Hi
Optima will last longer in abusive situation (I Think I already mentioned that) by abusive I mean poor charging By poor charging I mean alternator and no stage chargers also not recharging in a timely manner, so basically its a like breeding a dog that you can kick without injuring it, but heh why not just try NOT kicking the dog?
Lead acid batteries have and still are used in very extreme bumpy and vibrated enviroments and survive with no problems.
There are certain extreme conditions where a gel battery would be better BUT None of them exist in a tear. BTW the optima is a lead acid battery hence it can use any charger, with spiral plates it can release big power very qickly (Great for a starterbattery) it has recombinent properties to absorb the gasses.
Q You summed it up pretty well, except On the gasses thing, batteries can be boiled (which steams off the electrolyte) but this is cause by excessive voltage or thermal runaway (thermal runaway is generally caused by a bad cell, this can happen with anby battery topology)) all batteries (the ones we are talking about) produce power by electrochemical reaction, when charging (even normal charging) it will produce gas, it must, charging cannot occur with the gas being produced, difference is in how its handled.
With gel batteries you must keep the charging low otherwise you ruin the gel, with lead acid its not that great an amount and even with a vented battery. How many times have you had to top your car battery up? If like most people None, ponder that for a while cant be losing a lot can it?
The Optima is a good quality battery, its expensive though and it does not seem to possess any benefit that is must have for a tear
So it will last longer with a poor charger, duh get a decent charger and battery cheaper than the Optima (in fact have enough spare to buy spare/replacement batteries)
Coop, one other thing
Yes, I do enjoy the ability to charge fairly quickly and the discharge is LLLLOOONNNGGG.
Discharge length is measured in Ah,an ah from Optima is exctly the same length as an ah from any other battery, the battery you have is (according to the optima site) only a 41 amp hour battery, any group 24 has twice the Amp hours, hmmmm but if its half the amp hours would that not charge up twice as quickly........
Forget anything with Ni in it, ie Nimh Nicad excetera as deep cycle batteries tottally unsuitable.