what battery to choose

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Car Audio
Forum Discription: Car Stereos, Amplifiers, Crossovers, Processors, Speakers, Subwoofers, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=67715
Printed Date: May 02, 2024 at 8:50 AM

Topic: what battery to choose

Posted By: jonchos
Subject: what battery to choose
Date Posted: December 05, 2005 at 3:43 PM

I have a 96 chevrolet monte carlo LS and I am only running one amp (RF P5002) with two 10" woofers, and components (F/R).

Now I want to replace my stock battery with an better battery, I have heard of optima red top and yellow top, rockford fosgate batteries, kynetick(sorry for the bad spelling) and some others, I have seen optima red top at my local pep boys, but I am not sure if that is what I need. what batery do you think would be bestfo my car? red top, yellow top or any of the others? It needs to fit in my stock loation with the windshield washer fluid reservoir on top, so it has to be side post terminal and the same size as the stock one. Please help.

Replies:

Posted By: jeffchilcott
Date Posted: December 05, 2005 at 4:55 PM

Check the kenitik web site and put your current draw into the calculator to see what you would need to use...

Kenitikaudio.com

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2009 0-1000 Trunk WR 154.0DB 2009 1001+ Trunk WR
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Posted By: sedate
Date Posted: December 05, 2005 at 5:30 PM

I'm not sure you'd need *anything* with a *single* amp like that... are you experiecing any electrical symptoms that are making you look at another battery?

Have you run your 'big 3' wiring upgrade? That'd be the only thing you should even need to bother with.. I can't say I've ever needed anything else with *any* single amp system I've done..

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

Posted By: jonchos
Date Posted: December 05, 2005 at 5:33 PM

Well I have done the big three and I have acap in my car and i just want to get rid of a littl hadlight and dme light dimming. Ihave read that a battery ad a HO Alt. would dobut i just do no have the moneyto get a HO right now so battery was my first option.

Posted By: OCURIEL
Date Posted: December 05, 2005 at 5:37 PM

Keep in mind that the yellow top is strictly a deep cycle battery & not intended for starting a vehicle. the red one is a deep cycle as well as starting. your better off getting a good strong car battery & if needed, upgrade to a stronger alternator or put yellow top in the trunk in the future.

Posted By: sedate
Date Posted: December 05, 2005 at 8:48 PM

Ocuriel wrote:

Keep in mind that the yellow top is strictly a deep cycle battery & not intended for starting a vehicle. the red one is a deep cycle as well as starting.

This is incorrect.

The Red Top is a standard, albiet highly durable, SLI battery. It is intentended for Starting, Lighting, and the Ignition. The Yellow Top is absolutely fine for starting your car and *is* the deep cycle variant. Battery technology is really complicated and suffice it to say that the chief difference is going to be performance under a steady load.. the Yellow top is much better as a car audio battery, as it can actually withstand the constant pull of tens of amps off your electrical system.

My personal experience with Red Top was fairly poor.. a kw of JL amps killed a brand new one in a weekend. The Yellow that replaced has been going strong for better than a year.

Get a Yellow Top and be done with it.

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

Posted By: godblessdremil
Date Posted: December 05, 2005 at 9:07 PM

The plus for the yellow top is that it has more durability then a usual battery. It can be drained completly and recharged. While a red top can't. Like a normal battery, if you drain it completly once or twice its done.

Posted By: jonchos
Date Posted: December 05, 2005 at 10:14 PM

Thank you guys. I will get the yellow top then. For what Io have learned here is that it will start my car no problem, and it will keep up with my current draw. Thank you again.

Posted By: OCURIEL
Date Posted: December 06, 2005 at 12:43 PM

Sure a yellow top will crank over an engine, but was it designed for cranking a engine? no. A car battery is more suitable for cranking. A yellow top is more of a battery to run auxillary components.

Posted By: jonchos
Date Posted: December 06, 2005 at 1:57 PM

i am so confused. I think I am just going to get a red top.

Posted By: j_darling2007
Date Posted: December 06, 2005 at 2:16 PM

I would take the advice of the more experienced members of the forum like sedate. It sounds as though he has had experience with both types of batteries you are considering, and by his number of posts, it shows he has a pretty good idea of what he is talking about.

