ckunke002 10+ year member
Senior VIP Member
Not really sure what to make of all of this...
Only a couple weeks ago I purchased a kinetik 1400 battery to replace my stock under the hood battery. They measure their batteries in total system wattage so I should have at least 600 watts on tap as my system is rated at 800 but I rarely crack it that hard.
Out of curiosity of the quality of my investment, I went around to auto shops today having them test my electrical system to see how I was doing. My alt passed every test possible, but the first 2 stops (both autozones) said that my battery was bad. They couldn't give me very much info on it, but said that my voltage was bad and judged only by what their tools told them. Next I went to a store called Battery xChange which specialize in car batteries and only car batteries. First thing they noticed was how without washers my terminals were slightly loose and were sure that was the problem. After they threw washers in and tightened em down, they ran a quick test and told me everything was fine with no further details.
After that I stopped by yet another car battery specialist store (there's at least a million of them on this street). He did his thing for a few minutes then concluded that everything was fine, except that my cold cranking amps were at 415 which he told me is marginal. He said to look online to see what the 1400 is supposed to have for CCA and i still can't find a number after searching (apparently because Kinetik rates their batteries on only total system wattage and amp hours).
Finally, I returned to one of the autozones to see if they would give me a passing grade after having the washers installed and tightening everything up, this time all the guy could tell me was that his reader said I had a bad battery and that the resting voltage was at 13.5... apparently way too high for a 12v battery.
So folks, my question is... what in the world is going on here? Could it be that their devices aren't compatible with with AGM technology batteries?? I do a lot of driving in cold weather, and that's ultimately why I replaced my battery (my old one was becoming extremely unreliable and constantly slow started and died on me a couple of times on the mountain when using my stereo). My new one has slow started a few times (possibly because of the loose connections), so that is why I had everything tested in the first place.
If you have any thoughts about all of this let me know!
Only a couple weeks ago I purchased a kinetik 1400 battery to replace my stock under the hood battery. They measure their batteries in total system wattage so I should have at least 600 watts on tap as my system is rated at 800 but I rarely crack it that hard.
Out of curiosity of the quality of my investment, I went around to auto shops today having them test my electrical system to see how I was doing. My alt passed every test possible, but the first 2 stops (both autozones) said that my battery was bad. They couldn't give me very much info on it, but said that my voltage was bad and judged only by what their tools told them. Next I went to a store called Battery xChange which specialize in car batteries and only car batteries. First thing they noticed was how without washers my terminals were slightly loose and were sure that was the problem. After they threw washers in and tightened em down, they ran a quick test and told me everything was fine with no further details.
After that I stopped by yet another car battery specialist store (there's at least a million of them on this street). He did his thing for a few minutes then concluded that everything was fine, except that my cold cranking amps were at 415 which he told me is marginal. He said to look online to see what the 1400 is supposed to have for CCA and i still can't find a number after searching (apparently because Kinetik rates their batteries on only total system wattage and amp hours).
Finally, I returned to one of the autozones to see if they would give me a passing grade after having the washers installed and tightening everything up, this time all the guy could tell me was that his reader said I had a bad battery and that the resting voltage was at 13.5... apparently way too high for a 12v battery.
So folks, my question is... what in the world is going on here? Could it be that their devices aren't compatible with with AGM technology batteries?? I do a lot of driving in cold weather, and that's ultimately why I replaced my battery (my old one was becoming extremely unreliable and constantly slow started and died on me a couple of times on the mountain when using my stereo). My new one has slow started a few times (possibly because of the loose connections), so that is why I had everything tested in the first place.
If you have any thoughts about all of this let me know!
