Battery OEM Mazda or OPTIMA
My last experience from them was a yellow top from 2015 that I got for my '01 Mustang. Had it for 4+ years starting up just fine and survived despite having been drained dead 5 times or so. Sold the car before the battery died.
I had one. It lasted a good seven years. Still good quality, its worth it if you can swing the price.
My red top from 08/09 finally let go last week it has already been replaced by another red top. Highly recommended.
I remember this very interesting post a couple years back regarding AGM batteries and their charging requirements: On the one vehicle that I modified the charging circuit to run at 14.7V I have an Optima Redtop battery in it that has never been replaced. And this includes repeated discharges to near 0% SOC when the sales people at the tradeshows forget to turn the vehicle off after the show.
I always hear people talk about issues with newer Optimas but my old REDTOP is going on 13 years old and still going strong.
i have a optima red top in my drift car. its been in the car for atleast 4 years. 3 of which i have owned it. its been crushed, deformed, on fire and drained dead multiple times (always when diagnosing electrical issues or wiring up lights) and it still works great. it sits in my car hooked up and unused for weeks at a time with no issues.
The yellow top is what I have in my car and there is one issue I have with it, the amp hour rating. The yellow top is only 38a/h where the OEM is about 45a/h. This will lead to the inverter using a lot of energy charging the 12v battery and decrease fuel efficiency.
Yes it's overkill if you don't need it. Standard batteries are perfectly fine for 99% of use cases
It literally is of 0 benefit and in fact they have shown to have a shorter lifetime in these applications.
Optimas quality fell off hard when they moved manufacturing to Mexico. They've been riding on their previous reputation ever since.
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