# [EVDL] Optima vs Odyssey



## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

From: Mark Hanson
> I was curious which battery has the best longevity, the Optima D34M
> (blue top) or the Odyssey by Enersys 34M-PC1500? The Odyssey claims
> a 10 year life and the Optima a 7 year life in a UPS application so
> it sounds like the Odyssey would last the longest for an AGM battery
> but does anyone have a third party study showing longevity?

Life in UPS service is not a good predictor of life in an EV 
application. UPS batteries spend a long time with the battery on float 
charge, and only have to supply a low number of discharge cycles. This 
is not at all like an EV application, where it spends almost no time on 
float, and has a large number of deep cycles.

In my experience, the old Optimas (before they were bought by Johnson 
Controls) were good AGMs. Internal resistance was very low, allowing 
very high discharge currents. Cycle life of the blue and yellow tops was 
a bit short at 200 deep cycles.

New Optimas seem to have lost a lot in quality. The best of a batch are 
may be as good as the old ones; but there are significant variations in 
quality within batches. You'd have to buy a lot of extra ones, and test 
them yourself to get a good pack (and better be working with a dealer 
that lets you return the ones that don't meet specs). Then you may still 
have problems with early failures.

Enersys (nee Hawker, Oddysey, Gates) still seem to be making high 
quality batteries. They are very consistent and capable of very long 
calendar life if properly used (I have examples over 10 years old). But 
again, the deep cycle life is only a few hundred cycles (typical of AGMs).

-- 
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814 8th Ave N | Forget the perfect offering
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## EVDL List (Jul 27, 2007)

I am "double posting" this because I subscribed to the mailing list prior to
posting this originally and I'm not sure if you are able to see it or not.

I want to add to this discussion because there seems to be a good bit of
information either not known or overlooked.

Any AGM I can think of is capable of a Starting or Deep Cycle application.
There are inherent differences between which is better at what though. The
Odyssey and Optima batteries are primarily Cranking batteries, despite the
"trolling thunder" label on certain odyssey's and "blue top" deep cycle
optimas. Yes they are capable of being a deep cycle battery, but they are
not a true deep cycle so they wont last as long as one.

One of the reasons Odyssey makes such a great starting battery is because
they use pure lead and the plates are very thin, 2mm as I recall. A good
starting battery will have thin plates and a good deep cycle battery will
have thick plates. You should know that Odyssey has a very specific float
voltage so if you put them in a deep cycle application you'd better make
sure the float voltage is 13.5-13.8V per 12V. As Optima does not use pure
lead they should not have this specific restriction.

Discover makes a fantastic AGM deep cycle battery. I believe their plates
are 5mm thick. You can check out their website by googling "discover
energy". Beware though, they are an international company so many battery
part#s they list are only available in other countries. It's best to stick
with standard BCI group sizes like their EV24A-A, EV27A-A, EV31A-A, etc.

Other companies, like Lifeline also make true deep cycle AGM batteries. You
just have to know to look for it. Hopefully you have a sales person
well-informed enough to know this stuff. 

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