Car Battery
09-11-2006, 04:20 PM
#1
0 Watt CAFz'r
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 2
Car Battery
Hello All
Any inputs would be appreciated. I have a new audio system here is my config.
Alpine IWA-200 with a Rockford fosgate P4004 400 Watt 4-Channel Amplifier & P3001 300 Watt Mono Amplifier and 10" Sub 300 watt sub. 1 Volvo 600 Amps Battery
What i would love to do is increase my listening to music time without having to run to my car every 20 min or so, prior to my car battery dieing. Depending on how loud i crank my system i average 20 min to 40 min of music that’s it.
My car is currently under a bumper to bumper warranty so the thought of adding a 2nd battery is out, any suggestion please...
How much more time would I get if I were to replace my current Vovlo Battery for an Optima Red 800 amp or Motomaster 875 amp Is worth it ??
Thanks
Any inputs would be appreciated. I have a new audio system here is my config.
Alpine IWA-200 with a Rockford fosgate P4004 400 Watt 4-Channel Amplifier & P3001 300 Watt Mono Amplifier and 10" Sub 300 watt sub. 1 Volvo 600 Amps Battery
What i would love to do is increase my listening to music time without having to run to my car every 20 min or so, prior to my car battery dieing. Depending on how loud i crank my system i average 20 min to 40 min of music that’s it.
My car is currently under a bumper to bumper warranty so the thought of adding a 2nd battery is out, any suggestion please...
How much more time would I get if I were to replace my current Vovlo Battery for an Optima Red 800 amp or Motomaster 875 amp Is worth it ??
Thanks
09-11-2006, 04:25 PM
#2
I'd suggest doing big 3 upgrade, possably upgrading your alt, doing big 3 with 1/0 wire, (welding cable if you can) another thing I could suggest would maybe be running a second battary, and a battary isolator.
09-11-2006, 08:51 PM
#3
50 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 91
(GrizZz here, wife's PC)
Well you said you don't want to add a second battery, so you're stuck with just the one, right? And you implied the vehicle is under warranty, so the Volvo one can't be very old then, eh?
A new Optima won't have little to no more capacity than a stock Volvo battery. A new Optima will be more efficient and recharge a LOT faster, but no, if you get only 20 minutes now, you'll still get just 20 or 25 minutes with an Optima. Of course, you need a deep cycle battery (a simple DC lead acid or a yellow top Optima) for what you're doing, you're going to kill your Volvo battery soon.
If you're leaving the system on simply while you're camping or whatever, you can just bring along a second battery and some booster cables. Hook them up to the car before you kill the one in the car... That is, use both batteries constantly while you're playing the system, don't kill one battery then hook up (that's less efficient, and hard on the batteries) the other.
If I was in your shoes, I'd probably get a cheap used battery (or a good new DC or Optima battery if you're feeling rich) at your local battery shop, some booster cables, and an automatic battery charger. Leave the new battery hooked up to the charger (yes, it's safe, it's automatic, that's what it's designed for) in your garage all the time, so that it's ready for when ya need it. When ya need it, toss in your trunk, go to the campground, hook up the cables and pahhhhh-tay.
My own system, five amps totalling about 3Kw RMS, I have two DC Optima batteries in the back, just for the stereo. If I park the van, fire up the system in Dolby Prologic (which uses more power due to bass boosting) and play XBox (it uses quite a bit of power itself) at medium to medium-loud volumes, I'm good for two to three hours.
My battery "uber-post": www.allstart.net/batadv.htm
Well you said you don't want to add a second battery, so you're stuck with just the one, right? And you implied the vehicle is under warranty, so the Volvo one can't be very old then, eh?
A new Optima won't have little to no more capacity than a stock Volvo battery. A new Optima will be more efficient and recharge a LOT faster, but no, if you get only 20 minutes now, you'll still get just 20 or 25 minutes with an Optima. Of course, you need a deep cycle battery (a simple DC lead acid or a yellow top Optima) for what you're doing, you're going to kill your Volvo battery soon.
If you're leaving the system on simply while you're camping or whatever, you can just bring along a second battery and some booster cables. Hook them up to the car before you kill the one in the car... That is, use both batteries constantly while you're playing the system, don't kill one battery then hook up (that's less efficient, and hard on the batteries) the other.
If I was in your shoes, I'd probably get a cheap used battery (or a good new DC or Optima battery if you're feeling rich) at your local battery shop, some booster cables, and an automatic battery charger. Leave the new battery hooked up to the charger (yes, it's safe, it's automatic, that's what it's designed for) in your garage all the time, so that it's ready for when ya need it. When ya need it, toss in your trunk, go to the campground, hook up the cables and pahhhhh-tay.
