XS vs. Yellow Tops

[Cassinova 10+ year member]

I am debating between XS 5100 and Optima Yellow tops. I was thinking Yellow under the hood and XS in the back. You think the combination is bad? For my budget these are all I can afford. I heard nothing but good things about XS and Optima's have a lot of mixxed reviews for some odd reason. I feel like optimas would be easier to replace too if they crap out. RMS power for my car is only 3000 watts .. or you think two yellows would be fine?

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[Buck 5,000+ posts]

Go all XS. XS > Optimas by quite a bit IMO.

 

[Mookie 10+ year member]

What size alt do you have?

 

[oxsign 5,000+ posts]

I have 2 YT for my AQ3500, but I also have a 275 HO alt.

 

[retrojordans 10+ year member]

While your vehicle is running, all of it's electrical components draw power from the alternator, when the alternator cannot keep up with current demands the electrical components start to draw the left over amperage from the battery(s).

XS Power is made by Powermaster. Yellow tops are made by Optima.

There is absolutely nothing special or different about XS power batteries they are standard AGM batteries, marketed toward car audio...

Optima actually has parts of their batteries patented e.g. Spiral Cell technology making the actual plates less prone to breakage and therefore inherently much more shock / abuse resistant.

The bottom line is there are regulations on battery manufactueres requireing them to produce what they claim.

A 31 series battery is a 31 series battery. Car batteries have been largely unchanged since the turn of the century.

I recommend going with Optima simply because a D31 Yellow top is $215 while a 31 series XS is more like $350...For no reason.

A battery can be ruined in a single day in the wrong hands. The fact that you are mentioning other people's reviews of batteries shows a lack of knowledge of what it is a battery even is.

A battery is a battery, if it works, it works...If you don't maintain it properly -- which doesn't mean put it in, hook it up, and then complain on a forum when it fails because you did nothing proactive to maintain it's life span -- you will damage it and ruin it.

 

[retrojordans 10+ year member]

Most people have problems with AGM batteries because they can deeply discharge and not be completely ruined, well the little ****** load testing machines pep-boys and autozone likes to use don't know this they ask you stupid questions like "how many cold cranking amps is it?" which has nothing to do with car audio loads which are long term cycle loads...e.g. 100amps for the length of a whole song...not turning a high torque motor for 3 seconds (starting a car in winter)

A deeply discharged deep-cycle AGM battery (6.xv-9v) is not a huge problem..They can be recovered. Not to mention if your alternator(s) was up to the task your batteries would never drop to such ridiculous levels.

The best method for recharging a deeply discharged AGM battery is to purchase a modern charger that has kept up with battery technology. Many chargers now have AGM-specific settings and de-sulfation steps that help recondition and recover deeply discharged AGM batteries. These are becoming more common, and they work well for all lead acid batteries. They have the additional capability of doubling as a battery "maintainer" for vehicle storage. Some come with additional wiring to permanently attach leads from your battery to an accessible spot on your vehicle. This makes it easy to hook up when you store your car, truck, boat or RV.

Batteries require maintenance and that goes for any brand...If I didn't maintain a XS power battery and let it die because I'm a moron, you think I would say that on a forum? Or just say "Those ****"....yea...

 

[Cassinova 10+ year member]

While your vehicle is running, all of it's electrical components draw power from the alternator, when the alternator cannot keep up with current demands the electrical components start to draw the left over amperage from the battery(s).
XS Power is made by Powermaster. Yellow tops are made by Optima.

There is absolutely nothing special or different about XS power batteries they are standard AGM batteries, marketed toward car audio...

Optima actually has parts of their batteries patented e.g. Spiral Cell technology making the actual plates less prone to breakage and therefore inherently much more shock / abuse resistant.

The bottom line is there are regulations on battery manufactueres requireing them to produce what they claim.

A 31 series battery is a 31 series battery. Car batteries have been largely unchanged since the turn of the century.

I recommend going with Optima simply because a D31 Yellow top is $215 while a 31 series XS is more like $350...For no reason.

A battery can be ruined in a single day in the wrong hands. The fact that you are mentioning other people's reviews of batteries shows a lack of knowledge of what it is a battery even is.

A battery is a battery, if it works, it works...If you don't maintain it properly -- which doesn't mean put it in, hook it up, and then complain on a forum when it fails because you did nothing proactive to maintain it's life span -- you will damage it and ruin it.

You are the man !

 

[Bad4health 10+ year member]

its what ive been saying for a couple months a 31 is a 31. an XS power batt "says" its 110Ah and when people say so what, a deka 8a31 is 105Ah and 150 less. all they say is "well a xs is 5000 MAX amps discharge while your deka is like 2300" .....but isnt MAX not to be looked at....so about 2500 right? so how much better is a d3100 to a different 31 group?

somebody answer

 

[Bad4health 10+ year member]

matter of face it doesnt say if the 110Ah rating is at 100 hours or 20 hours my DEKA 8A31 says 110ah at 100 hours so i guess my batts are 110 too lol

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

matter of face it doesnt say if the 110Ah rating is at 100 hours or 20 hours my DEKA 8A31 says 110ah at 100 hours so i guess my batts are 110 too lol

If it were measured at 100 hours it would more than likely be less at 20 hours...the Ah rate though is a 20 hour rating of 100Ah.