Jacob

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There are 3 kinds of people in the world, those who can count and those who can't

Posted By: sedate
Date Posted: December 06, 2005 at 9:53 PM

Uhh. *Yawn*

Ocuriel wrote:

Sure a yellow top will crank over an engine, but was it designed for cranking a engine? no.

I'm sorry, what is it you are talking about? Cranking an engine? Are you talking about CCA's? Cold Cranking Amps? The Yellows' 750 to the Red Tops' 800? It takes all of 50 amps to start an engine I think both batteries have it covered.

posted_image

Our handy dandy graphic here tells us that both batteries will supply something on the order of 15-times the power required to start your engine right after it is tapped for juice.

Again, I'm not sure the reason for the confusion. The Red Top, if tapped for instant voltage, will produce a bit more in a surge than the Yellow, but again, the Yellow can actually be dischared and recharged again and again far below the point a Red can and still function. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT FOR CAR AUDIO, PERIOD. The Red Top, a standard SLI battery, will die if you drop it much below a 10.5v charge or so. It'll never again be able to hold a load at a steady 12 volts. The Yellow on the other hand can take the *constant* pull and still be recharged, again and again.

Buy the Red, you'll probably be perfectly fine. Again, you only have a single amp. If you want a battery designed for car audio use, buy the Yellow. Again, the Deep Cycle charging ability is *certainly* worth the extra $40...

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

Posted By: speedwayaudio1
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 2:39 AM

i say forget the red or yellow or blue or what ever color comes up next. Go to Autozone and get a 800cca Duralast and call it a day. save some money for that ho alt. I have run Duralasts for years, very good batt and trouble free. plus a 3 year replacement.

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Big Dave

Posted By: alpine0000
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 8:17 AM

yellow top is a better battery than the redtop all around. only difference (the thing that makes the red top a better starting battery) is that the red top has 50 more cca's. do you live in alaska and need the 50 more cold cranking amps?

however, im not putting either in my car. im putting a Kinetik 1800 in my car. KILLS any battery optima has ever made.

i have owned two yellow tops in my life, and was an installer for 3 years. after putting enough Kinetiks in customers cars, i have decided to get rid of my optima.

if you want to be a believer, go to https://www.kinetikaudio.com/

Posted By: OCURIEL
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 6:26 PM

That's funny, that does contradict what i'm trying to say.

I'm studying to become rv (recreational vehicle) tech certified for my job (claim adjuster). the instructor mentioned that a deep cycle (yellow top) is meant for constant amp draw for interior use such as tv's, fridge, sound system & so on, but not good as good as a regulator battery for cranking/starting purposes as the cranking battery will provide a bigger burst of cranking power (assuming both batteries are the same rating.

But his teachings does contradict the above posted data. posted_image

Posted By: jonchos
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 8:58 PM

It is funny how simple question turned out to be so controversial. I really do not what to do now. I think I am just staying with my stock battery, hahahaha. I live in az so I really do not need that many cca's. Maybe when I add an extra am I will re-think getting a battery, red on the front, yellow in the back. And maybe by then I will be able to get an HO alt. By the way, any ideas on what Alt to get? Thank you guys.

Posted By: sedate
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 9:00 PM

Ocuriel wrote:

as the cranking battery will provide a bigger burst of cranking power

Oh man! AHAHA someone gets PAID to tell ya that?!

Jeeze you believe I wait tables? Anyone wanna get me installing? Come on someone reading this has to own a shop! Look at the nuggets I'm parting with for free!

<sigh>

Anyone attempting to authoritativly define power as "cranking" should be smacked. Watts, joules, kinetic, electrical... ANYTHING other than 'cranking' sheesh....

Ocuriel, in one sentence, if I really had to tell you the difference between a Yellow and a Red:

The Yellow can dip below 10v and be recharged, the Red cannot.

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

Posted By: jonchos
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 9:07 PM

the lowest volts I got from my battery while my cap was draining it was 13.06V in my multimeter. I do not know if that helps you guys to gide me.

Posted By: sedate
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 9:58 PM

jonchos:

hehe sorry for the thread-jack...

