I wasn’t happy with the replacement options for the old Mercury batteries. So, I stumbled upon the Varta V80H—a battery usually used in servers—and I built a charger for it. It’s the perfect match: it has good discharge characteristics, high capacity, slow self-discharge, and it's rechargeable!
Maybe last year I got a letter from Subaru Canada saying the battery was being recalled and I could get a replacement.
…After I had already replaced it with an Optima Yellow Top.
I get all my batteries in Screwfix. They do Varta brand which are exceptionally good for the price.
I just installed mine recently and works great. Just keep in mind it's an AGM battery.
My car previous to that ('98 Z/28), had an Optima Yellow top. The car sat in garaged for several months with a map light left on, and the battery was dead. It took about 15 minutes of jumping to get interior lights, and another 10-15 minutes to start. After this, I drove that car for another 4 years with the same battery without any other issues.
The OEM tundra batteries only last me 3.5 years at best. I always replace with an Optima battery.
The optimas (red top) I got in 2019 are still going. They are not the best though just better than liquid.
10 years ago, in Florida, I bought the red top battery for my F250 diesel. It blew up under the hood and sprayed battery juice on everything. It was only a few months old. Discount Auto replaced it for free under warranty. But I wouldn't buy another red top.
20 years ago optima was good. Now its 300 dollars for a 50 dollar battery. Used to get them super cheap as a jci employee and they would last made in Colorado but the quality control has been gone for decades.
Yes it's overkill if you don't need it. Standard batteries are perfectly fine for 99% of use cases
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