need 100% recharging of battery or is 67% ok?

you'll be fine, but when you have a chance, you should top it all the way up so it's at peak performance. good thing it's a yellow top, the drain shouldn't affect it's lifespan compared to an oem. shut the door!

 

Yes, charge it up all the way. No worries about hydrogen build up. It is the last thing to build up anywhere, having the ability to escape just about any container. The battery, at a slow 2 amps charge rate, will not off gas enough to be any concern. So close the door, charge away. At 2 amps, it will take a while. You should see 14.8 volts while the charger is on, when completely full. If it doesn't get there, it might have a shorted cell.

 

In my opinion its toast due to the excellent deep discharge it got. These little batteries sulphate pretty quick.
But I guess you can keep charging it and see how it does. Look for a bright red triangle on the dash that only shows up at boot up for one second. Thats to alert you the battery is has now dropped below 11.5 volts. That particular light is the only lamp not used for bulb check on the dash when you boot the car so its hard to miss when thrown although many posters with bad batteries seem to miss it. Pretty noticeable to me.

And once in a while turn the headlights on at night before you start the car and see if they dim when its booting up. If you ever see a dim when booting the battery is done.

Btw, a sulphated 12 battery is very hard on the Inverter to charge and your mileage will suffer.

 

pleasure, all the best

 

Lots depends on the "charger".

Late model expensive ones switch depending on voltage to a maintainer mode so they don't overcharge. Then they wake up every so often and query the battery and only turn the charge function on if the voltage has dropped. Some even have a specific desulficating cycle. And an AGM setting for your Optima.

If you are getting such precise readings, you may have a smart charger.

Optimas are good stuff, sounds like you are on the road to recovery.

 

This. ^^^^
Given your stated useage patterns, you NEED an automatic tender-type charger that you can connect once a week or so overnight to keep your battery up near 100%.

 

Be aware doesn't really matter if it charges up its how well it can hold a charge over time.
Check battery voltage on jump points at night and then again when u go to use it the next day. See how it does over just 9 hours.

 

i think you're good to go.

 

Just to verify, should "12.4%" read "12.4 volts"?

If you've just charged a 12 volt battery, not applied any loads to it, and few hours later it reads 12.4 volts, that seems kinda low. A freshly charged battery in good shape should be reading abnormally high, due to surface charge, maybe 12.8~1.9 volts. Then, after a few days later, having had some loads applied, it should be in the neighbourhood of 12.5~12.6 volts.

 

Sorry ED but it does matter.
A lead acid battery sulphates less the higher the charge IS.
It is best to keep it as near to "full" as possible, especially when not in use.

 

OK, maybe, but not really good.

IF.....you did not have the doors open or otherwise have anything turned on before you made that measurement, it is a bit low.
Nominal is 12.6 for flooded cell and 12.8 for AGM.
It may last for many months like that but it bears watching.

Did you catch what I said about getting an automatic charger ?
The one you have now either is not automatic OR you didn't leave it connected quite long enough because the "float" voltage at full charge usually is about 13.4.

 

That's great.
Too bad its already sulphated.

 

If you want battery longevity, aside from avoiding high temperatures, don't deepen the charge-cycles any more than necessary. Deep-cycling alters the physio-chemistry of the electrodes, shortening the life of the battery. Some batteries are better-designed to withstand this, but in general, the less intense the charge-cycling, the longer a battery will last.