Optima Battery

[joez]

Does anyone know how to tell if an Optima Battery has gone bad? I have one in my camper that is connected to a solar cell to keep it charged. But when I use my inverter to power my lap top the inverter powers its self off because the voltage has droped too low. The battery is a few years old, but I thought it would last alot longer then this.
Thanks,
Joe

[joez]

Does anyone know how to tell if an Optima Battery has gone bad? I have one in my camper that is connected to a solar cell to keep it charged. But when I use my inverter to power my lap top the inverter powers its self off because the voltage has droped too low. The battery is a few years old, but I thought it would last alot longer then this.
Thanks,
Joe

[RV Wizard]

Joe, after fully charging it up and removing the surface charge you should check the voltage and do a load test on the battery. If it does not pass a load test then the battery is toast. Here are some good info links for batteries:
http://www.dcbattery.com/faq.html#1
http://www.usbattery.com/care.htm
http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Bat...ery%20Charging

www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm
You will want to make sure that the charger is set up for gelcell type batteries to prevent damage from not being properly charged.
Hope this can be of some help.

[LVJ58]

joez, Regarding your optima battery, is it a red, yellow or blue top? The yellow and blue are deep cycle batteries the red is not.

Jim