Probably not the direction you are looking for but the currently increase in battery prices ($150+ for auto store economy level batteries) pushed me to try out a Walmart special for $50. So far it's been working fine for the last few months.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/ValuePowe...up-35/47308799

 

I had a 51r optima yellow top fail under a year old. I ended up just getting an Autozone AGM that has been holding strong.

 

i took a left turn, and bought a U1LUH size, its $49 and 350cca so its the same as stock.. they had it in the wrong bin, so i thought it was $29!

the 51R is the better choice, but its $130!

 

The Interstate 51R turned out to be $70-something at Costco after returning my old core.

 

The Optima Red Top battery in my daily driver expired after 9 years of solid service, so your mileage may vary.

 

I vote AGM, since it won't screw up your engine bay by leaking acid. I replaced the lead-acid with another AGM once I realized it leaked. I'm super bitter about it, I had run AGM batteries before this but but went with a cheap stock-sized one to save $50 or whatever it was. I spent many hours cleaning acid, and it will still need to be repainted some day.

 

Nasty. I'll look into AGM for my next batteries... mechanic replaced mine with an AC Delco.

 

I’m running a 51r powerxs battery after 3 different optima batteries in less than as many years I won’t ever buy another one. Unless you drive the car weekly at leastI don’t recommend. But this power xs has held 13v after a month of sitting, about a year old now and pretty impressed

 

Agm

 

yep. Had an optima red for my v8. After it’s time was up I went with Walmart brand. Just as good or better. They have good batteries.

 

AGM. I had 2 recent failures of Optima. Really....... it's 2022 and we still have to deal with that? It could be they just didn't like the Infiniti, but I bought an agm and 0 issues. I was getting nervous thinking I had a bigger issie. I had one in this FD and swapped it for an agm not too long ago.

Decades ago I ran one in my FC and it was the best battery I ever had... go figure

 

I'm on my second Optima Red-top. the first one lasted 13+ years and the current one has been in 4.5 years. No problems, no leaks. In my climate, 6 or 7 years is a very good run for a conventional battery in any car, and I was getting about 4 or 5 before my first Optima.

 

No personal experience with the Optima’s. Maybe if I was still autocrossing…maybe.
But fwiw I’ve been buying standard lead-acid batteries for my cars for the last 50 years and never had issues with leaking. Not even in the FD when I did autocross. Properly sized, properly mounted/secured and properly maintained… along with a good charging system, a standard battery will be fine for the majority. And I like that they fit like OEM, in the OEM tray with the OEM box and cover.
Paying almost 100% more for a fancy battery that lasts maybe 50% to 75% longer and probably doesn’t fit like OEM hasn’t been convincing imo.

 

This has been my experience as well. Hell, I only changed the old red top out because it was 11 years old. Optima was originally made in the USA, however now they were outsourced to Mexico about six years ago. The only issue I’ve ever experienced with an Optima battery is they don’t give you much warning sign before they go bad. They will test fine, and a week later they will short and not work. Just the downside to the spiral core windings. Another thing to note about optima batteries is there’s two different styles. The starter battery which has a dark case and the dual purpose battery which has a light colored case. Truthfully it doesn’t really matter what battery you decide to go with if it’s sized appropriately. But whatever you do, if it’s mounted inside the cabin, you need to make sure it doesn’t expel vapors when charging.

~ GW