Best "bang for your buck" battery?

[openwheeler37]

Looking to shed some weight this winter. Whats everyone's preference on batteries? Weight/Performance/Price?

[Firesmith]

I highly recommend the Odyssey PC680 battery! Seems to hold a charge for a full race day in my Pinto powered FC. Weight is 15 pounds and is very small at 7.27 x 3.11 x 7.55. Cost just about $115.

I do use an Odyssey charger with the battery and I believe it keeps it in top shape. The charger shows state of charge and I have never seen the battery drop below 90% whenever I put it onto the charger!!

[John LaRue]

Contact Scott Rubenzer, a fellow racer out of Milwaukee. He runs SBS battery and has a nice selection of batteries, including the light-weight variety. 262-703-5800

[marshall9]

Optima red top.

[fitfan]

Contact Scott Rubenzer, a fellow racer out of Milwaukee. He runs SBS battery and has a nice selection of batteries, including the light-weight variety. 262-703-5800

i did not know that...
my swift had an SBS in it, its was marked with a date from ohhh... almost 8 years ago. had issues with car and discovered battery was now bad. but if it last 8 years?! thats pretty darn good. so contacted SBS and asked that even though the battery was a very old, i was impressed and if there was anything they could do to keep me in an SBS battery? they responded promptly, talked with a real person, new battery for a great price within a week. thumbs up to SBS.

my pc680's haven't been lasting long lately.

also working on improving some vibration isolation for the battery.

SBS "S-12220" is dimensionally identical to a pc680

[BeerBudgetRacing]

Optima red top.

I'd normally agree with you.... but...

It's heavy.... in a formula car?
The last 2 I've had in my vette have lasted 18 months each...
I'm on my 3rd and it's not looking good..
The prices are getting ridiculous

My son bought a gel Die Hard and it seems to be lasting.....

[BeerBudgetRacing]

I highly recommend the Odyssey PC680 battery! Seems to hold a charge for a full race day in my Pinto powered FC. Weight is 15 pounds and is very small at 7.27 x 3.11 x 7.55. Cost just about $115.

I do use an Odyssey charger with the battery and I believe it keeps it in top shape. The charger shows state of charge and I have never seen the battery drop below 90% whenever I put it onto the charger!!

Where have you found them for $115?

[J Leonard]

Odysseys web site $94 for PC680.

[Albatross]

I,too, have a PC 680. In fact I have two. The first one came with the car 7 years ago and still holds a very good charge; I understand that it is now- 9 years old. I replaced it a couple of years ago with a new PC 680 only because of a touch of paranoia. However, according to my very reliable scale, the PC680 weighs only 13.5 lbs. It just sits on the floor of my vintage FF surrounded with an aluminum bracket. The PC 680 seems immune to vibration.

[PDM075]

Used to use and sell hundreds, maybe several thousand of the commercial version of the PC680 for years.... (Genesis black covered version) to my street import and race customers. Work great, but biggest hiccup is you CANNOT let it fully drain down, or you risk killing the cels internally and often will not recover. We paired the PC680 type batteries with good quality C-Tek chargers. (standard trickle chargers would sulphate and kill them over time) Had some street customers get over 6 years of daily use out of these. Downside was weight. Just over 13.5 lbs IIRC.


Switched to the Battery Tender unit last year in my Van Diemen and would never go back on a race car ever. Lithium battery, 300 CCA, just over 2.1 lbs. Around $220 Cad (Cad dollar is very weak atm) and has way more cranking power and reserve than the comparable new PC680. For those using fuel injection or ECU's, they do make up to a 480 CCA version that's 3.75lbs. Same small case, just more internals. (UGLY little green case IMO, but who cares..... it's hidden in a battery box and works unreal.) I built a full sized Gel Cel jumper battery to assist in starting my auto-x car all day long (we usually fire up 12-15 times in a day) and don't even bother bringing it to the grid anymore - this unit is THAT good. Best off being Lithium, your car fires up a lot crisper than a worn down Odyssey unit.

