I have an Optima 35 Red in my 1995 Legacy
I often have to travel and if I am gone for more than 1 week, the battery is dead and needs recharging
Do I have a bad Optima battery or does the Optima not tolerate 1 - 2 weeks off time

I started noticing this problem after I put in a Recaro Drivers seat

Once by accident , I had left the seat heater on and the battery died
and had to be recharged
But since then I have been very careful and the battery dies regularly

And always gets recharged quickly

Or do I need a relay to disconnect the Recaro seat ( for any steady off time current drain ? ) or a special relay to disconnect all loads
or do I need a new Optima ?

First, you need to figure out what "dark current" load you have (circuit(s) drawing power even when car is off). Stock, it shouldn't be more than 35mA or so. Higher currents, say double or triple that one, could drain your batter after a week as you describe. Often, an alarm, turbo timer, amp, or similar device draws some current while the car is off. Microwave proximity sensors, paging alarms, etc are frequent culprits. If you think it might be something connected with your seat, use a multimeter in milliAmp mode *in series* with the circuit powering the seat stuff (easiest way is to just remove a fuse and stick in the two multimeter probes to temporarily "splice" into the circuit). Once you know what's drawing the excess power, you can decide how to deal with it.

Hopefully you do find that it is dark current or something else like that. I have been hearing too many people (mostly from car audio boards) complaining of Optima batteries not holding their charge properly. It is a possibility that your batt is bad (but I hope not, and I hope my red top doesn't have any problems either). If you got it somewhere local I would say to try and take it back and exchange for a new one.

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I've been having the same problem with a Braille battery.

I can fully charge the battery, and it drops below 10.7volts after just 2 days (ie: a weekend).

I installed a low-voltage disconnect so I can drive the car after it sits for a weekend, but I've even had the battery go dead with the disconnect. That tells me the battery is rapidly self-discharging. It sounds like you might be having the same problem with your optima. Try charging the battery fully (with a charger), then disconnect it from the car entirely. Check the voltage. Let it sit for a couple days, then check the voltage again. The voltage should not change really at all over that length of time. If it does, then your battery is bad.

^^^ Agreed, and please make sure to let us know the results. I have been trying to keep an eye on bad Optima battery threads lately.

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You guys need new batteries......the Braille batteries just plain suck.....and someone posted about a bad batch of red tops in another forum...

You guys need new batteries......the Braille batteries just plain suck.....and someone posted about a bad batch of red tops in another forum...
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Which forum ?

You may very well have a bad Optima, it does happen. However before condeming the battery you really need to do a test for standby drain as already recommended. An excessive drain will kill any battery.
A good Red Top, in a vehicle with a normal amount of drain, should last for over a week with no problem and in fact should go considerably longer.

You guys need new batteries......the Braille batteries just plain suck.....and someone posted about a bad batch of red tops in another forum...
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Which forum ?


...if I remembered, I'da posted it....sorry. :(


...and just get a new battery and stop beating a dead horse......once a battery has had issues, it usually is all done.