Erik

I promise not to divebomb if there's no "break checking" going on

turbochad

It was CTEK. They make a LiON charger specifically for the Porsche LiON battery. The standard CTEK electronics are not designed for the requirements of the LiON battery. If you are willing to spring the big bucks for the fancy battery, it is probably a good idea to buy the correct CTEK charger.

savyboy

That is incorrect information that they provided to you. There is no special charger need for the OE LION. Anyone that owns one received a small owners booklet with it. There is no requirement for any special chargers. Nor is the need for one mentioned on Porsches own microsite: http://www.porsche.com/microsite/tec...electedVariant

Not sure why this fallacy keeps cropping up. It is just not true. The LiON require no special treatment and outperforms a standard lead acid battery in every way with the sole exception of extreme cold weather performance.

M3EvoBR

Thanks for the info.

I'm thinking about a smaller and light battery, but wouldn't buy anything that's not OEM, in those terms, so for now, probably just a regular smaller battery.

turbochad

I think it comes up because CTEK has not claimed that their current lead acid chargers work for these new batteries.

From the FAQ section of the CTEK website:

Q17.
Can I charge Li-Ion batteries with my CTEK charger?
Answer:
CTEK’s battery chargers are developed for lead acid batteries only. Charging other types of batteries with a charger developed for lead acid batteries is extremely risky.

In another area I found this:

Can I charge lithium ion batteries with my CTEK charger?

Our chargers have a charging curve suited to lead-acid batteries. We have heard reports from around the world that our chargers are also used for Li-Ion batteries, but this is outside our charger recommendations. If you study Li-Ion manuals, it is amazing how well several of our chargers match 4x Li-Ion batteries. However, we cannot guarantee that everything is perfect and you assume all risk and liability if you use the charger with these types of batteries. Lithium is an extremely reactive material and battery manufacturers put great efforts into controlling and monitoring the batteries. Consider CTEK chargers as a smart power source that CTEK will not guarantee for any batteries other than lead-acid batteries.


At PRI they unveiled a new charger that is designed for Li-ion batteries, that is the one I saw. I don't think it is on the market yet but will be shortly. Until then I don't see that you have any other choice. I know very little about the Porsche battery and I don't have one or the manual. I am just sharing what the CTEK rep told me when I asked him this very question. It makes sense that any charger would work with the Porsche battery or else they would sell a charger for it.

savyboy

A LiON will take up a charge on average four times faster than a lead acid. Typical chargers are not designed to dump a charge into the battery that fast hence the market for LiON specialty chargers. For the average user, us, who only puts a trickle charge into it for winter storage, or the occasional but rare "oh crap I left my lights on" situation, the OE chargers work great.

Now, if you had for example a rental golf cart, with some big LiON's in it, and deep discharged/recharged it regularly, then there is a very good case to be made for a purpose built charger.

An OE LION is suitable for fitment to any modern Porsche, the charging and electrical systems are the same, not battery specific. If the vehicle systems are the same why would there be a need for a different charger?

CTEK wants to cover their butt from a liability standpoint and/or expand their market so their position is understandable.

Jon70

Here is my experience with the Porsche Li battery: It is not recommended for low temps, I think less than 32F if I am not mistaken. It sends out an intermittent series of beeps when the charge gets low. I simply plug the car into the standard Porsche charger and the battery recharges. I have had no issues so far and I've been using the battery for close to 1.5 years.

Nizer

Does Porsche make golf carts? If so I want the (final) RS version?

khooni

I have been told that the Porsche OEM LiON battery only fits the gen2 997 GTx models and spyder/ cayman R. Can it fit a 997 GT3 mk 1 RS? what are the differences?

khooni

I mean a battery is a battery......... unless there are holes that need drilling, I can't see why it wouldn't fit a 2007/8 Gt3

Jon70

I have the LiON battery in a 997.1 RS and it works w/o issue.