i was looking into get a blue top battery and i was wondering is there any spec i should be looking for and where can i buy one for a resonable price? if anyone has any info or has one please let me know.
Check Optima's Website. I have a yellow top (which you can see in my pics below). A blue top is technically a marine battery, but what ever floats your boat (no pun intended )
...also look at audio websites online like woofersetc.com and sounddomain.com, and they can be bought at Pepboys too. I bought mine for $150, but the place I got it from is a rip-off, but I had a $50 dollar coupon
I talked with Optima a couple days ago about their batteries and they said it didnt really matter much which top you got although they said yellow was designed more for audio. They said the important part is the color of the bottom of the battery. They make a black and a light gray. He said that the light gray is designed for deep cycling while the black is for starting. So which ever color top you get make sure its gonna do what you need it to.
starting and deep cycling
can you elaborate more
i know of course starting is to start your car but whats the deep cycling about and why doesnt the battery do both and etc...
From what i understand, a deep cycle battery is able to be discharged up to about 80% without "hurting" the battery.
Do you know of anybody that has left their lights on with a regualr car battery before? How about left them on a few times....after a while, their battery will be practically useless the more times it is discharged over and over.
Deep cycle batteries can be discharged almost all the way and still be recharged to their fullest capacity over and over again. That's why they are a good purchase for car audio people who like to have their car turned off and play their music which is draining the battery without ending up killing their battery so easily.
Starting batteries i believe are the most commong, used to start cars, produce lots of current for a short period of time. Starting a car may take away only a few percent of the batteries full charge, if you play your music with the car off for a long time the batttery will discharge and this is bad for this battery.
Marine batteries are kind of in between, they are able to produce large current for short time to start a boats engine, but then they are also able to be used to power other boat stuff like lights and radios and other stuff that boaters do out in the middle of the lake, they can discharge about half way and still be able to be charged up to a good as new state.
I think this is all accurate, a friend works at a place that sells boats and RV's and this is how he explained it to me.
Another thing is this, check to see the ampere/hour rating of a battery, if you have a 60 amp/hr battery, you'll be able to pull an average of 60 amps of current from the battery for approximately one hour
Optima has just released a Yellow Top designed to fit Civics. The part # is Group 51 Yellow Top. I recently purchased one through TNA SPORTS for $99.95.
Why is the Group 51 for the civic....i cant find anything anywhere saying that this battery is for a civic. I went to several pages and saw that they dont make a battery for BmW and Hondas.
My stock battery BLOWS!! Without anything on the car aftermarket yet, my headlights dim when i am not accelerationg. It is like a mini light show when i drive....FACTORY STROBES!!!!! Is optima going to be the best for when i start doing things to the car? I like the deep cycle option a lot!!!
a bigger battery wont help with stuff like that. cars are prone to diming even when stock. only way to help that is capacitors or any other source of power with a discharge rate that fast.
I had the same problem with Optima, depending on which customer service rep that answered my call. The Group 51 Yellow Top has been recently (May) manufactured by Optima to fit the battery compartment for Civics, Hondas, Acuras. If you check the Optima website, you won't find any reference to the Group 51 fitment. As I stated in my recent reply, I recently purchased this battery from www.TNA-SPORTS.com. You will also be able to see a picture of this battery on their website.
Again, Optima has manufactured a battery (Group 51 Yellow Top) to fit Civics, and not everyone has been informed, including some of Optima's own customer service reps.
dunno about the new yello tops to fit civics, but i have the normal one or wutever, and that shit didnt fit. i had to bend the battery tie down to make it stay put
Yea. I sized up the standard Yellow Top (Grp 34) for a possible fit--and NO WAY was that going to fit without some serious effort. The new Yellow Tops (Group 51) match the OEM part size for our Civics (See Majestic Honda website). Again, these are new batteries and not to be confused with the existing stock (Grp 34). They are so new that Optima hasn't yet updated its website, incorporating the new battery size.
Originally posted by donatto Yea. I sized up the standard Yellow Top (Grp 34) for a possible fit--and NO WAY was that going to fit without some serious effort
Check the My Ride pics below homie...it was easier for me to do then putting in a capacitor! ...just took a little bit of creativity, if that.
also, after putting in the battery the voltage readout on my cap does not drop as low as before (used to drop to 10s, but since I have not seen it go below high 11s...and I have Never noticed any dimming whether before cap, battery or whatever.
)
Optima Yellow Top 
