Batteries

It’s like this: in one out of four cars fitted with audio component system is for the purpose of showcasing. On these car audio systems category the sound system of the said car is intended to pump even when the car is not running at all. And they may not even be in SPL competitions.

Occasions on the beach, parking lot, gathering of friends on some deserted highway, even picnics, all these calls for music, and what’s the best mobile audio for such occasion that car audio.

It might not be evident, but these systems do eat the power from a secondary battery, not on the main battery used for the car operation. And the larger (and louder) these systems get, the faster it drains battery –all the more reason to install a secondary battery so that the car won’t fall dead on you. There’s no nightmare worse than a car stuck on some out of the way location due to a drained battery. Even though it may seem that two batteries are enough, sometimes due to the length of battery usage and due to ‘ever present’ oversight like failing to replace or service battery after heavy use, accidents like this happen –and quite regularly too.

Yet, it’s always a wise precaution to carry a second battery. It’s even recommended to non audio system vehicles, purely for the reason of vigilance.

Sometimes you will come across a problem and you need to change for a stronger battery. Another (and remarkably better) alternative is of course buying a secondary battery. The extra power gained would be better than buying a new, more powerful one since there are two working batteries. Even mid range car batteries, two if them can supply greater power output than one top class, and powerful battery.

So, for additional power need, it is secondary battery then. Now we proceed to the next element important to batteries, or at least if you plan to have an additional battery.

Isolators And Regulators

For its purpose, an Isolator is highly essential to those having secondary car batteries, due to the fact that it allows efficient and reliable method of adding the secondary battery to the car. It isolates batteries without voltage drops, a common and highly wasteful occurrence when not using Isolators. Almost all designs of Isolators, from different manufacturers are compatible to all types of charging system (or alternators). When the ignition is primed simply connect the relay wires. When you turn off the engine, the batteries will still remain divided, thus avoiding those excessive voltage drains on the batteries.

Regulators on the other hand are used for charging purposes. They are battery chargers specifically designed to charge multiple batteries simultaneously and efficiently. But unlike the more common battery isolators in the market today, most regulators do not require its factory electrical systems to be changed, it does so by itself. The regulator reads the voltage automatically across the initial battery setup to ensure equal charging. Once it does this, once the primary battery gets charged up to 12 volts, the regulator then carries on charging the grouped the batteries equally. As long as the vehicle is kept running while servicing, the regulator maintains the alternator, sending up to 200 amps of power charge to the secondary batteries, but without a loss of voltage on any battery. And once the engine is turned off, the regulator then refills the primary battery in a “one-way passage”, feeding the primary battery by isolating the current. In this procedure, it’s easy to perceive that the primary battery is always fully charged. Even during heavy battery usage due to excessive sound system usage. On well pumped rides, multiple batteries of 4 aren’t unheard of.