Rep Power: 320

my question to everyone who cant live with the stock alternator / battery, or just one battery for that matter, what has everyone done to power their system? i've put in a yellow top and after letting it sit for a day and now that i think about it, my system probably drain a considerable ammount of juice the last time i drove it, so the problem is pretty much nailed in my case.. so i know of 2 good options, bigger alternator or more batteries, i've seen a RF battery isolater on sounddomian for $259, so i could go with that and another optima i'd rather not go with a bigger alternator due to that voiding my warranty on my electrical system and probably more, my local Honda dealer already has bitched about what i've had installed. (of course that was after the install was done and i came back to them w/ a problem which i truely believe was their fault, but thats not the point) is there a better way to power my system efficiently and also have little to no concern at all about everything else getting sufficient power, cause the way i see it, even if the 2nd battery drains completely, so what, the primary will run the car and once the 2nd one gets juice it'll b workable besides that is there any way that would b worse than what i have now? just 1 optima? [oh, btw i also have a 1 farad RF punch capacitor, it doesnt seem to make a huge difference to me, but i dont know.] anyway, I appreciate suggestions and also if anyone knows a cheaper place than sounddomain to buy an isolater, i'd prefer RF since its a brand I trust, but just let me know if anyone has info about cheaper ones.

thanks..

 
Rep Power: 0

what amps (how much power) are you running?

also, get rid of the cap, it doesnt do ****

 
Rep Power: 320

i have a RF 601S (600W rms) and a Alpine MRV-F540 (100Wx4(rms)@14.4v) i believe its 50Wx4(rms)@12v

 
Rep Power: 320

Listed on Alpine's website (MRV-F540):

CEA-2006 Power Ratings
80W x 4 (4ohm@14.4V 1% THD+N)

Rockford lists the 601S as 600W rms bridged.

 
Rep Power: 328

You would be fine on the stock electrical system. An Optima battery is fine. Two batteries and an isolater isnt necessary...neither is your capacitor.

 
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yeah. ive gotten it up to double that much power with just my single battery with no problems

 
Rep Power: 320

well yesterday when i went to start it my battery was dead and the day before i hadnt driven it, 2 days before i had gone out that night, so all i can think of is that the system drained the battery.. I cant think of any other reason then the system that the battery would be dead...??

 
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it would only be dead if something was staying on when the car was off

check if your amps are staying on, or an interior light or something.

also, teh stock battery blows goats, you could at least get rid of that

 
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I agree check your install again something is not ground properly or something is staying on. You should definetly be fine with your stock alt. and battery.

 
Rep Power: 329

cold weather does make a difference too. starting power bites in cold, and optima yellow tops are about the same as stock in that regard. i know it's been colder lately here, that's probably affecting it.

 
Rep Power: 320

ok now i know the problem quite well, the battery wont hold its charge (my optima yellow top) when i had the stock battery it was just fine, so im gonna stick that back in there now and bitch at sounddomain because when i placed the order they send the reverse terminal yellow top which was the wrong one, so i wait 12 days for the wrong one to ship back to them, then they ship the new one, it gets here, and its not holding the charge... so im rather pissed, i doubt it but im'a see if AutoZone or Advance Auto Parts carries the size 51 yellow or red top, is red better? so far all i've seen is yellow size 51 on a couple websites i dont believe i've seen it at autozone but im gonna look, what should i do? i could order another yellow or red if i can find it from a website, but then if this problem happens again, i'd like to have a local place to exchange it at.. most likely it wont happen again tho, so whose got an opinion?

( i know for a fact nothing is draining it while the car is off, i have an alarm but thats not it as i said before the stock battery was fine, i just wanted to get a high performance one thats the only reason i bought it not because stock one died or anything.. )

 
Rep Power: 320

well its not really cold today, was last night, but i think it might hit 50 today, weather chan says 42 feels like 34, anyway i put the stock battery back in last night, drove around for about 15minutes, and this morning my car started just as well as it did the day i bought it, so now i just have to wait and see what sounddomain is gonna do about the problem, i'd kinda rather get it refunded and find a local place that possibly can order me one if not have it on hand so well see how it goes, but once all this is done with, everything should be great!

 
Rep Power: 0

Thats too cold for me its going to hit a freezing 75 today. the cold does effect your battery charge. Because of the heat here we get about 2 years out of a new battery.

 
Rep Power: 329

good luck returning a battery... most places give you **** about that.

and heat kills batteries too. but you get plenty o starting power.

and sadly there is no redtop group 51

 
Rep Power: 607

yup, redtop is better for a primary battery, and if u are gonna use a secondary battery, dont' waste $250 on a isolator. I ran 2 aux batteries with a 200 amp relay from stinger, was like 50 or 60 bucks. You get a small voltage drop with isolators too. The yellow tops are excellent batteries, but not for a primary battery.

 
Rep Power: 320

yellow top is better than stock tho, right?

has to be, doesnt it?

 
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2 things
1 - an isolator is only like 50 or 60 bucks
2 - the solenoid IS an isolator, just a non-diode isolator

 
Rep Power: 811

Red top is a better all-around battery. Yellow is only for deep cycle applications (like listening to stereo with the car off).

The red optima has alot more cold cranking amps and reserve charge.

http://www.7thgencivic.com/forums/sh...ght=optima+red

 
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Why is a capacitor crap ? What is the purpose of it anyways ?

 
Rep Power: 811

A cap just stores a little charge to release when the electrical system is under stress. So the only thing it does is stop the lights from dimming when a hard base note hits. Doesn't really do anything good, since it has to use the car's power to charge itself.

 
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I see what you are saying, I see them at the sound off competitions all the time. They are more of a bling factor then a useful factor ?
WIll having a cap put extra stress on the stock electrical system ?

 
Rep Power: 811

Well, it takes the alternator power away to charge itself. I've read that they are supposed to give you more bass and good current flow. It's all untrue and just for bling. When I first was getting into audio, all the install guys were like, yea you NEED a cap to get the most out of the system. Well, I'm running two amps now and no cap. It's not needed at all, and it won't alter anything except maybe help the dimming.

As ludlamtheory once said, it's a bandaid to cover up the real problem. If your system is making the lights dim, then you need more power (new alternator). The cap only fools you into thinking the problem is solved (no dimming), when in reality your electrical system is still having hard times trying to keep up.

Hope that helped

 
Rep Power: 0

theyre great for dimming, unless youre running a RIDICULOUS amount of farads. rf sells a 100 farad cap thats huge that would probably work great, but the pricetag on it is ugly.