Capacitor & Second Battery Questions

[kustomciv 10+ year member]

Okay talking to local "Experts" and then getting on google and researching is about to drive me batty. Completely different opinions on everything I have asked so I am going to ask here

Local "Expert" said that a capacitor would be a good investment to have less strain on my alternator.

Google researching through threads say it's a waste of money and won't help much if at all.

So here is my deal, I have to buy a new battery anyways for my car, A stock battery for it can be had for around $60 and a capacitor for around $60, but for $40 more I could have a Kinetik HC 600 (which I know absolutely nothing about)

I know a new alternator would be the best investment but I don't have 300+ to drop right now.

so here are my questions:

1. All I have to run is a + wire from my regular battery to the second battery and ground the second battery and I'm good to go right? so basically it isn't any harder than doing an amp wire install? or is there more to it?

2. I've read I should get a Battery Isolator, Is that a must? also if the battery is 850 amps what amp isolator would I have to get? they seem kind of expensive except for the really low amp ones (80) would those ones be useless to me?

3. what size gauge wire would I run for the positive to positive on the batteries? I am assuming 1/0 or similar (everything I have for my amp is 4 gauge)

4. will this put more strain on my alternator and thus be kind of counter active against what I'm trying to accomplish? (thats what I've heard)

Also I've already done the big 3 upgrade

thank you for the help

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[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

he's trying to sell you a cap to make money in his pocket //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

don't do it. it's a waste of money. get a battery. you don't need an isolator. use 1/0 wire, no it won't hurt the alt. it's taking some load off the alt.

pos wire from battery (front) -> 18 inches -> fuse -> wire wire wire -> fuse -> 18 inches -> battery (rear)

 

[kustomciv 10+ year member]

he tried to sell me everything but his pocket, like a light up strobe to the beat bandpass box.

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

well most importantly... what are you running?

1. yes you can do it that way....

2. not a must... depending on how much draw your going to have, you might want to

3. once again, depends on what your pushing... but 4 gauge at the minimum (prolly a bigger gauge than that tho)

and STAY AWAY from capacitors... "local experts" always swear by them, but those experts are idiots.. they do nothing for your electrical

 

[Kangaroux 5,000+ posts]

Okay talking to local "Experts" and then getting on google and researching is about to drive me batty. Completely different opinions on everything I have asked so I am going to ask here
Local "Expert" said that a capacitor would be a good investment to have less strain on my alternator.

Google researching through threads say it's a waste of money and won't help much if at all.

So here is my deal, I have to buy a new battery anyways for my car, A stock battery for it can be had for around $60 and a capacitor for around $60, but for $40 more I could have a Kinetik HC 600 (which I know absolutely nothing about)

I know a new alternator would be the best investment but I don't have 300+ to drop right now.

so here are my questions:

1. All I have to run is a + wire from my regular battery to the second battery and ground the second battery and I'm good to go right? so basically it isn't any harder than doing an amp wire install? or is there more to it?

2. I've read I should get a Battery Isolator, Is that a must? also if the battery is 850 amps what amp isolator would I have to get? they seem kind of expensive except for the really low amp ones (80) would those ones be useless to me?

3. what size gauge wire would I run for the positive to positive on the batteries? I am assuming 1/0 or similar (everything I have for my amp is 4 gauge)

4. will this put more strain on my alternator and thus be kind of counter active against what I'm trying to accomplish? (thats what I've heard)

Also I've already done the big 3 upgrade

thank you for the help

Caps actually put more of a strain on your alt than batts do, batts can be putting out power for a very long amount of time whereas a cap is constantly pulling large amounts from the alt to recharge. Not to say a batt won't do the same, but a batt will at least be able to release that power over a longer period of time.

bad4health sells deka's on here for $120. They are beefy as hell and get the job done. bought one local from a friend who went through bad4health, the batt must weigh in at around 100lbs.

 

[kustomciv 10+ year member]

I'll just be running my audiobahn amp @ 400 watts to my macdaddy 10"

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

I'll just be running my audiobahn amp @ 400 watts to my macdaddy 10"

so why do you need a 2nd battery? you should be able to run off stock electrical.

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

what kind of car?

if thats all your running... depending on the car, you really dont have to get a second battery... it will help of course... but first you must do the proper wiring, so you dont strain your electrical... but as long as your alt is over 100 amps, and you have a decent front batt, you really shouldnt be falling below 13v on just the audiobahn

 

[kustomciv 10+ year member]

thing is when I bought the car it had a strong battery in it and had dimming headlights with just a crappy dual set up that was in it, I'm afraid once I upgrade to the 800watt amp that I'm going to have to deal with that all over again. I haven't had a system in it since doing the big 3 upgrade so I don't know if that helped at all or not

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

big 3? what battery/alt size is in there?

 

[kustomciv 10+ year member]

from my understanding the stock alternator on it is only 70-80amps

 

[jco1385 5,000+ posts]

no big 3 upgrade? i'd start there. you'll need to do it anyways.

 

[kustomciv 10+ year member]

no sorry I have done the big 3 upgrade, I stated it in my first post

 

[mast240 10+ year member]

what kind of car is it?

 

[kustomciv 10+ year member]

its a 97 civic ex