 

[Bad4health 10+ year member]

thats what i was saying about XS power. it doesnt say ANYWHERE if its 100 hour rate or 20 hour rate. i googld the shiz out of it too.

8a31=105ah at 20 hours and 110ah at 100hours

D3100=110Ah at ?? hours and ????ah at ???hours

do you see now?

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

thats what i was saying about XS power. it doesnt say ANYWHERE if its 100 hour rate or 20 hour rate. i googld the shiz out of it too.
8a31=105ah at 20 hours and 110ah at 100hours

D3100=110Ah at ?? hours and ????ah at ???hours

do you see now?

Doh! yes I do

 

[Bad4health 10+ year member]

i have been on all of xs powers threads and all the sites that sell them. how can a "great company" have so little info on the actual specs of their products like its a secret.

 

[Nathan@XS Power 10+ year member]

While your vehicle is running, all of it's electrical components draw power from the alternator, when the alternator cannot keep up with current demands the electrical components start to draw the left over amperage from the battery(s).
XS Power is made by Powermaster. Yellow tops are made by Optima.

There is absolutely nothing special or different about XS power batteries they are standard AGM batteries, marketed toward car audio...

Optima actually has parts of their batteries patented e.g. Spiral Cell technology making the actual plates less prone to breakage and therefore inherently much more shock / abuse resistant.

The bottom line is there are regulations on battery manufactueres requireing them to produce what they claim.

A 31 series battery is a 31 series battery. Car batteries have been largely unchanged since the turn of the century.

I recommend going with Optima simply because a D31 Yellow top is $215 while a 31 series XS is more like $350...For no reason.

A battery can be ruined in a single day in the wrong hands. The fact that you are mentioning other people's reviews of batteries shows a lack of knowledge of what it is a battery even is.

A battery is a battery, if it works, it works...If you don't maintain it properly -- which doesn't mean put it in, hook it up, and then complain on a forum when it fails because you did nothing proactive to maintain it's life span -- you will damage it and ruin it.

XS Power batteries are made by XS Power. Powermaster has nothing to do with XS Power and is a completely different company. Optima is made by Johnson Controls.

Actually there are a lot of things that make XS Power Batteries different from the competition, and we will have some informative videos coming up soon to better explain this. One thing that makes XS Power batteries different is the technology used in making the batteries. Lead Tin technology is by far the leading technology in AGM batteries. The Lead Technology allows us to make the lead plates thinner and pack more plates into the cells of the battery. The more plates you have in the cells the more surface area you have in the battery.

thats what i was saying about XS power. it doesnt say ANYWHERE if its 100 hour rate or 20 hour rate. i googld the shiz out of it too.
8a31=105ah at 20 hours and 110ah at 100hours

D3100=110Ah at ?? hours and ????ah at ???hours

do you see now?

i have been on all of xs powers threads and all the sites that sell them. how can a "great company" have so little info on the actual specs of their products like its a secret.

The industry standard AH rating is the 20hr rate. Our AH rating info is on our site, so either Google wasn't looking very hard or you may have just overlooked it. I am on plenty of forums you are on and I can't ever remember you asking me what the rating is. We do not try to hide any of our ratings or info from the customers and all you had to do was ask. FAQ’s « XS Power

The true question here though is are you wanting batteries to run fog lights and trolling motors or for car audio? I say this because AH ratings have NOTHING to do with car audio. In no way can LOW amperage pulls for HOURS be equated for HIGH amperage pulls for SHORT periods of time. Of course if you want to run your 20amp fog lights through out the night to light something up, then you need to pay attention to the AH rating, but for car audio AH means nothing.

The battery can be 500AH but if it is not able to provide the power your system needs instantaneously, then it is going to do you no good. There are specific designs for batteries to get the AH ratings up. To do this you redesign the battery's internals to limit the power output and prolong the time. Just like having 5 gallons of water in a bag. If you put a 1/2" hole in the bottom of the bag then the water can only come out of the 1/2" hole and it will take longer for the bag to drain. If you put a 2" hole in the bottom of the bag, of course the water will drain out a lot faster. If you only need a little amount of water at a time for an extended period of time then the 1/2" will be fine, but if you need need a lot of water quickly then the 2" will work better for you.

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

I'm sure XS is a quality product, but so are my DEKAs and like stated before, much, much cheaper. I would run that over a Yellow Top as I have heard quite a few of them going bad on people randomly. I think it's the fact of Optima sells more batteries in a month than most other companies do in a year, so there's a higher batch rate of bad batteries as QC can't be at the same level. They also use recycled lead whereas these higher-end performance companies (DEKA, XS, Kenetik) use virgin lead so it holds its charge and handles being abused (over discharged) a couple of times better.