To me, 13.5 lbs vs 2.1 lbs....... - man we can spend a LOT more on blingy billet aluminum or carbon fiber parts to achieve less weight reduction.

We used to purchase our own A123 lithium cels out of mainland China and hand build our own race batteries using R/C wire, and plugs....but by the time you shipped these things over, hand soldered them and packaged them up in heat shrink - they didn't really weigh much less - and you had several hours and your ship wait time involved. They do work...as we have run them on high compression street BMW's for years with no issues, but a lot more work compared to just walking in and buying off the shelf packaged power...

http://www.batterytender.com/Batteries/


Granted you do have to use a lithium battery charger (I use the C-Tek unit around $100 Cad wholesale)

don

[BeerBudgetRacing]

The "BTL18A300C" is the 300lca unit. $199 on Deltran's site...

$149 at Summit:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/dtn-btl18a300c

[Firesmith]

Where have you found them for $115?

Amazon

[fitfan]

if i could get a compact 25lb battery... i would

[glenn cooper]

Hold up fellas - you did see that this was in the FB section?
People are trying to make 1000 lb min here - no self respecting FB pilot is running anything but a LiPo battery. Something like a pound and a half.
Ballistic seems to be the most popular, but there are a few others.

[ReynardF1000]

Shorai batt's are great.

[ghickman]

Hold up fellas - you did see that this was in the FB section?
People are trying to make 1000 lb min here - no self respecting FB pilot is running anything but a LiPo battery. Something like a pound and a half.
Ballistic seems to be the most popular, but there are a few others.

Once again the Coop is right. Ballistic 8 cell liPo battery is awesome. I've got the same battery in my Phoenix F1000 and have had zero problems. Same battery for 2 full seasons.

As I recall the weight of this battery is 1.7 lbs and it is tiny. We use motorcycle engines why not use a motorcycle battery.

[kflyer]

Antigravity battery in my Pro Mazda. Excellent cca's & only 2.5 lbs

[Randy Cook]

Anti-Gravity 12 Cell works for me $199 and 2 lbs. Just don't let it run all the way down After 2 perfect years I left the master on...oops.

[glenn cooper]

Shorai batt's are great.

PLUS... Shorai have the Smokinest, Hottest chicks in their ads, and we all know that ads featuring such imagery are all about the product performance.
The imagery used, and quite effectively I might add, is solely for the purpose of triggering what I like to call "The Caveman Effect":
Grog need battery
Grog see worthy female to receive his DNA
Grog then barters brightly colored bits of seashells for battery
Grog happy.

[jchracer]

Once again the Coop is right. Ballistic 8 cell liPo battery is awesome. I've got the same battery in my Phoenix F1000 and have had zero problems. Same battery for 2 full seasons.

As I recall the weight of this battery is 1.7 lbs and it is tiny. We use motorcycle engines why not use a motorcycle battery.

I have had good luck as well with this battery. Like others have said, the key is to not overly drain the battery or it will never recover. I use a jump battery to start the car and to run post run data and diagnostics. I've gotten multiple seasons out of a single Ballistic.

[openwheeler37]

I have had good luck as well with this battery. Like others have said, the key is to not overly drain the battery or it will never recover. I use a jump battery to start the car and to run post run data and diagnostics. I've gotten multiple seasons out of a single Ballistic.

What model Ballistic are you using?

[openwheeler37]

Once again the Coop is right. Ballistic 8 cell liPo battery is awesome. I've got the same battery in my Phoenix F1000 and have had zero problems. Same battery for 2 full seasons.

As I recall the weight of this battery is 1.7 lbs and it is tiny. We use motorcycle engines why not use a motorcycle battery.

Answered my own question! 8 cell. Thanks guys.

[John Bach]

Is anyone using a LiPo battery in a total loss system? (No alternator) I would love to get the weight savings.

[Dick R.]

