josephsc

I thought I'd report on my experiences running a lightweight Odyssey battery for the past two months. Maybe this will be of use to someone.

This is on my 968-powered 944. The Odyssey 680 weights in at around 14lbs, compared to stock battery of ~31lbs (and that of a 968 at ~41lbs). Strictly warm climate use (SoCal) but using a really old starter that should have been replaced two years ago. The alternator is crappy, too. The car commutes 15miles each way, plus errands around town.

I killed the battery on two occasions:
* left the cabin light on overnight -- this would have given a stock battery problems as well.
* sat in the car listening to the radio for a mere ten minutes.

I would continue to use it for my daily driver, for the weight savings -- but not for roadtrips or other occasions where getting stranded would be a major pain. For colder climates, I'd say forget it (even the stock battery have problems then...).

Peckster

Ten minutes with the radio on killed it? You must have some other probloems, because that's no draw at all. Depending on what you mean by radio of course.

ckathens

If he has a big ole amp, running the radio could do it.

cas951

I'm using the same battery and been using it for the last 8 months. I do live in the Bay Area where the weather is fairly warm. I've had no problems so far.

Dark Lightning

I had good luck with a Genesis lightweight battery (very similar to the Odyssey), but others have had issues:

Epic2112

That battery looks very fluffy.

josephsc

No big amp -- but I've always had issues with the stereo system draining bit too much power (can't figure out where).

So how does a battery get that fat?

Dark Lightning

Gel-cell batteries are rather touchy about how you charge them. Be very careful about giving them the right amount of power for the shortest period of time necessary to reach a full charge.

special tool

Yup,. my 680 loses power after about 20 minutes with the radio on, also. Key set to acc.