Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | Also from my experience with them, you never have to deal with terminal corrosion. That spiral cell design will also take a tremendous amount of vibration pounding without failing. Also If you have a good charging system that does not exceed 14.5 volts and you keep away the guy with the big battery charger who likes to leave on the highest charge setting for 4 hours, they will likely last the life of the machine. They also self discharge slower in off season than a flooded cell battery and tolerate deep discharging much better.
The one thing that will kill those spiral cell AGM batteries in a matter of hours, is severe overcharging.
I have 20 + rigs with those spiral cell AGM batteries in them, a few Optimas and many cheaper locally avalible Exide Orbital clones of the Optima.
The Exide Orbital seems as powerful and durable as the Optima for $30 less locally.
My first Optima failed in my old farm pickup at 16 years old, and now a few years later, the Optima in my reversed loader tractor shows signs of weakening when it is really cold. I installed that battery when I built that tractor, which when I think back, was also 16 years ago.
I dont think I have ever had more than 10 years out of a flooded cell battery.
I suspect the short warranty on spiral cell AGM's is because they are so easy to tear up by abuse. ( deep cycling then overcharging is #1)
The fact that I can install one and never touch it again for atleast 15 years makes it worth the extra cost to me.
I guess I do a bit of maintenence, I tighten the lead cable clamp bolts every couple of years, as lead creeps under pressure and gets loose over time. I also put a few drops of "bar & chain " oil on the terminals every year or two.
Edited by Jon Hagen 4/5/2012 19:28
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Are Optima batteries really worth it on a tractor?
