I was told by battery freaks (just like oil freaks, or S2000 freaks) that AC Delco makes excellent batteries - I have also had good luck with Interstate.

Also consider a Battery Tender (Deltran) or a Battery Manager (from Griots but made by Deltran).

www.batterytender.com
www.griotsgarage.com

I have one I bought from Griots about 8 years ago that works great with "wet" batteries. It will slowly charge a batt (12VDC @ 1.25 amps), then go into a floating mode where it trickles the juice, but will never overcharge. This will give longest life.

Deltran keeps improving the unit, and the latest ones on their website have circuitry that not only works with wet batteries, but the gel type. Gels need special charging, and an occasional "blip" of juice that helpts resist crystallization. So my 8 year old unit will not be ideal for the gel batts, but is workable and will not overcharge them.

For longest life battery life, and to protect your alternator from premature death from having to charge a weak battery, replace the battery about 6 months before its estimated life (example: 66 months for a 72 month batt).

And get a new unit if you go to the gel type batts. They are $60 retail, but sold for less (I have seen $52 if you shop around).

I had not driven my car for about 2 weeks, but it sits in a heated garage with ambient temp never below 55 degF. Yet, it took the Battery Manager nearly 10 hours to bring the batt to full charge!! Those security, radio memory, and other milli ampere draws add up over time!

By the way, it is no hassle to connect - they come with ring terminal leads that screw onto the bolts on the battery posts, and end in a connector with the neg lead exposed, but the positive complete plastic shrouded - there is the same connector on the lead from the charger - so all you have to do is connect the 2, with no risk of shorting, and then plug in the charger. It has diode protection against improper (reversed) attachment at the battery, and will give you a warning light. It will not hurt anything in the car when it is charging (so the batt feeds to the various electrical blocks do not have to be disconnected).

I pulled mine apart, and the electrical design is sound, and the construction high quality - so these units are highly recommended as the optimum way to preserve the life of the charging system.

 

I've had bad luck with two Optima Yellows in recent months. The first one wouldn't hold a charge after using it for a couple of months. I returned it to get another and the second one started to boil (smelled like rotten eggs) on me after Fall Colors. No idea why that happened either, but I think, I'll give up on those for awhile.

 

Just an update, for those of you who inquired, we are still out of the Genesis batteries and I don't have a firm date for re-stocking. We always have trouble getting the metal-jacketed models for some reason and this time is no exception.

My apologies

J.P.

 

The Hawker battery is a dry cell. It isn't anything like a wet cell or gell cell.