Battery good options

[mfm22]

This new to me '02 base may be getting a new battery . The current battery age is not ciear and I'd like to just put a new one in . Winter is approaching here in NY and new battery + battery tender = peace if mind

As usual there are many opinions on type & brand of battery to use
I'd like to think there are just 2-3 top candidates
My preferences are not in priority order

Good & proper fit without extending cables or any mods
Max cold cranking
Ability to hold charge as long as possible
Probably sealed (AGM ?).
Basically I want a beast that fits - not worried about weight
Price is not main concern within reason

Years ago I was partial to Interstate as a brand. Not sure what is a quality brand now

[Pdwight]

I bought mine at Walmart almost 4 years ago and it is still going strong. Get a Glass Mat battery if possible, other than that there are only 3 or 4 actual manufacturers in the world......you are mainly looking at labels

[rfuerst911sc]

I installed an aftermarket brand AGM battery in " the beast " and it has served me well for about a year now. I needed some additional CCA's due to the 13:1 compression and this battery works perfect. As stated above there are only a handful of manufacturers in the world so shop for price and convenience .

[mikesz]

I installed an optima I bought from summit. I was concerned about the whole venting thing.

[Anker]

Did you have to modify the box/mounts?

Anker

[Boxtaboy]

After 8 yrs on my Autozone group 48 DL, I decided to replace it just in case. Just bought a Autozone H6/AGM, and noticed they no longer provide you with a venting elbow and tube like they used to with these batteries. The AGM battery still has vent ports, and I guess it is still advisable to use them, so I had to get a vent elbow connection separately to use with the OEM tube connection, as the old connection was too big for the new battery's vent port. I noticed afterwards that Pep Boys sells the equivalent AGM Bosch batteries that come with the vent elbow, so that may be a simpler way to go.

[lkchris]

H6 is the standard size, but an H7 fits just fine--the tray is made for it and you just fit the clamp screw to the next hole over. This gives you plenty of capacity.

I have a Deka H7 AGM.

[mikefocke]

TIP or manual, it makes a difference as the TIP battery capacity spec is actually bigger.

The Porsche battery is nothing special that you should worry about a Porsche branded part. One that fits, has the positive and negative terminals on the correct side, has the right CCA, and is the right size. I once maintained a list of about 20 batteries known to fit.

When I wanted (not needed) a battery in my '01S TIP, I choose an Optima, ordered it by mail, ordered an adapter kit and then needed a slightly longer grounding cable. Big deal, it was what I wanted and took 30 minutes to install including the trip to get the maybe $8 longer cable from Autozone. As it was an AGM, I didn't worry about the vent, just left the tube there in case the next guy wanted to use it. That was years ago and the car is now at least two owners beyond me.

Climb into the frunk to do the install.

I used a CTek battery maintainer through the hibernation periods which I kept as short as possible.

[mikesz]

I had to make an adapter plate for the optima battery. got the instructions on the forum.

[SteelStroke]

I have the Tiptronic in my 03 S. The previous battery was cheap one installed by previous owner.

Replaced with a $200 AGM. Do not go cheap with your battery.


My.02

[mfm22]

Double checked my battery. Not bad, there was a date from factory on side made in June 2015
Top wasn't punched for date so it can't be any older than built date

It's an Exide classic 48C It should be ok for a while

[jakeru]

I recently picked up a "Super Start Platinum" 48PLT AGM house brand battery from O-Reilly auto for my 2001 boxster base. It's an AGM battery, cranks like crazy - never faster. The old battery lasted really long time (I think 10 years!) so there is no way I can fault it, but it just eventually ran out of capacity and one day wouldn't start the car after shutting it off, and just needed replacing.

One complaint on the 48PLT model I got was, like another poster said about a different battery, it didn't come with the vent elbow (and previous elbow off other aftermarket battery wasn't a direct fit), however, the very accommodating counter salesman let me swipe a vent kit from another one of the super start batteries that did come with vent kit, so problem solved. Perfect fit, plug and play (with the added vent kit), and boy does it inspire confidence how quickly it cranks over now! Possibly 50% faster cranking speed.

I'm pretty sure I weighed the new AGM batter as being about 4 lbs and 10% heavier than the old sealed/flooded lead acid battery... 44 lbs sticks in my mind for the 48PLT. They had one size larger battery yet which also apparently would have also physically fit, which I opted against since I don't follow the train of thought that more must always be better. (I'd almost tend to have a little bit more of a lighter weight battery, considering the performance nature of the sports car, but since I daily drive it including in the winter, no regrets with a bit heavier potentially more reliable battery.)