just needed a few days of cycle-charging. While trying to figure out how to return my new Optima Red-Tops to AMAZON.COM (they do not accept returns on the batteries), I got the following advice from Optima customer service (through email):

Do you still have your receipt?
What is the model/part number from the top of the battery?
What is the serial number from the 1" X 3" white "non spillable" decal from the side of the battery?
For nearly all people (over 90%) who believe they have a "dead" Optima battery, the battery only needs to be charged. If the battery has less than 10.5v most battery chargers won't do anything to charge the battery using typical procedures, and most test equipment will erroneously indicate the battery has a bad cell.
I need you to try the recovery method below and reply with results along with the information I requested above.
If an Optima is deeply discharged (below 10.5 volts) most basic chargers will not supply a charge. Also keep in mind an Optima will not recharge properly if treated as a regular flooded or gel battery. To charge the battery, you can wire a 2nd fully charged automotive battery (12V+) to the discharged AGM in parallel (+ to + and – to –). Then hook up the charger to the discharged battery, setting the charger at 10 amps. Leave for 2 hours, monitoring frequently. When the discharged battery reaches 10.5 volts or more, remove the 2nd battery and continue charging the AGM until fully charged.
Typically we recommend charging at a relatively low current, such as 2 amps, but when the battery has been deeply discharged, some sulfation of the battery plates may have occurred. If you charge at 10 amps, the higher current will help to break up this sulfation.
If you have an automatic charger, let it run until the charger indicates charging is complete. If you have a manual charger, estimate charging time by multiplying the capacity (amp hours or Ah) of the battery by 1.2 for a rough estimate of charging time in hours.
In most cases these steps will recover the AGM battery. It’s okay for the AGM battery to get slightly warm during the charging process. Hot to the touch means there’s a short and the process should be discontinued.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, the new batteries are holding their charge for the moment. Even more embarrassing, the OLD OPTIMAS appear to be holding their charge as well.

Morale of the story: now I have four charged Optimas, the truck starts/runs fine, and the world is (almost) right once again.

Thanks to the folks at Optima for their quick response through email (the phone number for warranty support was a dead end).

Thought you good people should know - the Optimas are not dead until they are dead... The old ones are (eight?) years old now I believe and holding between 12.1 to 12.5vdc.

-Jim

Many chargers and tests do take issue a voltage that low, the second battery is in effect buffering the low Optima allowing the charger to do its thing. Not sure how you got that low but it if was from the truck sitting for a long while you might consider a float charger to maintain them while the truck is not in use. While an AGM is much more resistant to a deep discharge such as this it is still not good for them and WILL ultimately shorten their life.

As for the old batteries, after a full charge and allowing them to rest overnight if they are only showing 12.1 – 12.5 volts they are toast. A fully charged battery should be 12.6 or a little more. Even though they may keep a charge and show 12.5 volts for several days they will not have much capacity.

Diesels_n_Poker,

Hopefully these will help you out:

1. Amazon will take returns on Optima batteries. Their policy contradicts itself. How can they say the product is hazardous to ship back when they just shipped it to you? However, if you have installed the batteries then they are technically "used". No one will take a used battery back that is working properly because it cannot be resold as new.

2. Congrats on doing the parallel charging technique. It really works. I personally know a person who scours the warranty piles of many dealers looking for "bad" Optima batteries. He recovers most of them using the technique and then resells them at swap meets. He's got a nice little business. Though Optima does not condone selling used batteries, the fact is most suspected bad batteries are actually just fine.

3. Your batteries resting voltages at 12.1 - 12.5 are probably fine. They probably need more time on a charger. Its when you can't get them above 10 - 10.5 volts that you can probably assume it has a bad cell (each of the 6 cells has 2.1 - 2.2 volts). Most batteries will charge up to about 80% of their capacity when following the individual charger manufacturer instructions. Getting the last 10 - 20% final full charge on batteries takes a lot longer on most chargers because as the voltage of the batteries increase the output of the charger decreases. Sounds weird but thats the way it works. diesail is correct in that they should eventually get up to about 12.6ish to be considered fully charged.

I have recovered a few from junk piles myself. I have also ruined a couple alternators by leaving lights on and then starting the engine and charging the Optima battery. I did make it home though.

Well, so far so good. I let the truck sit for a few days - no problems. The old batteries are 12.55 and 12.35 after sitting on the concrete for the weekend. I'm going to see if I can top off the lower one. Never hurts to have race-ready batteries lying around the house.

The truck needs a road trip...