Lightweight battery

Lightweight battery

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Sydney V8V

Original Poster:

85 posts

55 months

Wednesday 19th August 2020
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Im thinking of replacing my Vantage Bosch H8 battery -100AH and 24Kgs good for 3-5 years; with Lithium Itechworld ,Aussie made H6 battery ,120AH and only 8Kgs and used by many 4x4s . .Similar to Antigravity battery .and good for 8-10 years . Will see how ECUs put up with it.

Astontony

417 posts

53 months

Wednesday 19th August 2020
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I would be very interested in how it goes as my battery is now 2+ years old and I reckon has about 1 to go.
I am excited with the weight savings but have concerns about the anti gravity batteries as there are a few horror stories but I am sure an Aussie made battery will be a quality item.

Please advise pricing and fit etc. I have a DB9.also if you have a contact number or person..

EVR

1,824 posts

59 months

Wednesday 19th August 2020
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Yep, interested as well.

For longevity, in my Maserati, I installed a Start & Stop battery, that proved itself longer lasting than traditional ones.

leerandle

743 posts

106 months

Wednesday 19th August 2020
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Can you use the 'standard' CTEK chargers on these batteries ?

Its a good weight saving, if the price is right.

Sydney V8V

Original Poster:

85 posts

55 months

Wednesday 19th August 2020
quotequote all
It was on mid year sale and i got it for special price of $668au delivered from across the country where ITECHWORLD is in Perth .[itechworld.com.au] 2,500 miles [4000Ks ] away.
Same size H6 Anti-Gravity battery is few more hundred in US.$
Im using Lithium XS C-tek while car is parked.

bogie

16,344 posts

271 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
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leerandle said:
Can you use the 'standard' CTEK chargers on these batteries ?

Its a good weight saving, if the price is right.
You will need the lithium variant of the CTEK ....maybe CTEK do a combined version now, as Optimate do a charger that will do both types.

I have one as both my bikes have lithium batteries ...on one of them saved 6Kg in weight from under the fuel tank at the top, was noticeable. Best thing is they hold charge much better, you dont actually need a charger for months if left over winter

EVR

1,824 posts

59 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
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But are they good enough to provide the juice the car needs, both at start-up and during use?

bogie

16,344 posts

271 months

Thursday 20th August 2020
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EVR said:
But are they good enough to provide the juice the car needs, both at start-up and during use?
Well the lithium is rated 20% higher than the Bosch, so would assume its got more than enough oomph to cold start many times over and during use the battery is being charged as normal.

I have a lithium power pack no larger than a 3 cell torch. I can jump start my Vantage and Range Rover V8 with it and it uses about 10% of its capacity. These lithium batteries really have come a long way over the last 10 years. The price has been quite a premium up until now though and I know for motorcycles they are at least twice the cost, maybe 3 times depending on brand.

How much is a lithium car battery in the UK ? £400-500 ? vs £120 ish so price is still the deciding factor for most people when it comes to battery replacement.

Sydney V8V

Original Poster:

85 posts

55 months

Friday 21st August 2020
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Why i used this iTECHWORLD Lithium battery which is 60ah and 1300cca and 8Kgs, is because its same size. ie height and width as Vantage OEM battery, just about 3 '' shorter , so i can use Vantage hold down brackets and Vantage cables without any mods as iTECH uses SAE posts'..Made for 4x4s so starting a Vantage wont be a problem.
Richard on Redpants LOL uses a Braille AGM B3121 battery which has 31ah and is 9.5Kgs, and needs a special expensive hold down bracket. .He has had great success with them so i hope i will have same success with this battery. Braille is available now in OZ for nearly same price but with half the capacity.
There is also Lithiumax which i nearly bought but needs special bracket again and mods to cable and used on high performance,racing and rally cars .Now available in Germany.

Andrew Bristow

58 posts

145 months

Friday 21st August 2020
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I put one in my Vanquish two years ago. It has an interesting app which is put on the phone. It reduces the power of the battery so that the car won't start but all the electrics continue to function. This is very good in hotel car parks as the staff can't move the car. The battery is expensive but it seems to work OK.

bogie

16,344 posts

271 months

Friday 21st August 2020
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Andrew Bristow said:
I put one in my Vanquish two years ago. It has an interesting app which is put on the phone. It reduces the power of the battery so that the car won't start but all the electrics continue to function. This is very good in hotel car parks as the staff can't move the car. The battery is expensive but it seems to work OK.
Thats an interesting anti-theft feature, could be useful for motorcycles too.

What is the brand of the battery ?

CrgT16

1,926 posts

107 months

Friday 21st August 2020
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Surprising that batteries are only lasting 3 years? I think I only replaced a battery once... on a 12 year old car. Is it because the car is not used frequently and the battery gets discharged too much?

