The ease of installing a 12 lb battery vs the wrestle to remove the old 50 lb battery made it worth every penny of the price. The new batt cranks the motor over pretty smartly, also. Group 24, LH POS, if anyone is interested. I bought the base 1200 CCA, 30 AH battery, didn't see the need for 40 or 60 AH. Doug
Alan, it looks EXACTLY like a group 24 lead acid battery. Exactly. Because it IS a group 24 battery. You order LH side POS, as that puts the POS terminal on the drivers sides when the posts are at the rear. The POS terminal is at the rear and on the drivers side. It is an Antigravity brand battery. Doug
What? What are the advantages of a lithium battery over a standard battery. 12 lbs vs 50, anything else?
I chatted with them recently, and they said that there is a 15% sale coming up on memorial day weekend for anyone interested. Don't know if it was just an upsell, but the tech support guy at Antigravity told me that due to the power draw in the F430, they recommend the 40 or 60 version. It is more money though. I am rather surprised that they don't warrant them for longer, considering they suggest that they will have a much longer life. For the price, they should.
Weight for sure, but supposedly longevity. But I usually go by a company's warranty policy when it comes to batteries. They usually set the warranty expiry for a week before failure. A longer warranty allows them to charge more for the product, generating more profits BUT ONLY IF it's a quality product that they aren't having to replace for free under warranty.
Oh, almost forgot, if you are charging it on a trickle charger, you need to get a lithium specific charger. CTEK makes one.
Well to be fair if you were a business selling a product that you knew (and claimed to be) useable for x-number of years, why on Earth would you warranty it for beyond that? When I bought a new water heater for the house I looked at the row - $300, $400, $500... They all looked the same. Hell, they all WEIGHED the same. The only difference was the length of the "extended" warranty.
I'd be concerned that the alternator won't charge it properly - they have a reputation of being finnicky.
FWIW - I bought an Li Fe (Shorai) battery in '12 for my 1973 Norton Commando motorcycle with aftermarket electric start and that same batt is still in the bike. The charging system is OEM. As I said - SAME battery has been in the bike for 9 years! I can't recall ever getting more than around three years on a moto battery. I agree that the price for the battery mentioned in the earlier post is a bit off-putting! And, although I am very pleased with Li FE performance on my Norton, I wouldn't consider spending that kind of money for a 328 battery. If/when Li batt prices drop to maybe 1/3 of the current price - if they ever do - I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. My experience with the Norton indicates that although a charging system designed for lead/acid is not optimum for Li, functionally it has made no difference...even though the entire charging system of the Norton was designed/supplied by Lucas!
I’ve had a small lithium motorcycle battery cranking over the speedster for over 6 years, it sits forever then get fired up moved around, if it needs a little charge I just throw a battery charger on it, nothing special. It was $250 years ago. You can see it if you zoom in Image Unavailable, Please Login
I used my Quad ATV as a LI-ION battery guinea pig for the last three years, yup, the lead acid batts just didn't last, 2 years max for me, I will know in another 3 years if the new battery paid for itself on the quad. I wouldn't spend the money for a lightweight batt in my DDs, but the batts are much more accessible on those. Doug
Me too. If they guaranteed it would last significantly longer, I'd consider one. Otherwise, i'll wait and let others guinea pig it out. With all of the developments in the EV space, and EV battery chemistry / battery costs projected to drop substantially, I would not be surprised to see some more competition in this space, resulting in better quality batteries, and better warranties.
You are absolutely right. I look at warranties as really solid projections of the life of a product from the people most knowledgable about it - the people that made it. Went through the same thing own the water heater too. Ended up calling the manufacturer, and they told me that the additional money was for a better quality part inside that lasted longer, thus rendering the tank far less likely to fail during the enhanced warranty time. I forgot which part it was, perhaps it was a liner or something.
I'd consider the price of that an incentive to lose 25lbs off myself and then maybe I'll last longer! I've only ever had 2 batteries in my 328 in the 22 years I've owned it. The current (Bosch S5 007) went in in early 2009 (and I think I've only lifted it out once since!). I've probably put a hex on it now but at the last count it was working fine.
Based on my experience making such statements, I'd just go on out and buy a new battery now. That way it won't be so annoying when it quits later in the next week or so!!
I have a lithium battery in one of my motorcycles, Anti Gravity, I needed a different regulator to charge the battery, so I believe your going to need one in a Ferrari as well, I prefer a gel cel, optima, I know they are heavy, but it will charge correctly with the standard alternator , Anti Gravity or any other lithium, are going to need a special voltage regulator, I tried to use the Anti unit with the stock regulator on my motorcycle, I had to install a special voltage rectifier in order for the charging system to work with this battery. This is my experience, I tried also with a Shorai , I had the same issue. Thank you
The battery has internal circuitry to deal with charge/over charge/undercharge and battery temps and was designed to work with a std VR and alternator as an automobile starting battery. I have used a LI batt in my ATV for several years with no issues. Some motorcycles don't really have an alternator, but rather simple rotor/stator charging system, those may not work well with a lithium battery.
$747 for a battery. If you want smaller, you can get a lithium battery for ~$295 or so, they just have less cold crank capacity. Something like this: https://www.aerovoltz.net/aerovoltz-ai-series-480-cca-experimental-intelligent-lithium-battery/ You just have to make your own battery hold down. This isn't a which is cheaper choice, it is weight reduction decision. I have to laugh at how cheap some people are, they buy a Ferrari then don't want to spend any money on it, which explains why most older F-cars are in a need of a bunch of work. Doug