i have too many benzes, i suppose. what astonishes me is how fast batteries go south. and i store my cars in a climate controlled garage[60-80]

i put my e320cab up in the spring love bug season in early april, wanted to take it out today. dead. dead. dead. this battery was new in april 2002. all cells were still to the brim.

and the interstate battery would not take a charge. and the griot's garage jumper pack 400 wouldn't fire it up either. by the way, this is a lousy product - don't buy one.

it loved the new battery, though. fired right up. radio wanted the code re-entered, but all presets had been remembered[how did this happen?].

and all the window presets had been remembered.

sometimes, after encountering this situation, i think of replacing the standard batt with one of the optimas. but, when i examine them, i ask myself, how can i secure them in the benz batt comparments? they have no foot for clamping them. and they are too tall.

if the optima product is such an advance, why don't those design engineers configure it to fit into the envelope of a standard automotive battery. if they did that, it would be a "no brainer". if they are better, more long-lived, than the conventional auto batts.

any comments?

Deep discharge is death to lead acid batteries. I looked up the Optima on the web and although they make the claim that it can be stored for 12 months at controlled temp, when you open up the pdf datasheet, it makes no such claim and does not address self discharge at all. It does give a spec for recommended float charge, however. I am not convinced that the Optima is much of a revolution in battery technology. I am happy with my Mercedes 100A OE battery (For 130.00 I ought to be happy). Even if the Optima could survive a year with no charge, I think this would cause some harm to it. I think that is an advertising gimmick if it is even true. If you store a lead acid battery, you should keep a trickle charger on it. A lead acid battery that is kept charged up will last a long time. Only thing to watch out for is that you don't have a trickle charger that is a little "over vigorous" (too high voltage) that "boils" off the electrolyte. The fancier ones are self adjusting, or you can just keep an eye on the electrolyte levels.

Mike

__________________
1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

Do you take the batteries out of the cars and keep them on a trickle charger? If you just leave a battery in a car it will be drained quickly and the plates will oxidize and ruin the battery. My old SDL draws constant current I would imagin the newer ones are worse! MB makes a good battery, I know of a few coming up on 10 years old that are still fine.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

tkamiya just keep an eye on the water level in the battery. I know people you have ruined $1k worth of batteries for their boats by just throwing them on a trickle charger for 6 months and forgeting about them!

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Say for a 95 E320, the owner manual gives these specs

Alternator 14V / 90A
Starter Motor 12V / 1.7kW
Battery 12V / 62 Ah

Is there any formula to calculate how many startups such a fully-charged battery can sustain? Assume the startups are 'normal' (i.e. car fires right up), and that each time the vehicle is driven too short a distance to recharge the battery back to the state before ignition.

I know it's a hypothetical question, but have been very curious about this. Thanks.

The manual also states that batteries must be trickle-charged every three months minimum if the car is in storage. I know from working with battery engineers that a car battery has a finite number of deep discharges until the battery is used up.

__________________
95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K