Underblu

I bought one of those lightweight antigravity lithium batteries during the labor say sale. I should have probably installed it myself but i took it to my Porsche dealer. I figure my Spyder needed a wash anyway and they could deal with disposing the existing lead battery.

So far the antigravity battery works like a charm and even comes with a handy bluetooth adapter and app that shows Voltage, Crank Test and Charge Test right from your iPhone. It certainly seems to be the easiest, least expensive way to reduce 40lbs of weight from your Porsche.

HawkerDriver

[
QUOTE=Underblu;16912604]I bought one of those lightweight antigravity lithium batteries during the labor say sale. I should have probably installed it myself but i took it to my Porsche dealer. I figure my Spyder needed a wash anyway and they could deal with disposing the existing lead battery.

So far the antigravity battery works like a charm and even comes with a handy bluetooth adapter and app that shows Voltage, Crank Test and Charge Test right from your iPhone. It certainly seems to be the easiest, least expensive way to reduce 40lbs of weight from your Porsche.[/QUOTE]

can you post the model / part number of the one you got? 👍

Underblu

H6-48 40ah

Antigravity

Thanks for the update and good to hear all is well! Always looking for nice pics of it installed if you'd be so kind as to share one!
Best regards,
Chad
chad@antigravitybatteries.com

BarryC

Just did the same with a 30ah battery that I had leftover from my 2018 GT3. No issues and fits perfectly! Wish I could drop 40lbs so easily...

SToronto

I am sure this info is elsewhere.....but hopefully I won't get roasted for asking.

a) Any fire risks above normal batteries?
b) Can it handle not being on a tender for 5 months?
c) How is this different from the Porsche Li-Ion battery that was offered and discontinued?

Antigravity

First we would never not answer any question or put you down for asking anything.... even if I've written about it 20 times already. The point here honestly is to educate, this is still a newer technology that people have questions about. It our job to make sure to answer honestly.

a) Any fire risks above normal batteries?
Actually no, there is not more risk with this battery than with Lead/Acid. This is due to the fact that our batteries incorporate what is know as a BMS (Battery Management System) inside the battery. It is a circuit board that controls the the battery and keep it operating within certain parameters only. For example if an external source such as the alternator breaks and start spiking voltage to our battery the BMS will cut off those higher voltages and not allow them to reach the lithium battery inside. Another example is over-discharge, our Battery will actually put itself into a sleep mode before it can be over discharged and damaged. In the older, or in some current brands they lack a BMS, that is what is dangerous because then the batteries can be subjected to circumstances that call allow the battery to over-heat and go into what is called Thermal Runaway. And while the Lifepo4 chemistry in most every case will not go into an open flame it will over heat and melt the plastic and damage surrounding areas. But. this is in batteries without a BMS and that subjected to extreme conditions outside their operating parameters, but our units all have a full BMS in place. So in effect the battery operates only within a set of parameters that won't allow dangerous occurrences to affect the battery. Our batteries also have flame and heat proof materials surrounding them inside the battery itself.

b) Can it handle not being on a tender for 5 months?

This is tougher to answer because that depends on the level of parasitic draw from your particular Car. First, yes, it could handle not being on a battery tender for 6 months if it was NOT connected to the Car, meaning if you disconnected the battery during storage, and this is because lithium has a very low self-discharge rate. But in the Car you would be hard pushed to get 5 months out of it unless you went for our 60 Amp Hour Option and your car had a very low Parasitic Draw. Keep in mind I have in fact gotten 7 weeks from a 24 Amp Hour unit in my 991.1 GT3RS, but that car has a very low parasitic draw on it when it goes into full sleep mode. So I think a 60Ah could do close to 5 months. But again this depends if you have extra accessories and cars level of draw on the battery when in storage... but 3 and 4 months can be done.

c) How is this different from the Porsche Li-Ion battery that was offered and discontinued?

