I just recently had my battery die on me so i decided to get myself an optima yellowtop.

Got it from a wholesaler in QLD for $240 delivered. Batteryworld down the road wanted $415.

Started the car up for the first time this morning and bloody hell...starter sounded like a machine gun.

Anyone else using one of these? If so how long have you been using it?

I read all the pros and cons (made in mexico etc, etc) but the main thing for me getting one is my battery is in the boot and with the cordia i could never drive with the windows up...or never wanted to risk it anyway seeing as i smoke while i drive. When i went to recharge the battery i replaced, it was bubbling and hissing which kind of confirmed how hazardous the fumes from charging could be.

Just interested to hear anyone else's experience with these batteries.

I had a dry cell odyssey.........worked great until I left the car and it went flat.........couldn't charge it for all money......apparently they need a "special" charger.

I have one in my rx7, well i'm onto my second one, the first one died just after i got it, but they said it was faulty and replaced it. Haven't had a problem since, and i've had it at least a few years. The car can also go for 2 or 3 weeks with out being started, and starts up fine.

Yeah i'm hoping i didn't get a dud. I was looking at odyssey but they don't sell one the size i wanted.

I did a bit of reading on recharging these things. Apparently if it drops below 10.5 volts most battery chargers will think it's no good anymore and not even attempt to charge it up. To get around this you need another battery (not sure if it needs to be a dry cell or not) and hook the charger up to it and then hook this battery up in parallel (+ to +, - to -) with the battery your trying to charge. Once the flat dry cell gets above 10.5 volts you can connect the charger to it and it will charge like normal. Optima recommend Ctek chargers http://www.ctek.com/au/en