best battery under the (VW) hood?

best battery under the hood for playing stereo w/ engine off

I have 99 VW Passat wagon with a stereo drawing anywhere from 20-120 amps, and often I play it extensively with the engine off. I think this deep-cycling has killed my (five-year-old) stock battery. Without considering a second battery, what would be the best battery that would readily fit into the factory battery housing?

I am considering an optima yellow-top but I have heard mixed reviews (specifically with respect to their overall life expectancy). Also, the factory battery housing area must be customized to accommodate it.

What are your recommendations?

thx

Max

destination moon

Used to own the same year Passat.  The system in the car drew around 140 amps or so.  I killed the stock battery fairly quickly, so I went over to the yellow top.  I had to replace it every year to year and a half.  That got a little expensive.  What you may want to consider is pricing a higher amperage alternator.  A stock Passat alternator is not designed to have that type of draw off of the system.  The yellow top is a great battery, but with that type of current draw, checking out the alternator idea may save some money for you.

Thanks.  Can you recommend a source for higher amp alternators?  What about noise from the higher output alternator?destination moon

Noise with the high output alternator will not be a problem AS LONG AS the ground wire off of the alternator is the same size as the power and the ground wire used at the amplifier.  A good alternator, but alittle bit pricy is Wrangler.  They are all hand wound and recommended by Mobile Dynamics.  Another good company is Ohio generator.

noise is common on HO alternators that arent built properly... contact Dominick Irragi at Irragi Alternators ( dominick@tds.net ) and see if he can build you an alternator for your passat...he builds very high quality HO alternators and is very reasonable, especially when you look at the prices of Ohio Generator alternators and other companies... also, I would stay away from the Optima batteries and look instead at the Stinger batteries, or if you dont want to spend the big bucks, buy the higher end Hawker Oddyssey batteries...Hawker builds Stingers batteries for them, and have a line that is exactly the same as the Stinger batteries except for cosmetics...they are a great battery and I dont think you will find a battery with such a low ESR that will perform as well...