Upgrading to an Fi soon, should I buy a new alternator first or a battery?

[SPLmatic 10+ year member]

Pretty self explanatory. Getting an Fi BL 18'' soon, but I'm stuck with a stock alt and battery for the time being. I have a 2001 Accord, so I figure it will hold it's own for a little while. Not sure how long though.. only running 350w now and still have a dimming issue. But I'm wondering which I should buy first? I'm going to be running 1200wrms at max.

I plan on getting a Kinetik1800.. but don't have much experience with alternators in general. What do you guys recommend?

Thanks for your time and help!

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[zlibby76 10+ year member]

Big 3 upgrade, ALL 0 gauge wiring and an extra trunk battery (g31). Or you can add a more powerful batt under the hood along with the trunk batt. 1500 watts, DEPENDING on your current stock alt size, you should be fine WITHOUT a HO alt. If you have the budget, upgrade your alt and get BIGGER batts. You can't have too much power as long as you have a sufficient HO alt to charge them. MORE is better.

 

[Joseph K 10+ year member]

Definitely at least do the big 3 and get a big *** battery... I ran my 10" BL at ~1300 RMS on stock alt with a deep cycle orbital (same thing as a yellow top), and big3 upgrade. Didn't have too bad of voltage drops. Of course my stock alternator puts out a little more amps than your's, but still. It'll make a big difference if you don't have the money for a HO alt.

 

[audiolife 5,000+ posts]

Pretty self explanatory. Getting an Fi BL 18'' soon, but I'm stuck with a stock alt and battery for the time being. I have a 2001 Accord, so I figure it will hold it's own for a little while. Not sure how long though.. only running 350w now and still have a dimming issue. But I'm wondering which I should buy first? I'm going to be running 1200wrms at max.
I plan on getting a Kinetik1800.. but don't have much experience with alternators in general. What do you guys recommend?

Thanks for your time and help!

You are going to need a 100+ amp alt. Once you account for the car's need of alt power your 80 to 100 amp alt is going to be more like a ~40-50 amp alt. Just saying there are 2 ways to kill your battery/batteries overcharge them at too high of voltage or undercharge them all the time. Leave a battery at the 80% charge mark for too long that 80% will become your new 100% and go down hill from there unless you get an agm charger that desulfates. As far as i know there isn't a company that will cover those two conditions under warranty.

Example http://www.odysseybatteries.com/files/US-ODY-WS-8_0409.pdf

 

[Ineed$ 10+ year member]

Start with the Big 3. Then a AGM battery for under the hood. With 1200 watt rms you probably wont need to upgrade the alt.

 

[SPLmatic 10+ year member]

ok, so I'm getting somewhat of a multitude of answers here. I'm trying to stay on budget, and my budget is not that large. Would it be better if I kept my stock battery and put a kinetik in the trunk, or if I just got one big one for under the hood? The thing is, I'm not sure if I'll have any room in my trunk at all.. fitting an 18'' Fi in an accord sufficiently isn't such an easy thing to do..

But the big 3 will definitely be the first thing I get done.

 

[outsideshot23 10+ year member]

def big 3 cheap to do and will help.. replace ur under hood batt with a deka g31. These are alot better then the comparable hc2000... This batt on 1200w should def be sufficient.. good luck