Battery and Alternator questions

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

If your alt is able to sufficently power everything you have running (along with recharging your battery) then all your battery does is start the car.

Sorry nope the battery and alternator work together. Battery is important for other reasons too.

 

[ColterDC 10+ year member]

Sorry nope the battery and alternator work together. Battery is important for other reasons too.

Care to tell me what else a battery does in a vehicle who's alternator is able to produce enough power to run all of the electronics?

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

Know how an alternator regulates voltage???

Go turn your car on then disconnect your battery and crank your music, then please provide me with your wonderfull feedback //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

If I'm really feeling destructive, go turn your car on and disconnect the battery then listen to your music at a volume that the alternator can handle powering. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[Sephious 10+ year member]

If I'm really feeling destructive, go turn your car on and disconnect the battery then listen to your music at a volume that the alternator can handle powering. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

But don't actually do this, unless you like frying stuff and possibly harming your alternator itself.

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

But don't actually do this, unless you like frying stuff and possibly harming your alternator itself.

Yeah seriously though I'm just being an A$$ don't do that, your alternator cannot operate properly without a battery and will not be able to regulate voltage well, might very well spike your voltage so high it damages all your equipment. Battery does like half the work bro, when the alternator is in the off phase for regulation the battery is where your system gets it's power. (and your alternator will be in the off stage a lot.) As far as I know all the modern alternators do not have different settings they regulate voltage via being full on and full off and make these calculations several times a second to keep an average +-1 14volts. They don't regulate unless their is a battery hooked up and may spike the volts enough to damage equipment, also the battery that is being used in the OFF cycle of an alternator can really make a difference in a sound system, just saying.

 

[i2ain2thunder 10+ year member]

and don't get me wrong either I think a HO alt is more important than a new battery but the battery will make a difference is what i'm saying even in a system where the alternator can run everything. I understand your point though, in a circuit electricity flows from highest voltage to lowest and the alternator sees the battery as a load just like everything else most of the time, but don't rule out batteries bro.

 

[ColterDC 10+ year member]

The point is that if you have a good battery, even a stock battery, that holds it's charge and is working properly. Going out and spending $300 on some overpriced battery is not going to make any difference. You're better off spending that money on a HO alt.

All of my systems (yes they're not 3000rms+ or anything) but they all run off stock batteries or regular autozone/napa/whatever replacements. It's the HO alternators that make the biggest difference. To many people see these pros with their 6+ battery set ups and think that's the cure to all their problems, when 99% of the reason they add all those batteries is because they need to run their systems with the car off.

And don't worry, I didn't run home and do what you recommended. Unless you own certain pre 1980 cars, don't try and disconnect your battery after the car is running. Although early model cars do prove my point that once a car is running, the battery does become mostly obsolete in the electrical system.

 

[orphe 10+ year member]

Care to tell me what else a battery does in a vehicle who's alternator is able to produce enough power to run all of the electronics?

Turn the car on???

 

[09civic 5,000+ posts]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rotflol.gif.b453361716769b8110ddefc85ff03cd2.gif

at everyone above

 

[ahole-ic]

100% disagree with this statement

Why? He's right.

 

[ahole-ic]

The alternator is not a battery charger. It doesn't monitor the battery voltage. When the vehicle is on, and the voltage is up around 14v, it doesn't matter if there is a battery there or not. The battery doesn't filter any high ripple and it doesn't filter any low ripple above 12.8v... so there is still plenty of ripple in the line. All this "an alternator does 50%" is TOTAL BS and you're showing how little you know about the electrical system. Please stop trying to help people and educate yourself.

 

[wickedwitt 10+ year member]

Yeah seriously though I'm just being an A$$ don't do that, your alternator cannot operate properly without a battery and will not be able to regulate voltage well, might very well spike your voltage so high it damages all your equipment. Battery does like half the work bro, when the alternator is in the off phase for regulation the battery is where your system gets it's power. (and your alternator will be in the off stage a lot.) As far as I know all the modern alternators do not have different settings they regulate voltage via being full on and full off and make these calculations several times a second to keep an average +-1 14volts. They don't regulate unless their is a battery hooked up and may spike the volts enough to damage equipment, also the battery that is being used in the OFF cycle of an alternator can really make a difference in a sound system, just saying.

Energy storage and energy potential are two completely separate entities. That is why an alternator and a battery go hand in hand. You cannot have a stable DC cycle without both properly doing their part of the job.

 

[ahole-ic]

Energy storage and energy potential are two completely separate entities. That is why an alternator and a battery go hand in hand. You cannot have a stable DC cycle without both properly doing their part of the job.

Not true. If you were actually concerned with filtering the ripple the alternator put out, you would add a cap in parallel and not a battery. An alternator by itself will create a very stable electrical system if the devices are operated within its limits.

 

[mac208x 10+ year member]

Get an Oddesey battery, they last way longer than optima and other AGM batteries, They may cost little more than an optima but its worth it. An Average optima lasts about 2-4 years oddessey lasts 4-7 years heck i even had people bring 9 year old as cores to my shop. And also instead of buying another battery, save some money and buy a HO rebuilt alternator.