Living in FL and daily driving the Z I'm looking at going to a small battery. Car will not have a big stereo or current draws other then OEM alarm.

Has anyone used this battery for daily driver long term and how did it hold up?

 

had one in my 240 lasted 6 months then died. complete waste if you ask me

 

What makes this battery any better than Duralast Gold 35-DLG for $90?

 

Its about 20 lbs lighter then the oem size battery.

 

Update: I've had this battery (Odyssey PC680) in my car for over a year now with about 13k miles daily driver and have had zero issues.

 

ian99rt,

If you are still running it today, how has it been over the years?

I am looking to get a PC 680 or maybe a PC 545 (smaller, lighter, less amps):

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/batteries/pc680.htm
http://www.odysseybatteries.com/batteries/pc545.htm

I might follow these install tips:
http://bit.ly/1WkBjw6 (blocked 350z site)

 

Well back in 2013 the battery wouldn't hold a charge. I replaced with an identical PC680 but the amp hours had been reduced in the label. I called odyssey and they assured me the battery had not changed. The new battery lasted less than 6 months.

I replaced with a small Deka motorcycle (research showed the Braile version is just a rebadged Deka) with similar specs and weight. I'm now 2 years on said battery and it is still runing strong without needing to use the special odyssey charger to top off.

 

ian99rt,

Thanks. That's not what I was hoping to hear! I'm second guessing this move. I want a lightweight battery, but also something that lasts. I put my Z away each winter so it has to handle 6 months of inactivity.

I did not know Deka and Braille were identical. Interesting.

These lightweight batteries are hard to research. I've been surfing the forums like mad and there's so many variables and not much information on how well they work past a year.

 

I bought Odyssey's for both of my Alfa Spider's, and both failed pretty quickly. One in about 5 months, and one in just under a year. Never any trouble with conventional batteries, before, or since.

 

https://my350z.com/forum/audio-and-v...t-battery.html

The second deka that I replaced the first one with is still in the car. When the car is not running or in storage, I either put it on a trickle charger or take the battery out completely and store it somewhere warm.

 

Thanks everyone.

It looks like Odyssey batteries fail too often, and Deka (or Braille) is the way to go.

What I do not understand is why the battery would not start the car after 3 weeks. I am thinking if it is a Braille replica, then it should have the battery saver technology (where it shuts down and saves enough charge for a start). -- EDIT: But this was your first battery which ended up being a bad battery.

One issue I have is where my car sits outside during the summer, I cannot trickle charge it. This point alone might mean I should not go with a lightweight battery.

 

Nope - pick an OEM lead acid battery. I've had a optima yellow top and Odyssey battery both fail in less than 2 yrs. Standard Nissan battery going on 4 years...

 

rcdash,

Thanks. I should have updated the thread that I decided to go with an East Penn (they make Deka batteries, by the way) OEM sized battery. It will do its job.

Once I get setup to track out my car more, with a garage to work on it, store it, trickle charge it, etc. then maybe I'll go lightweight battery and get into more lightweight mods.

 

I am a battery lab technician at the Deka plant here in PA. While I can't give too much information, I can say that Odyssey batteries are garbage.

I may sound biased because I work at deka, but our batteries truly outperform every other brand out there. We have recently purchased a shipment of competitor batteries because we test them against Deka's in our lab. We generally put a stronger battery of the competitor against a weaker (lower rated) deka battery and every time our lower rated battery beats the competitor's "stronger" battery.

Its crazy to see how much cheaper the internals of the competitor's batteries are to deka's.

 

craig12895,

Thanks for the input. Can you share any of the data or point us to the source?

I was about to go for a Deka ETX18L, but I can go weeks without driving my car and I do not have a means of tending the battery. Would it work?

Here's a breakdown of the batteries I had considered and their CCA's:

11.4lbs, 150CCA, http://www.odysseybatteries.com/batteries/pc545.htm
15.4lbs, 170CCA, http://www.odysseybatteries.com/batteries/pc680.htm
15.5lbs, 340CCA, http://www.etx18l.com/
15lbs, 425CCA, https://www.braillebattery.com/index...atteries/b2015
36.8lbs, 490CCA, 80D23* (OEM 350Z battery)

*http://maxima.theowensfamily.com/tsb/NTB99-048i.pdf

 

Unfortunately I cannot share any of the specific details because it is all quite confidential.

But from your choices of batteries, I immediately have to advise you against the Odyssey batteries. In your circumstances, any battery will not last as long as it possibly could, but it sounds like you are aware of that. I would expect the Deka or Braille batteries to handle your condition the best and they should last you quite a long time given that when you do drive the car you run it a decent amount of time to recharge the battery.

As far as going to OEM Nissan batteries, they are also Deka batteries and they will generally last an extremely long time

 

craig12895,

Thanks for all your input. And I am in agreement. And from my research I have seen the OEM (Deka) batteries last a surprisingly long time. I am sure I will come back to this thread eventually in the future for moving to a lightweight battery!

 

No problem. Glad to feel like I can actually contribute something useful to this forum.

And if down the road you get any battery in your car and are going out to drive every few weeks, take a long at the battery itself. If you notice that the casing of the battery is beginning to compress in (opposite of bulging), that is a sign that the battery is not maintaining a high enough charge and the it is beginning to dry out and corrode, which could ultimately lead to a shorter battery life.

 

Ah, great tip. Thanks.