And I paid $140 for my Yellowtop Optima, installed by myself

 

Screw the Yaller Tops! These Optima batteries ARE NOT the Optima batteries of six, seven years ago. Ever since Johnson Controls bought them and shut down the US plant, moved the entire operation to Mexico these things are over-priced crap!

ALL my Jeep/off-road/winching buddies who swore by these things three or four years ago have ended up replacing them pre-maturely and have moved on to other brands. My local Sam's Club (where I bought mine) has dropped the brand due to all the returns.

I've got one I bought in the fall of '09 to use as a combo 2nd battery in my truck and trolling motor battery in my little boat and it won't hold a charge worth a damn and it's probably been in the boat three times. I just bought an Interstate combo crank/deep cycle to replace it. Higher CCA, higher reserve and $119 at Sam's.

As for your battery, Sheriff, it's got a boo-boo that is swollen, do what you would do if you had a boo-boo that was swollen. Put some ice on it and call it a day, LMAO...

BTW, HOT as hell here too, but 98* Monday and thunder-boomers all afternoon to around dark every day. So I just make sure I get to the golf course by 7:30 AM, LOL...

 

It was only about 75º on that batteries last run but it did have a lot of juice getting pulled out of it thanks to my sub woofer.
I welcome the heat on golf days, it keeps the retired guys off the course because they can't handle it. You get a group of four of those guys in front of you and you're in for a 5 hour round because they don't like to let anyone play through.

I just did some research and saw the same thing mentioned in a lot of different places about Optima batteries. There are people with 10 year old Optimas that are great then there are people with two year old Optimas that have been replaced three or four times.

I think I'm going to go with a Duralast Platinum because it's an AGM battery with a three year warranty for $50 more than an Everstart MAXX.

 

+1 Hammer.

I've read some good things about Odyssey. Maybe check those out if you haven't already.

 

+3 on the yeller top. Screw that. Get another Everstart Maxx. It's cold that did it this winter, along with the fact it may just have been defective. Does the truck sit for a while before you use it? Do you have to jump start it when it does? I'm talking about during the winter. If the battery died during the winter a couple times, it froze, and now it's toast.

 

What the f*ck, y'all think I'd lie to you about a battery??? You gotta go checkin' to see if I'm lyin? I see how you are...LMAO...


BTW, my golf days just took a hit, my unemployed a$$ just got a job starting monday morning as a tech in a Corvette/Classic Hot Rod specialty center...

 

Your battery is serviceable, believe it or not. There are tons of videos on youtube, but I will summarize for you here. The led plates inside the unit get a build up of sulfur over time. The flammable gas coming off as a result is sulfuric acid. You can buy 1 gallon of distilled water, and mix in 1 cup of Epsom salts - this is how you make fresh battery electrolyte. Remove the top caps carefully & find a safe place to dump out all the old contaminated liquid in it. Then fill it with the new stuff you just made. Then, attach a trickle or float charger & let that go for about 24-48 hours. The new electrolyte & the slow trickle charge will knock off a lot of the sulfur build up on the plates and allow for several more good years of service. FYI - the sulfur build up is what prevents the chemical reaction between the led plates & the electrolyte. In time it can cause swelling too. Some of that swelling will stay because plastic does not like to go back to it's original shape completely, but as long as it does not leak it should still be safe. A new battery may be easier, but you can think of this as a great combination of cheapness & being a bit of a mad scientist on top of a home mechanic.

 

Hell, do what I do. Buy you a new battery then with that old one take the top off and pour the water in it on that PIA neighbor's prize Rose garden, you know the guy who's forever bitchin' about how loud my Cherry Bomb muffler is. Then I take them lead plates and melt 'em down for fishing weights...

 

Congrats Hammer!!! Have fun with that. I know I certainly would....

 

NEVER use regular tap water in a battery, it speeds up the build up of sulfur.