Okay look here's the scoop:

Your lights dim NOT b/c you don't have enough power, but b/c the power you do have is being consumed in random, big gulps instead of a steady drain. As such, even though there is MORE than enough power in your car, the lights dim with the bass b/c there simply isn't a way to electrically isolate the big gulps from your sub amp from the steady stream going to your lights. Big alternators, huge caps, blah blah blah... this is one of those problems that is seriously HARD to get rid of.

Even with an HO alt, you still have to deal with nasty spool issues (they never make proper voltage or amperage at freakin idle) which frequently make the light dimming far worse... even tho the alt might make 300 amps at 2000rpms...

...anywho... If you wanna spend money somewhere jonchos, a Deep Cycle *is* your best place to start.

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

Posted By: haemphyst
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 11:07 PM

James, James, James... You are a smart guy, and your input is sound... for CONVENTIONAL BATTERY WISDOM. The Optima is deep cycle capable, simply due to it's contruction.

jonchos, here is your answer... Buy the red top, and save the extra 40 to 60 dollars for connectors and terminal blocks... While this post is answering the question of installing multiple batteries, the answer describing the Optima battery is what I am specifically referring you to.

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It all reminds me of something that Molière once said to Guy de Maupassant at a café in Vienna: "That's nice. You should write it down."

Posted By: customcutlass92
Date Posted: December 07, 2005 at 11:44 PM

Everyone hold up. An Optima wont fit under your washer bottle. You have to put it in the trunk.

Posted By: sedate
Date Posted: December 08, 2005 at 12:57 AM

Forgive me heamph, I'm *certain* you can appreciate my bellicosity...

Again, referred to heamph's original post...

haemphyst wrote:

You do not need yellow top battery, (personal feelings speaking, the red-tops are better spec-wise for car stereo anyway...)

Yea. Huh. I actually recall reading this post a few weeks back and being somewhat suprised at this statement. I mean, I killed a Red Top in a weekend with a kw of JL amps and a 90amp alt. The same amps and the same 90amp alt that, attached to a Yellow Top, produce zero-light dimmage and have my voltmeter pegged to 12.0 - 13v under full tilt-pull from the 1800d (tho to be fair, that is @ 4-ohms, but add the e6450, the USX2050, & the EQX.. a round kw I think..) a solid year later. The Yellow has proved absolutely bottomless. Of course, that's all *subjective* .... on to 'theory' ....

haemphyst wrote:

On to the differences between standard (red-top) and deep cycle (yellow-top) batteries. NOTHING. They are the same, save the THICKNESS of the plates they are built with - deep cycle being up to 25 percent thicker. Because the current a battery can produce comes from a chemical reaction, the number of plates (or total surface area of the plates - 25% thicker means 25% fewer plates, means 25% less peak current...)

Sure. You're saying that by virtue of its sturdier construction, peak current production is sacrificed.

haemphyst wrote:

Which one is better for CURRENT? The red top, right? What does a car amp need to produce power? Current, that's right. Now which one will you choose?

Wow. heamph, I .. uhh .. just don't follow this conclusion AT ALL. As I understand this, it is like comparing the 800 CCA's to the 750CCA's ... yea I mean I already conceded the Red *will* produce more current in a pinch ... but it is just that ... in a pinch. Under a LOAD, which is what .. i mean.. you know.. an operating amplifier only needs so much, but it does need it all the time.. and when you start getting into larger monoblocks you start getting 50 - 60 amp pulls at a time... But again, even then, the MAXIMUM amount of current we're talking about here is not going to sweat *either* battery...
So if one battery is sturdier, and discharge and recharge with more reliablilty, why wouldn't it be the superior choice for an application that would place the battery under significant strain for a large portion of it's operating life? Particularly an application that would test the limits of its storage capacity? I mean.. I would rather keep the tank for future use than break it and empty it all at once..

haemphyst wrote:

No, I am NOT a salesman for Optima

Obviously! You'd be pushing the Yellow's! posted_image

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"I'm finished!" - Daniel Plainview

Posted By: speedwayaudio1
Date Posted: December 08, 2005 at 6:55 AM

just get the Duralast save some money.

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Big Dave