Is anyone using a LiPo battery in a total loss system? (No alternator) I would love to get the weight savings.

I used a 16 Cell Ballistic in my kent engine FF used for autocross. At on practice event I had probably 30 plus starts with no issue. Voltage stayed at nominal 13 Volts. Used a normal charger most of the time since the special Ballistic charger available at that time apparently needed the battery to be discharged more than what I experienced. Starter was the common "Japanese" type, not Lucas. Never used a jump battery.

[John Bach]

I used a 16 Cell Ballistic in my kent engine FF used for autocross. At on practice event I had probably 30 plus starts with no issue. Voltage stayed at nominal 13 Volts. Used a normal charger most of the time since the special Ballistic charger available at that time apparently needed the battery to be discharged more than what I experienced. Starter was the common "Japanese" type, not Lucas. Never used a jump battery.

Thanks. That's what I am looking for. Any other experiences would be appreciated.

[TDI PILOT]

I have the anti gravity XPS SC-1 for my F600. Excellent choice as its 12 oz, impossibly small and has crazy power. I've never had a problem starting my car with it multiple times in a row. Watch the video on the website. I ran this the entire season and NEVER charged it once, not even in between race weekends. Plus its cheap! You wont be disappointed.

http://shop.antigravitybatteries.com...atteries-sc-1/

-Eric

[Brian]

For anyone looking at the small AGM batteries like the Odyssey PC-680 et al, here are some comments I made when trying to help a friend with a battery issue. It turned out that Enersys made every small AGM battery that I looked at - branded as many different models and names. DMS is who got me going on this - they strongly represent themselves as a manufacturer - it turns out they are indeed a manufacturer, but of integrated systems that happen to use batteries. They are a long time distributor of Enersys Odyssey batteries in the UK, and brand that type of battery under the Varley name. If I recall, Enersys owns the trademark Varley.

"Varley is yet another of the Enersys family of brand names, that makes about a dozen now. I wonder if they actually make different batteries or if the difference is in the branding and the labeling. The Varley Red Top 20 is an almost exact match for the Odyssey PC 545 that I put into the last Formula Ford I built, except that the PC 545 comes with a metal sleeve around it. Visually identical but there are some small differences in specification. You know me, I am getting cynical in my dotage, and when I find one manufacturer and a dozen brands of the same thing, I start to wonder... I found different distributors calling them Odyssey, Hawker, Hawker-Odyssey, Braille, Hawker-SBS, of course Varley, and all the same thing. Makes me doubt that specification sheet on the SBS batteries that made me think they were UPS batteries, I went back and they look identical too. That doesn't mean the insides are all the same, of course. But the temptation of a distributor like DMS Technologies (the Varley guys) to write a great story, create a strong brand image, put a label on a battery they distribute and charge double for it must be very great..."

Brian

[pakracer]

Wondering if anyone has experience with no starter or alternator on Lithium batteries for total loss running. i,e; 20 to 30 minute runs without an alternator charge, but no starting cranking required. Looking for a low weight, battery for an vintage Indy car. It appeared most problems were from voltage regulators and alternators overcharging. I've been looking at Battery tender(DEKA) and Shorai Li batteries and would only be running ignition and a few gauges, not much draw. What should I be looking for in specs? Thanks

[mike4mula]

Gentlemen, thanks for all the posts about batteries. I am currently looking for a battery for a Legrand Mk27 FF, that I'm building, and all of these posts have given me good information about what to buy, and frankly, what to avoid like heavy batteries. With LiP out there, it makes sense to spend a little more to save a lot of weight, so that's the direction I'm now headed. Now, if I could find someone in San Diego or Orange County who retail these bad boys, I can save on shipping (wait, do I need to worry about shipping if its under 3 pounds?). Well, I like options. Anyway. thanks for the posts and advice.
Mike

[mike4mula]

in my last post I noted that I needed to find a place in SOCal that sells the Anti-Gravity batteries. Silly me: they're manufactured in LA, so that's where I'm getting mine.