Charging my Optima Battery

[garment]

Happy Holidays Pelicans:

I installed an Optima Battery in my '83SC, and now it's time to put it on charge for the winter. Side note: how awesome is it to get rid of the huge stock battery?

My Optima model has side terminals available. Can I charge the battery via the side terminals?

Thanks!

[Solamar]

Sure, you can charge by the side terminals. Many of the modern chargers come with a pigtail you can permanently connect to the battery to make connections easier.

Ive got this one. Has three LED's that give you an idea of state of charge (green yellow red).



Speaking of chargers, make sure you have a quality modern charger that is compatible with AGM batteries. The Ctek chargers are known good, others are hit and miss.

[Quickstep192]

I don’t see any reason you couldn’t connect the charger to the side terminals, but I think I’d make sure the positive terminal is well insulated so something can’t accidentally touch it and make fireworks.

[Eagledriver]

You can hook it up either way. I don’t normally keep a charger on an optima battery. They hold a charge really well. The exception is if your car has a parasitic load. My wife’s Boxster will drain the Optima in about a month, so I keep a charger on it. My 72 911 doesn’t have that problem. I leave it for months and it starts right up. If you leave it for more than 2 months, I’d put a charger on it for a few hours before taking it back out of hibernation.

-Andy