Being blunt, which I tend to be.... those original Porsche Lithium Batteries really were bad batteries. Their failure rate was abysmal with over 50% failures. I don't know the exact reason but we can assume it was the BMS system was faulty and allowed the battery to over-discharge to much. As far as differences, we just have a more advanced BMS, and a top quality Lithium Cell. But Porsche has a new Lithium Battery that should be good, it comes with some of the new cars. The only problem with the new cars using it is that it is a proprietary battery at this point in time so you cannot just exchange it for another battery since it has a communication port that speaks to the LIN system in the Car. So hopefully those should be lasting at least 7 years or Porsche owners are going to be getting the short end of the stick since that new Lithium is proprietary and you will have to pay whatever they want to charge for it when it dies.

HawkerDriver

great information!
i have several CTEK chargers, can I use those? Or does it require a special charger?

4MIDABLE

Thinking a piece of duct tape is cheaper for lots of guys...

“You put it over your mouth so you stop eating...you fat bastard.” ~ Richard Jeni

neil.yoshi

Can lithium batteries be left for weeks at a time without draining or do they need tenders too?

Antigravity

You would have to use the Lithium Version of the CTEK Charger or one of the other several companies that make a Lithium version of their Charger..... some CTEKS do both and some do just lithium so check your models. But there is not special charger required, unless you consider a Lithium version of a charger as a special charger. Also you might find you rarely need to put the Lithium battery on a charger since it does not suffer from the Natural discharge that occurs with a Lead/Acid Battery. But the discharge will ultimately depend on if you have extra accessories, or items on your car that create more of a Parasitic drain on the battery. Normally a modern Porsche will go into a very low draw of energy after it see it is not being driven, it puts itself to sleep basically, this is to conserve battery life. But if you have a Camera or Radar detector or other aftermarket accessory sometimes they will stay going and make for a higher level of parasitic drain and discharge the battery much quicker.

The reason we always state use a Lithium Charger is due to the different charging profile of these stand alone chargers. Lead/Acid Chargers have a Desulfate mode, this Sulfate accumulates on the Lead/Acid plates so the Lead/Acid chargers are designed to spike voltage and remove this Sulphate..... but this does not occur with Lithium battery at all, so the Lithium does not like spiking voltage and does not need that. So you want to use the Lithium Charger version from CTEK or another company.

Antigravity

Oh for sure it can be left weeks... I do it myself now being I am not drivng my Car much. In many cases it can actually be longer than lead by a ways since Lithium has a lower "self discharge" rate. But the caveat is that this depends on your Car, and if you have extra accessories. As I mentioned above if you don't have things like Cameras, Radar Detectors, USB chargers that you plug into the outlets or other accessories, then modern Porsches are pretty good at conserving their energy when they go into their sleep mode if you aren't driving much. For a fact I have a 2016 GT3 RS that can sit 9 weeks with our 40Ah battery. Tested during this Covid thing... But keep in mind this is a Car that has no aftermarket accessories and was not connected to a charger, or even touched, and I was able to start it on the 9th week. Also a GT3 is sort of stripped down compared to some other cars like a Turbo so it has less of a Parasitic drain on it, so I assume another model Car might only get about 7 to 8 weeks.. But in most modern cars I say 6 to 8 weeks for a 40Ah battery if there is not fast Parasitic drains, or aftermarket accessories.

Antigravity

For any of you interested in learning about Lithium... we have a few video that go pretty deep into all the detail.... here is one for the Automotive Batteries.

Westcoast

Do Lithium-Ion batteries play well with the latest Porsche Auto-Stop/Start technology on the 718 GT4/Spyder?

Does the car need to be programed to know it has a Lithium-ion battery installed to replace a AGM unit?

Considering Auto Stop/Start which battery would be recommended 40Ah or 60Ah?

hf1

Great thread, and thanks for your explanations. A question:



If the battery puts itself into sleep mode below a certain charge, then wouldn't that disconnect it from all parasitic draws just as if it was physically disconnected from the car, thus preserving its starting power for much longer?

Do you have a decision matrix for choosing the appropriate (the lightest but still functional) battery model according to car model/year and intended use (daily, backroads, weekends, etc.)? I'm considering this when I need new batteries for my 996 GT3 and my 987 Boxster S, both 2005 models for backroads/weekend use, and mostly stored in winter. Also for the Boxster GTS 4.0 that I plan to get next year.