Porsche Battery Question
 

I've a couple of questions for anyone who knows about Porsche branded batteries.

1. Is it a maintenance free battery or a low maintenance battery?

2. I've got a trickle charger on it because of lack of use but I'm still not convinced the battery is holding a charge. Should I at least open those ports on the top and add more distilled water if it's low?

This battery is probably three years old and the Houston heat is brutal on car batteries so it may be on its way out.

If so, I'm going aftermarket on the next one. I'd love to know the answers to these questions though in the meantime.

The easiest way to tell what a battery is, is to see what it looks like. If the battery has those large screw caps so you can add water to the battery then the battery is a Low maintenance battery. If it doesn't then its a maintenance free battery.

The OEM "Porsche" battery is not a maintenance free design; it is a “flooded” design and it requires topping off regularly with distilled water. Most of the “Porsche” branded batteries we see are not the ridiculously over priced German Moll battery, but are made by Interstate Battery (they even feature them on their website) in the US. You can confirm this by looking on the bottom of the OEM battery; it has the manufacturer’s name on it.

As for the using a trickle charger, one word: Don’t. Trickle chargers actually speed up the death of healthy batteries, what you want is a battery maintainer, which (unlike a trickle charger) lowers the charge rate and then turns completely off when the battery is fully charged. Maintainers can significantly lengthen battery life as they keep them in optimal condition while the car is not being used.

Walmart has the correct battery for about $60. Works great (even has the vent tubing).

The dealer put a new Interstate in last year. I was wondering about maintenance. I was going to buy a trickle for winter storage....thanks for the maintainer tip...I will buy one instead! :)

Optima yellow
 

I just installed one in my H2, I might use the same battery when the time comes.

Why Yellow? Isn't the Optima Red 34R the battery you should use in the P-car?
 

Least that is what I did when my Interstate finally bit the dust after 5 years. I didn't always have it on the maintainer like I should have and that may have contributed to its demise.