22 Years' Battery Customization
Jun 12, 2020 Pageview：1136
While buying a battery for your car, there are two major factors that you have to consider. One of them is the energy storage capacity of the battery that is normally measured in Ampere hours (AH). The other factor is the cranking amps rating that is measured in amps. However, if you are to compromise between the two, it is wiser to compromise the energy storage capacity but not the cranking amps rating of the battery.
This is because the primary role of a car battery is fulfilled when starting the engine and is this where the cranking amps rating is important. Unless you intend to use some of the electrical applications of the car when it is not running for long hours. But if you only intend to have the battery for starting the car, then a battery with an average energy storage capacity but with the recommended cranking amps rating will do a good job. That's why you cannot use a battery that is specifically designed for starting car engines for other purposes like storing solar energy.
This is because car batteries are normally designed with high cranking amps rating but with a relatively smaller energy storage capacity. This makes such a battery inappropriate for storing solar energy since it has a relatively small capacity.
What is the significance of the cranking amps (CA) rating?
Cranking amps refers to the number of Amps a lead-acid battery can output when the ambient temperature is at 0oC. Cold-cranking amps rating on the other hand refers to the number of Amps a battery can output when the ambient temperature is at -18oC. This means a battery with a higher cranking amps rating has the capacity of starting a car engine in cold weather more often than one with a lower cranking amps rating.
Is high cranking amps battery better?
With other factors constant, a high cranking amps battery is always better than one with a lower cranking amps rating. This even becomes more significant if one stays in an environment with cold weather or during a rainy day where the temperatures are below 10oC. Temperature highly affects the amount of current that a lead-acid battery can output. This is because the internal chemistry of these batteries highly depends on the ambient temperature.
The optimum temperature to get the best results from the battery is room temperature (about 25oC). High temperatures are also not good for lead-acid batteries since they lead to an increased rate of depreciation of the battery. While buying lead-acid batteries always pay close attention to its cranking amps rating because it's the factor the determines your battery's capacity to start your car engine in cold weather. The higher the CA rating of the battery the better.
How many cold cranking amps (CAA) do you need?
The cold-cranking amps rating is another important factor of the car battery specifications especially if you're living in areas that have extremely cold weather conditions. The cold-cranking amps required by an engine depends on its design. Some engines require more cold-cranking amps than other engines. But in most cases, the cold cranking amps for most engines is between 350A to 750A. Engines with a high capacity like those in SUV cars and trucks normally need more current to get started than smaller engines.
This means a battery with cold cranking amps rating of 350A can supply the engine with power for 30 seconds without dropping the voltage below 7.2 Volts. It is important to note that the cold-cranking amps rating of a battery reduces with time due to wear and tear of the battery internal parts. Whenever the value of the CCA goes below 200A, the battery loses its ability to start the car in cold temperature environments. At that point, such a battery has to be replaced with a new one.
What is the difference between cold-cranking amps and cranking amps?
Both cold-cranking amps (CCA) and cranking amps (CA) are used to determine the battery's capacity to start the car engine when its temperature is down. CCA is the current the battery can provide when temperatures are below -18oC for 30 seconds without dropping the voltage below 7.2V. On the other hand, CA refers to the current the battery can provide when temperatures are below 0oC.
The cold-cranking amps rating is normally important for people living in areas that have extremely cold weather. If your area doesn't have temperatures that go below 0oC, you can base on the cranking amps rating to buy a battery. However, the most important thing before you determine the CA and CCA ratings is knowing the power required to ignite your engine at both 0 and -18oC.
Buying a battery with a less CA or CCA rating will likely affect your engine's ability to start in cold weather conditions. It may however work well during warm temperature conditions. On the other hand, getting a battery with a CCA or CA rating that is way more than what your engine requires is not an economical decision. It will cost you more yet you're not utilizing its full capacity.
Final Thoughts
Just like we have discussed above, CCA and CA ratings are significant parameters that you need to carefully look at while choosing a battery for your car. This is because the strength of the car battery relies more on those two parameters than its energy storage capacity. So, before you look at the energy storage capacity of the battery, you must consider the CA and CCA ratings first.
Another important point you need to note is that different car engines need different amounts of power to start up. The very first thing you need to know even before you start thinking of the CA and CCA ratings is how much power your car engine needs to start in cold weather conditions. This information can be got from the specifications sheet of your engine. The specifications sheet of car engines can be found on the website of the car manufacturer.
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