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The above gents are right as rain. Battery tenders do seem like a new old car ponzi scheme, and there are so many, as with "dustproof" car covers. As owner of a black car, let me tell ya, ain't no just thing. However, in theory and practice, the closer you can keep any battery to 100% charged, the longer it'll last.

Every month, i put a 1940 Montgomery Ward battery charger on my Optima on the low setting, which puts out a couple amps. I leave it on for an hour and 45 minutes at most,
doublechecking before and after with a Harbor Freight & Salvage ohmeter a friend and i picked a couple of back in 1997 and have never replaced the battery of. $9.95 for the little rascals. Had to have "fallen off a truck."

Don't let an Optima get more than ambiantly warm.

Optima's aren't cheap, but again, mine's eight years old, a year beyond their seven-year prorated warranty, and still as good as it ever was. If you shop around, you can still get a six-volt Optima for $160 or so. Why buy a heavy, off-gassing wet cell battery to save a few bucks
when you'll be lucky to get six years from it? Again, weight's the enemy in any serious road car, luxurious or not.

Often think how sad it was that Packard wasted time with nonsense like the "sporty" Caribbeans in the '50s, which were mechanically stock but actually weighed MORE than a regular Packard convertible, just because the Company was by then reduced to chasing after GM's lead,
in this case the dopey Cadillac Eldorado and Buick Skylark.

Had Packard remained PACKARD--- perhaps were they still in business and sorry, but after Alvan Macauley departed April, 1948, Packard was just another me-too, also-ran, following GM's lead--- they might've produced something genuinely sporty and elegant akin to the R-Type Bentley Continental. The Packard Motor Car Company of the '30s and early '40s might've.

But this is off topic other than to emphasize weight does not = "sporty." Neither do wire wheels or heavy, reworked leaded hoods with dummy airscoops. The 1951-52 Mayfair coupe with stick and overdrive was a step in the right direction, but still looked like, in the words of one auto journalist then,
"....a bigger, gaudier Ford."

Go Optima. Never ceases to amaze me how readily it turns my nine-main-bearing crank's gear-reduction starter.
Optima was founded in Sweden in 1912, produced in the US in a modern, clean factory in Colorado.

I've dealt with Optima batteries before, especially in the car audio scene which favors them as secondary batteries for buffering large car audio systems. Usually when people report premature failures with them it is because of two primary reasons.

1) They are using a yellow optima, instead of a red optima as their primary (starting) battery. The red ones are starters, the yellow ones are deep-cycle. The deep cycles ones really dont like to be discharged and charged rapidly, which happens when used as a starter battery.

2) Over-charging. If you have a flaky regulator, or over jealous battery charger that cooks the battery, that will for sure reduce the life of an optima battery.

Amen. Cardinal-- Pope Kevin speaks the truth. I put a hand on my Optima to check for warmth when "trickle" charging it monthly simply to get it from 6.36 back to 6.4 volts as, again, the closer you keep any battery to 100% charge, the longer it'll last.
An old aircraft/auto mechanic/machinist, supercharged Cord-owning friend got ten (10) years on a wet cell battery in his '52 GMC pickup simply by keeping it fully charged at all times.

Underhood heat as on a warm day, parked, isn't the same thing as internal battery heat. Also, if you haven't yet, install a master battery disconnect switch.
Just make sure it's rated for more amps than your starter draws. That, and make certain you've got 00 gauge copper battery cables. "Heavy duty" from the local auto parts store in this 12-volt day won't cut it. I got mine at a Diesel big rig supply house. Have the ends soldered as well as crimped. And don't use one of those mickey mouse throw switches on the battery. Mount it under the dash on the firewall where you can reach up and flip it on or off.
Not only will it prevent battery drain when you car sits,
but makes working on the car easier.

On my '40 120, i mounted the switch on the floor just in front or under the front seat since the battery in those cars is under the floor beneath the front seat. I barked my knuckles squeezing a Type IV wet cell used in Packard Twelves into that compartment instead of the Group II 120s
came with, but that was long before Optimas were available.
BTW, any of you with prewar old-body-style Packards, do yourself a favor and pop rivet or epoxy a thin piece of plywood or other insulation on the steel floor cover of your battery to protect against the battery coming loose and the terminals arc welding your steel floorboards should you hit a bump at speed, etc.

These Optima batteries are what are called Absorbent Glass Mat (AGM) technology.

They are a regular Lead-Acid battery but the electrolyte is gelled and absorbed in a fiberglass mat that separates the positive and negative plates.

Optima rolls each cell into a tight spiral which makes the spacing between the plates closer which makes for lower resistance in the electrolyte.

This allows higher Amp Capacity out of a smaller package

A single lead-acid cell is two (2) volts, so three cells in series makes six volts.

The thing I like is they are always nice and clean and stay sealed to the end so they don't leak acid and get chorded.

You could carry a spare in the trunk or hook up two in parallel on the shelf.

As the terminals are nice and clean it is easy to lift one side if you are working on the wiring.

Here in Arizona a battery is usually good for a couple of years especially under the hood on a 120 degree day.

Batteries last much longer in my Model T Ford because they are under the rear floorboard.

Heavy battery cables make the big difference in starting and I use something I salvaged out of a TV transmitter that looks like welding cable unfortunately is has no markings.

The model T has its original 1922 battery cable that is at least an inch in diameter and quite long to get to the back seat. The negative ground on this car has a short cable to the car frame. The post connectors are brass and fit the different sized battery posts. You will notice one post of a battery is slightly larger than the other on all 6 volt batteries.

When the last Optima went dead in my Packard it was starting the car just fine and then one day it was a little slow, a little slower the next day and no go at all the next.

Optima will ship these directly but when I went to Batteries Plus they had one on the shelf no shipping.

In my car I have the 6 volt Optima and a small 12 volt (AGM) on the shelf with a custom hold down, (the original is in the trunk) I'm not sure you can get a 6 volt wet cell big enough to properly fit the shelf and original hold down, and I'm not sure I could lift it into the car.

I hope Optima gives me a discount for this testimonial :)

Jim

I am going to admit that I probably killed the Optima! From the above posts, I overcharged the battery for certain. Ahhhh well, to all things a season. Yesterday I bought a 2E tractor battery from the Tractor Supply and I have to say, it is the BOMB! It looks so right and man does it crank my old car! No more Optimas for Tootie. Thanks for all the advice, I am a happy man!