red top, yellow top, stock batteries??

[jlaine 10+ year member]

Originally posted by nswartley do a search...seriously. an alternator is what will solve his problem. a large battery that his alternator cant power is just as useless as a cap...and dont tell me that caps are good.

There should be no issues with powering a battery. To imply such would state that the battery has already been drained down to a dangerous level, which would again lead back into the reality that the alternator is undersized and the vehicle is falling back on reserve storage that is within the battery itself in order to keep itself going.

It's good to have a little bit of both in a well planned system. Healthy/strong battery, and a beefy alternator to maintain the operational level of everything in tow. They work hand-in-hand at all times, and if you ever do a little engine off listening, it's good to know you have a few extra Ah's sitting under the hood.

 

[geolemon 10+ year member]

Originally posted by nswartley but if your alternator is too weak to power the batteries then its close to pointless to put yet another thing that needs to be charged in your electrical system

Originally posted by dave_3148 rewibding your alts not gonna do a **** thing for your battery life when you play your system with your car off, get a better battery

You are both only partially correct...

nswartley, you are correct, in the way that you worded your sentence.

But are you accounting for insufficient wiring?

Consider drinking soda at a restaurant... you have the choice of a coffee stirrer, or a straw. You can **** with the same force (alternator capacity), and you will get more soda (voltage) in your mouth (at the amps) due to less resistance (ditto... burning up current in the wire, resulting in a voltage drop) in the straw compared to the coffee stirrer.

I'd rather use the straw... and look, I just might NOT need to **** harder to get sufficient soda in my mouth!

Likewise, you might not need to replace the alternator to maintain sufficient voltage levels, and current-draw capacities.

It's a matter of diagnosing what the appropriate bottleneck is! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

And dave_3148...

You are correct that a bigger battery will help with engine-off play time...

But realistically, what's the threshhold between having a system that's big enough to drain a stock battery into pulverization (almost literally.. warped plates, after all)... and having a system that's big enough to risk draining literally ANY battery that you can fit in there? Large current draw is large current draw...

I seriously NEVER listen to my system with my car off... IMO it's just asking for trouble. The car is your transportation... you got somewhere in it, why risk showing it off somewhere and getting stuck there? Wouldn't it be ironic if someone that you were showing it off too didn't have the most moral of intents.. you had to leave your car.. and your stuff got jacked? Bad bad bad... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[geolemon 10+ year member]

At any rate, getting back on the track of what this thread is about...

Your stock battery is just a typical battery.

Both red-top and yellow-top Optimas are sealed-cell batteries, using spiral plates.. I believe you can mount them at about any angle, and they are high quality. That goes for both of them.

The difference between red-top and yellow-top is that the yellow-top is a deep-cycle battery, and the red-top isn't.

Much in the same way that you can get standard car batteries that are standard and deep-cycle batteries.

I want to throw a capacitor in the comparison, to illustrate a point about deciding which battery is appropriate in what car audio application..//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

A Capacitor is an energy storage device that has lightning quick charge recovery times, lightning fast discharge rates when demanded.

A standard battery is an energy storage device that has reasonable charge recovery times, and reasonably fast discharge rates when demanded.

A deep-cycle battery is an energy storage device that has slower charge recovery times, and slower discharge rates when demanded.

It's known that capacitors are installed to take up a little slack in your electrical system...

Your amp demands a large surge of current to actually reproduce the huge transient peak it has just been asked to reproduce... but your car's electrical system may be a bit slow, if you have exceeded the current capability threshhold of your alternator (and there's NO harm in doing that!)... it has the resistance of your main power wiring to contend with, and then the discharge speed of the battery to contend with.

The Capacitor can provide very very brief surges of electricity for the amp to draw from, and then it discharges just as fast (of course, for long, drawn out demands.. no luck! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif)

But at any rate... having a deep-cycle battery as your only battery might actually be doing a disservice to your audio system!

Whether you "believe in" a capacitor's ability to help your car's electrical system out in these scenarios, you can probably understand their theoretical benefit.

Consider adding a deep-cycle battery almost the same thing as adding a sort of anti-capacitor to your system.. the battery might not be able to quite provide the full surges of current to the amplifier may demand.

What is the benefit of the deep-cycle battery then?

The ability to fully discharge your battery numerous times without actually damaging it.

With a standard battery (and even the red-tops), if you fully discharge the battery, you can warp the plates, reducing it's life each time.

A deep-cycle battery can withstand this abuse.

Regardless of whether you have a red-top, yellow-top, or standard car battery in your car, if you play your system with the car off, to the degree where your battery becomes fully discharged, you are still sitting there dead, unable to start your car. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

It's just that the deep-cycle battery will prevent you from needing a new battery.

The question that really should be asked is...

"what did I accomplish by draining my battery by playing my system like that?"

Things are always better when the system is running at 14v (car running), rather than 12v... much less 11v.. 10v.. when did the system shut off again? //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

In a single-battery installation, I'd never recommend a deep-cycle battery... I'd go red-top if you are looking for a premium battery. But a healthy battery is all that's necessary (or beneficial).

A deep-cycle battery wouldn't be harmful in a dual-battery setup, where the deep-cycle battery were the starter battery in the car... provided the battery located in the trunk were a standard (or red-top) battery.

Locating a second battery in the trunk might be a great option for you...

In this way, the amplifier can draw current from the battery much more freely when the alternator's current limits are exceeded... there's not much wiring between the amp and the battery in this case.

Good luck! Hope this helps...

 

[Slaymon 10+ year member]

I have a red top optima battery with a stock alternator. I can tell that its eased my alternator a lil bit. My headlights dont dim as much as they use to. My car starts up with no problem in the cold weather as well. So far I'm pleased with the results of this battery. One draw back was I had to take out the washer fluid tank, but I can always stop at a gas station to clean the windshield.

 

[nswartley 5,000+ posts]

geolemon you are the man. and you are also going to get carpal-tunnel syndrome because you type so much. keep up the good work and thanks for the info. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[bri487 5,000+ posts]

optima red tops are what i found to be the best battery for extended use. in my boat, i can rock out for an hour and a half and my boat will fire right up running off of the aux. battery which is the optima red top.