IXLR8

In fact the East Penn Pow-R-Surge 648MF (flooded lead acid) battery that I chose to install, is also available as an AGM, part number: 9AGM48. It was about $100 more. Other than marginally more CCA, all other specs are the same.

And the 648MF was 100% identical to the Porsche - Moll Kamina battery that I removed.

IXLR8

Mark, the vast majority of chargers, like 99% of them, are nothing special and don't even meet a battery's requirements. Consumers think they are great because they get 5 years from a battery and I don't consider that to be a long lived battery. I tested quite a few in our labs at work and you wouldn't believe the crap they put out for big coin. We have since bought a slew of Xantrex chargers for the department.

I wanted some specs on the new Optima charger and the Optima guy got back to me that it was proprietary info. All I have to do is connect the data logger to it and I can determine exactly what it is doing.

The other aspect nobody seems to consider is the on-vehicle charge voltage and without an in-car voltmeter, how would one know if it is too low or too high.

Mark in Baltimore

Understood since you've posted this before, but all I know is that Schumacher has tested chargers and approved those that meet their specs. What that means to an electrical engineer or how any of those chargers physically affect an AGM battery, I don't have a clue, but if it's good enough for the manufacturer, that's a pretty good place for me to start. Considering that Schumacher has not only sanctioned other companies' chargers (as well as their chargers, of course), I would call those recommendations quite objective.

What I'm fairly certain is that the Sears charger I used on the first Odyssey 925 killed it. To be objective, I don't know with 100% certainty that the old charger killed the battery, but I have a pretty good hunch. If my current charger kills my 925, I'll let the board know.

Oh, the charger I got was only $75, so it was considerably cheaper than Schumacher 's offerings and didn't have a noisy fan.

NC TRACKRAT

As posted previously, East Penn's batteries are carried by Sam's Club under the DURACELL brand. Our Group 48 conventional battery is $85. 8 yr. warranty. East Penn is also known under the DEKA brand.

Edward

I've been done with the so-called "better batteries" yeeaars ago! Given their significantly higher cost, they have never, not even once, outlasted or outperformed (that I could tell) any of the garden-variety batteries you can get from Costco, Autozone, or PepBoys. In fact, I've been burned by these "performance" batteires (yes, bought into the hype of the Optima years ago ...simply crap!) lasting shorter than the cheapies. Never again. All the battery hype is marketing garbage as I have consistently had better life from the regular ones at significantly lower prices. And yes, I am talking about cars driven regularly. My unvarnished opinions based on my experiences over many cars (personal, extended family, and friends' cars) ...take it FWIW.

Edward

mongrelcat

Optima Red in my car, since '2005 I think. It was run down to nothing once (accidentally left the hood unlatched for a few days.) Car gets driven at least once a week and always to the point where it's well exercised, I don't use a maintainer. Guess I got lucky with a good one. It will be a dilemma when it's time to replace...