My own system, five amps totalling about 3Kw RMS, I have two DC Optima batteries in the back, just for the stereo. If I park the van, fire up the system in Dolby Prologic (which uses more power due to bass boosting) and play XBox (it uses quite a bit of power itself) at medium to medium-loud volumes, I'm good for two to three hours.
My battery "uber-post": www.allstart.net/batadv.htm
09-11-2006, 10:40 PM
#4
0 Watt CAFz'r
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 2
Great Idea
Hey GrizZz thanks for the reply, that’s quiet, the system you have there 5 amps I would love to hear that thing go… I really think you have a great idea there about having a 2nd battery on the run, I read that the optima batteries don’t leak so I guess I’m covered there, however is it true that you can't place a battery on the ground (concrete) it will destroy the battery or is this an old rumour. I want to play music in the field and at parks etc. sometimes I am forced to park on the pavement etc.
As for the yellow battery I read that they offer more CC however I am in Canada and was told by my Optima dealer I need to replace my Volvo battery for the red one since it’s a primary batter etc. And if I wanted to run a 2nd then add the yellow, which I would not due in my case.
It’s funny that you brought up Dolby sound cause that’s my next purchase and supposedly the bass is crazy. Any feed back on your system was it worth it or did it come that way initially??
With my alpine iwa-200 radio I don’t have an equalizer built in, i would need to purchase the ALPINE PXA-H701 Multimedia Manager DTS 5.1 Dolby Pro II. But supposedly sound is recorded in 2 tracks not 5 etc. So going to purchase this for better sound would not be worth it what do u think.
And again thank you very much for the feedback
As for the yellow battery I read that they offer more CC however I am in Canada and was told by my Optima dealer I need to replace my Volvo battery for the red one since it’s a primary batter etc. And if I wanted to run a 2nd then add the yellow, which I would not due in my case.
It’s funny that you brought up Dolby sound cause that’s my next purchase and supposedly the bass is crazy. Any feed back on your system was it worth it or did it come that way initially??
With my alpine iwa-200 radio I don’t have an equalizer built in, i would need to purchase the ALPINE PXA-H701 Multimedia Manager DTS 5.1 Dolby Pro II. But supposedly sound is recorded in 2 tracks not 5 etc. So going to purchase this for better sound would not be worth it what do u think.
And again thank you very much for the feedback
09-13-2006, 09:26 PM
#5
Originally Posted by MCKB30
Hey GrizZz thanks for the reply, that’s quiet, the system you have there 5 amps I would love to hear that thing go… I really think you have a great idea there about having a 2nd battery on the run, I read that the optima batteries don’t leak so I guess I’m covered there, however is it true that you can't place a battery on the ground (concrete) it will destroy the battery or is this an old rumour. I want to play music in the field and at parks etc. sometimes I am forced to park on the pavement etc.
As for the yellow battery I read that they offer more CC however I am in Canada and was told by my Optima dealer I need to replace my Volvo battery for the red one since it’s a primary batter etc. And if I wanted to run a 2nd then add the yellow, which I would not due in my case.
It’s funny that you brought up Dolby sound cause that’s my next purchase and supposedly the bass is crazy. Any feed back on your system was it worth it or did it come that way initially??
With my alpine iwa-200 radio I don’t have an equalizer built in, i would need to purchase the ALPINE PXA-H701 Multimedia Manager DTS 5.1 Dolby Pro II. But supposedly sound is recorded in 2 tracks not 5 etc. So going to purchase this for better sound would not be worth it what do u think.
And again thank you very much for the feedback
As for the yellow battery I read that they offer more CC however I am in Canada and was told by my Optima dealer I need to replace my Volvo battery for the red one since it’s a primary batter etc. And if I wanted to run a 2nd then add the yellow, which I would not due in my case.
It’s funny that you brought up Dolby sound cause that’s my next purchase and supposedly the bass is crazy. Any feed back on your system was it worth it or did it come that way initially??
With my alpine iwa-200 radio I don’t have an equalizer built in, i would need to purchase the ALPINE PXA-H701 Multimedia Manager DTS 5.1 Dolby Pro II. But supposedly sound is recorded in 2 tracks not 5 etc. So going to purchase this for better sound would not be worth it what do u think.
And again thank you very much for the feedback
you can use either the blue, red, or yellow top, yellow is best in this situation, I guess the guy you were talking to didn't know you need a battary that will have enough juice to run your system daily
09-13-2006, 10:03 PM
#6
Yellow and Blue are basically the same, except I think Blue is bigger. Red Top's are a bit less CCA, but more CA.
Any one will work, but the Red will be cheapest, and easiest to come by.
