Topic: sealed gel cell battry leaking?

[MidgetMike]

Hey my orbital battery has a white powder around the cap is this normal? I thought these are sealed like optimas?   

[BigMike]

Hey mgtmke,

If you saw in my project, my Optima battery leaked on the (-) neg. side terminal after I tightened my ground wire back on and it sizzled and oozed out battery acid.

My batt. was only 2 months old, and Costco exchanged it without any trouble, so if your batt. isnt too old then take it back in.

[MidgetMike [OP]]

sweet thanks Big Mike i didn't thinnk they were supposed to leak or powder up.     

[BigMike]

Yeah, I was talking about it on Reply 635 on Page 22 and on Reply 662 on Page 23 of my project thread....

Good luck man

[MidgetMike [OP]]

Yeah Kragen let me trade up my leaking orbital to the deep cycle for the difference, know I got a deep cycle, I was gonna mount it like big mikes but decided to due a removable tray in the bed so I can pull the batteries for getto  on the trail   

[BigMike]

That's great man- I also wanted to pitch in the extra for the yellow top optima but Costco doesnt carry it

[DesertRat302]

Actually, you CAN get Optima yellow tops from Costco.They can be special ordered if your store doesn't normally carry them.Talk to a manager,it's no big deal.I work for Costco,we get our battery shipments weekly,so you could probably get one within a week. 

[MidgetMike [OP]]

I got an Orbital Blue Top, they are a little cheaper for the same thing, blue top has way more cranking amps than the regular sealed batt.   

[BigMike]

Actually, you CAN get Optima yellow tops from Costco.They can be special ordered if your store doesn't normally carry them.Talk to a manager,it's no big deal.I work for Costco,we get our battery shipments weekly,so you could probably get one within a week.

Thanks DesertRat, I thought they could probabely special order one for me, but since I drove my truck there with the damaged battery, pulled the battery to exchange it, I had no choice but to replace the battery while I was there.

Thanks!

[UNBREAKABLE]

The blue top batts are for "Marine Use"

[kneedownnate]

Sorry to hear about your leaking problem with the orbital, but it isn't terribly uncommon with orbitals.  We have buttloads of the red tops at work and I already parked a few of them that were new last spring for leaking, and quite a few of them that just decided to take a dump.  We still have some old red optimas floating around that are probably atleast five years old.  I got lucky a couple of  years ago and got three yellow optimas for free when a rich guy wanted to buy new ones as these were three years old.  Nate

[MidgetMike [OP]]

No worries I'll keep tradin them in since they don't mind,    eventualy they'll make a better battery or go out of bussiness