It's time to figure out how to make your own Automotive Batteries

[Bucur]

Actually Ah isn't exactly that in batteries most car batteries aren't able to do their Ah rating in 1 hour but have higher CCA ratings and the deep cycle marine batteries can give higher amps over an hour but less CCA on them I believe. The Ah is probably better stated more like C/10 or 1/10 of the Ah for 10 hours. To be honest a 480CCA battery would be ok for a smaller engine but for the larger 4-5 liter engines it could find itself struggling in winter sometimes after a few years when it has lost some capacity in other words the battery aging would find itself unable to start the car a lot sooner than a battery with higher CCA to start with. I figure the big reason people would buy these very expensive batteries is for racing as they are considerably lighter and in that venue they don't require a battery to last more than a racing season without maintenance and replacement.

Yes, you are right. The capacity is measured at C/10. This was my oversight. That is, the Porsche battery in question is only good for 1.8A for 10 hours but it can crank a Porsche engine and this is what matters for those who buy this optional battery for the sake of its light weight.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Yes, you are right. The capacity is measured at C/10. This was my oversight. That is, the Porsche battery in question is only good for 1.8A for 10 hours but it can crank a Porsche engine and this is what matters for those who buy this optional battery for the sake of its light weight.

Compare the 1.8A for 10 hours to 10A for 10 hours and remember how often leaving a light on (headlights or dome light) and remember the times you barely got the car started... replace that thought with your battery is completely dead. It is possible these batteries have protection against draining them too low (voltage) which could be a big problem if you run the radio too long not on a full battery.

 

[Bucur]

Compare the 1.8A for 10 hours to 10A for 10 hours and remember how often leaving a light on (headlights or dome light) and remember the times you barely got the car started... replace that thought with your battery is completely dead. It is possible these batteries have protection against draining them too low (voltage) which could be a big problem if you run the radio too long not on a full battery.

Why do I compare? :shakehead In motorsports, the light weight of the battery does matter whereas the type of power consumption you are pointing out does not. I did not recommend the Porsche battery to anyone as an alternative for daily use. To the contrary, I underlined its unsuitability for daily use.

My point was to bring into perspective that Li-Fe car batteries exist but for the time being, the emphasis is on weight reduction rather than daily usability.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Why do I compare? :shakehead In motorsports, the light weight of the battery does matter whereas the type of power consumption you are pointing out does not. I did not recommend the Porsche battery to anyone as an alternative for daily use. To the contrary, I underlined its unsuitability for daily use.

My point was to bring into perspective that Li-Fe car batteries exist but for the time being, the emphasis is on weight reduction rather than daily usability.

I'm guessing this one battery is considerable smaller in size and that perhaps one day lithium batteries that exceed current lead acid ones could more cheaply be incorporated into autos. I could imagine a 2000 CCA lithium battery with 300Ah capacity close to the same size as a car battery. I just found a chart that claims lithium batteries have 3 times the power density of flooded lead acid batteries and 5 times the power by weight also.
For now lead acid is the way to go, but perhaps in the future lithium prices will be more competitive especially if lead price go up more.

 

[OttaMattaPia]

Batteries haven't changed all that much.

Cars have.

It's a stress thing.
The solution is in the casing... or like fivemega said... insulation would help.

I used to think that batteries were being built with less durability then one day my mechanic showed me the truth. The guy compared the engine bay of an old truck he was working on to the tightly packed bay of my Honda. He showed me with a temperature gun what was taking place and explained a bunch of chemestry stuff and how it all ties into batteries not holding up like they used to.

Any idea how much is being drained from the battery while the car is turned off these days? The computers, the clocks, the saved home entertainment center settings, the alarms, it's crazy. Then the alternator goes into rapid charge mode while trying to keep up with all those gizmos todays 4 wheeled appliances have.

I still get 4-5 years from batteries. Always have. Some factory ones have lasted a decade, but as a rule I get 4-5 years from replacements regardless of brand. I go for the best warranty and don't sweat it.
And I keep a battery box and jumper cables handy for those times when the inevitable failure occurs.
More times than not the battery tells you when it's about to fail. Sometimes you get a few weak starts. Sometimes you get 1. But in 35+ years of driving I've never had one fail without giving me at least 1 warning.

The whole corparate greed thing... nonsense! Our government has placed so many burdensome regulations on manufacturing that they either have to pay what amounts to racketeering protection dues or go to other countries.

Just ask anybody involved in the manufacturing business. Not the CEO's but the movers and shakers who keep the factory running. They'll shake their head and tell you how ridiculous our government here in the US has gotten from the local building inspector to the highest offices in DC. This year alone an average of 200+ federal regulations per day have already been implimented. If you put a regulation counting clock next to the federal deficit clock they'd likely appear to be changing at the same or similar rate.

I pitty any company trying to get started these days. They're done before they even begin.
So if/when my next battery says "made in Mexico" I won't be upset at the company that made it. I'll be upset with the Americans who keep voting for the same fools that got us into this mess.

I hear ya on the government thing. You'd need to be Donald Trump to legally start a lemonade stand today after all the licensing requirements, zoning petitions, fire inspections, handicap access provisions...not to mention insurance and bonding. It's insane I agree.

But about the heat thing....can't say I totally agree on that one. The operating temps of car motors hasn't changed all that much. It's always been around 210 - 230 or so.
Cars also reject heat better today. More demand on the battery? Yeah, that might play into it. But I know refrigerators and washers do NOT last like they used too. There is some truth to the corporate greed thing. Planned obsolescence they call it. Right.

 

[Bucur]

... The operating temps of car motors hasn't changed all that much. It's always been around 210 - 230 or so.
Cars also reject heat better today. More demand on the battery? Yeah, that might play into it...

The operating temp of car engines hasn't changed but the temperature in the engine bays did. The very crowded engine bays of modern front-engine cars are almost as enclosed as that of mid-engine cars'. Since the fresh air that enters their engine bays is very hot due to having cooled the air condition radiator plus the engine's radiator and since it is trapped there before being forced out of the exits, the engine bays are like hell, today. The undersides of the engine bays of older cars were open. Some German car manufacturers now place the battery inside the cabin (under the rear seat) or at least in the trunk to keep them in a cooler environment, just like mid-engine cars.

Furthermore, the relentless parasitic drain of modern cars is likely to be even harder for lead-acid batteries. Modern cars have higher capacity batteries to compensate for this drain but neither their additional capacity nor their superior CCA rating can overcome the fact that they are drained all the time. To last longer, lead-acid batteries need to stay at full charge.