Also, throw a new ground under the hood from the battery's negative right to the car's chassis.
Any one will work, but the Red will be cheapest, and easiest to come by.
Also, throw a new ground under the hood from the battery's negative right to the car's chassis.
09-13-2006, 10:55 PM
#7
50 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 91
(GrizZz here, still on the wife's PC, geez maybe I should go blow the dust off my own one of these days eh?) 
You don't need a red top AND yellow top (well, you do really, but you're not wanting to install the second in the car), you just need a yellow top. Also, your car will do fine on just a yellow up front for years, a red is not necessary. General tip for anybody considering an Optima: If you want an Optima, get a yellow, unless you are absolutely sure you aren't going to be cycling it, and ya want to save the extra 60 bucks.
Red top's are starting batteries. Red tops are great for starting engines in extreme conditions, but are NOT designed for cyclic use (leaving your stereo on, for 15 minutes a time, even just twice a week, is habitual cycling and your red top will not be happy about it). Treat a red top right, and it'll last for many, many years. My brother has one in his truck that we installed ten years ago. He does not cycle the battery at all, save for a few accidentally left on dome lights over the years. It's a daily driver vehicle. It's still going strong.
Yellow tops are dual purpose starting and deep cycle, which is why they cost so much more. They will do the same as a red top, start engines in extreme conditions, PLUS they will stand up to habitual cycling.
Blue tops are the same as red and yellow, but with different post configurations, tailored for the marine crowd. They can be had in both starting only AND dual purpose, but they're still blue. They can be much harder to aquire. I had a customer order two 31 blue tops through me, for a right-hand drive diesel landrover that he imported, and he ordered them right from Optima, as they had been on back order for months. It took over four months, longer than it took him to import the truck from Japan, but he finally got them.
Sealed/gel/spill & leakproof batteries generally cost double of an equivalent liquid battery. An Optima costs double that of a liquid 800cca DT battery. A sealed wheelchair battery costs double that of it's liquid counterpart, and so on. However, if you're wanting to save a few bucks, you can just take a liquid battery for what you're doing. Just keep it in a plastic box so that it doesn't leak on your carpet, and don't flip it on it's side, and it'll work fine. You're not using it while it's in your trunk (you're just transporting it), so you don't even need to vent it. So you can get as big a battery as you want, or can carry, the bigger the better. CAT batteries are about 200 pounds, 20in long by 14in wide, and equal to about four group 27 (12in.) deep cycle RV batteries. A CAT (8D) battery costs about the same as a run-of-the-mill red top Optima.
The old wives' tale of putting batteries on concrete is just that, an old wives' tale. ANY battery in storage, will go dead over time, the concrete has nothing to do with it. Batteries don't like to sit, they like to be used. Any battery in storage needs to have a charger hit it every three months as a minimum. For my car batteries I go two months, and for smaller less reliable motorcycle batteries I like to go one month. Winter storage vehicles are the hardest on batteries, harder than diesels, harder than bigass stereos. The longest living batteries are in daily driver gasoline cars. Even Gramma that only drives to church on Sundays is WAY harder on her battery than a daily driver.
The Dolby is cool. It's builtin to my head unit, a KDCX979. It was Kenwood's TOL unit in '04 and '05. Burrbrown DAC, DTA, EQ's, and all those other goodies. I don't use the Dolby for music though, the SRS WOW is what I use for music, and it does a kickass job of it, scoring me a 10/10 imaging and 7/10 width, through my non-focused speakers. The Dolby, however, can't be beat for the XBox and for movies. The bass does get boosted, to much even for a power system, so I turn my remote gain down a bit when I put it in Dolby. And I dunno about the 2 channel/5 channel mixdown things, I'm the power guy, not the audio guy
My system... yes, it's quite the... amalgamation of parts. There's many posts with pictures around here, search for me (GrizZz, not GrizZzled) and you're bound to find some. Here's one good one to get ya started though: http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/online/install-related/15028-thunderbeat-feb-2006-tons-o-pics.html
Oh and here's some pics of the last box I built for my H2: www.allstart.net/SQBox
You don't need a red top AND yellow top (well, you do really, but you're not wanting to install the second in the car), you just need a yellow top. Also, your car will do fine on just a yellow up front for years, a red is not necessary. General tip for anybody considering an Optima: If you want an Optima, get a yellow, unless you are absolutely sure you aren't going to be cycling it, and ya want to save the extra 60 bucks.