It’s probably a better battery than a more traditional one. On an AM the weight saving is probably irrelevant for the performance difference but if it last longer saves changing for a new one every 3 years in your case.

bogie

16,344 posts

271 months

Friday 21st August 2020
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I see the Bosch batteries are guaranteed for 5 years. I replaced 3 batteries last winter, the Vantage was original from 2012, other 2 were 8 and 9 years old and only holding charge for 7-10 days of non use. Would appear they last longer than 5 years in cars that are used regularly.

chriscmore

11 posts

67 months

Friday 21st August 2020
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My '11 DB9 hated the AntiGravity LiOn battery. It would cause the car to go into "crash fault mode" and limp. I'd have to restart within a mile and had zero confidence in the car. They tested the returned battery and it passed, so something is incompatible. I instead just downsized to a H6 AGM battery to save a little weight and I don't need that much cold cranking for my warm-weather ride.

MichaelV8V

650 posts

260 months

Friday 21st August 2020
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I'm very keen on getting a smaller, lighter, AntiGravity in my 2010 Vantage. But, its still running fine on the original battery, its almost 10 years old, and still OK. It has gone flat two or three times when I've forgotten to put it on a charge. A couple of years ago it was catastrophically flat for several weeks and the alarm system depleted its battery and went into some wierd mode.

But, I have a charger that has a 'rejuvenate' mode, it pulses voltage into the battery, runs it down, charges it up, pulses it again, affectively gives it a good kicking in all directions, and after a couple of days the battery has always come back to life, and behaved like a new battery. Wish I'd had one of these things years ago, it would have saved me a fortune on all the batteries I've replaced when they could have been saved.

Astontony

417 posts

53 months

Saturday 22nd August 2020
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Sydney V8V said:
It was on mid year sale and i got it for special price of $668au delivered from across the country where ITECHWORLD is in Perth .[itechworld.com.au] 2,500 miles [4000Ks ] away.
Same size H6 Anti-Gravity battery is few more hundred in US.$
Im using Lithium XS C-tek while car is parked.
$668 is not too bad considering I recently paid over $500 for a battery for our 645ci BMW. thats quite workable.

EVR

1,824 posts

59 months

Tuesday 25th August 2020
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Randomly found out about those guys, UK-based:

https://www.deadweightindustries.co.uk/products/to...

This very battery is been used by Valiant Ecosse, that PHer who built a track-focused Vantage.

Gingernuts

553 posts

209 months

Tuesday 25th August 2020
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Sydney V8V said:

Im thinking of replacing my Vantage Bosch H8 battery -100AH and 24Kgs good for 3-5 years; with Lithium Itechworld ,Aussie made H6 battery ,120AH and only 8Kgs and used by many 4x4s . .Similar to Antigravity battery .and good for 8-10 years . Will see how ECUs put up with it.
8KGs!!!!


The deadweight industries battery Im currently testing and looking at supplying is only 3kgs and is plug and play. Just fitted to the car today so will be going through various stages of testing to ensure it's compatible with our cars, so providing it doesn't fry some modules or die every two weeks it could be a very good solution. They will also be able to be supplied with a charger and adaptor to fit the cigarette lighter port in the boot.

At 3kgs its actually laughable how light they are and feel just like the packaging a battery should come in.

They will be retailing at £390 inc Vat + postage.



The previous two batteries being 25kgs for OEM and 14.7Kg for the Varley Red top 40 GT4 style

Edited by Gingernuts on Tuesday 25th August 18:12

Sydney V8V

Original Poster:

85 posts

55 months

Wednesday 26th August 2020
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Deadweight -UK; antigravity-USA and Itech world-OZ look like they using same casing !..
Itech maybe 8kgs but has 1300CCA and 1500 cranking amps., while Deadweight is 3kgs and only 650CCA.I like extra CCAs for starting after long sleep in the garage; price seems to be about the same . Anti-Gravity is much more expensive and about 9kgs
Air mail parcel from one country to another would increase that price quite a bit. Would be best to use home grown product

Valiant-Ecosse

553 posts

209 months

Wednesday 26th August 2020
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The lower CCA is why I'm keen to test them rigourously. They also offer a 120ah 950cca which will be the next port of call if the 650 isn't up to the job and that comes in at 5.5kgs.

Just as a point of reference though I've been running the red top 40 race battery in my car for over two years with the following specs

Capacity: 39Ah.
CA: 600A.
CCA: 500A.
Weight: 14.9kg.

And I've had no issues whatsoever despite the fact I never use a trickle charger and the car is often left for weeks without use. This is why (and also on advice from the manufacturer) I'm testing the 650cca dead weight battery first rather than going overkill.

Always better to test and see the results first hand than relying on the numbers.

And certainly use a local product where possible I cannot agree more on that. I'm not trying to push product, more chip in on the specifics and range of products available in lightweight batteries. My aim isn't never to be some online shop for vantage parts (if I can help it) I'm more interested in building cars so the testing and product knowledge is important before I put something in a customer car.

Edited by Valiant-Ecosse on Wednesday 26th August 06:55