Red top's are starting batteries. Red tops are great for starting engines in extreme conditions, but are NOT designed for cyclic use (leaving your stereo on, for 15 minutes a time, even just twice a week, is habitual cycling and your red top will not be happy about it). Treat a red top right, and it'll last for many, many years. My brother has one in his truck that we installed ten years ago. He does not cycle the battery at all, save for a few accidentally left on dome lights over the years. It's a daily driver vehicle. It's still going strong.
Yellow tops are dual purpose starting and deep cycle, which is why they cost so much more. They will do the same as a red top, start engines in extreme conditions, PLUS they will stand up to habitual cycling.
Blue tops are the same as red and yellow, but with different post configurations, tailored for the marine crowd. They can be had in both starting only AND dual purpose, but they're still blue. They can be much harder to aquire. I had a customer order two 31 blue tops through me, for a right-hand drive diesel landrover that he imported, and he ordered them right from Optima, as they had been on back order for months. It took over four months, longer than it took him to import the truck from Japan, but he finally got them.
Sealed/gel/spill & leakproof batteries generally cost double of an equivalent liquid battery. An Optima costs double that of a liquid 800cca DT battery. A sealed wheelchair battery costs double that of it's liquid counterpart, and so on. However, if you're wanting to save a few bucks, you can just take a liquid battery for what you're doing. Just keep it in a plastic box so that it doesn't leak on your carpet, and don't flip it on it's side, and it'll work fine. You're not using it while it's in your trunk (you're just transporting it), so you don't even need to vent it. So you can get as big a battery as you want, or can carry, the bigger the better. CAT batteries are about 200 pounds, 20in long by 14in wide, and equal to about four group 27 (12in.) deep cycle RV batteries. A CAT (8D) battery costs about the same as a run-of-the-mill red top Optima.
The old wives' tale of putting batteries on concrete is just that, an old wives' tale. ANY battery in storage, will go dead over time, the concrete has nothing to do with it. Batteries don't like to sit, they like to be used. Any battery in storage needs to have a charger hit it every three months as a minimum. For my car batteries I go two months, and for smaller less reliable motorcycle batteries I like to go one month. Winter storage vehicles are the hardest on batteries, harder than diesels, harder than bigass stereos. The longest living batteries are in daily driver gasoline cars. Even Gramma that only drives to church on Sundays is WAY harder on her battery than a daily driver.
The Dolby is cool. It's builtin to my head unit, a KDCX979. It was Kenwood's TOL unit in '04 and '05. Burrbrown DAC, DTA, EQ's, and all those other goodies. I don't use the Dolby for music though, the SRS WOW is what I use for music, and it does a kickass job of it, scoring me a 10/10 imaging and 7/10 width, through my non-focused speakers. The Dolby, however, can't be beat for the XBox and for movies. The bass does get boosted, to much even for a power system, so I turn my remote gain down a bit when I put it in Dolby. And I dunno about the 2 channel/5 channel mixdown things, I'm the power guy, not the audio guy
My system... yes, it's quite the... amalgamation of parts. There's many posts with pictures around here, search for me (GrizZz, not GrizZzled) and you're bound to find some. Here's one good one to get ya started though: http://www.canadiancaraudio.com/online/install-related/15028-thunderbeat-feb-2006-tons-o-pics.html
Oh and here's some pics of the last box I built for my H2: www.allstart.net/SQBox
Last edited by GrizZzled; 09-13-2006 at 11:05 PM.
09-25-2006, 05:26 PM
#8
Originally Posted by FusionMadsen
Yellow and Blue are basically the same, except I think Blue is bigger. Red Top's are a bit less CCA, but more CA.
Any one will work, but the Red will be cheapest, and easiest to come by.
Also, throw a new ground under the hood from the battery's negative right to the car's chassis.
Any one will work, but the Red will be cheapest, and easiest to come by.
Also, throw a new ground under the hood from the battery's negative right to the car's chassis.
deffintly in this case, what ever you get, get a deep cycle
Last edited by 1LoudScort00; 09-25-2006 at 05:29 PM.
09-25-2006, 07:25 PM
#9
check out exide spirals at canadian tire... they are cheaper, higher performance, and easy to find.....
I agree the concreate/batt thing is a myth... sorta... putting a battery on COLD concrete will cause it to die faster then if it was sitting somewhere else.......
lead/acid batteries don't like the cold, and concrete is a poor insulator.....
I agree the concreate/batt thing is a myth... sorta... putting a battery on COLD concrete will cause it to die faster then if it was sitting somewhere else.......
lead/acid batteries don't like the cold, and concrete is a poor insulator.....
09-25-2006, 08:18 PM
#10
Originally Posted by Haunz
check out exide spirals at canadian tire... they are cheaper, higher performance, and easy to find.....
i agree fully, i run an exide spiral and it made a night and day difference for me.
