In most cases yes, your vehicles factory battery was not designed to power your aftermarket products. The number one reason why your aftermarket electronic devices such as amplifiers fail is due to a LACK OF POWER. A lack of power causes lower voltage, lower voltage causes increased current, increased current causes excess heat and excess heat can cause your amplifiers and aftermarket electronics to fail.
The first thing that comes to mind when your lights are dimming or your amplifiers are going into protection mode is to replace or add another battery or power cell. If you are having these types of problems a good thing to do before hand would be to have your alternator tested. If your alternator is not charging properly, you must fix this problem before adding more power. If your system is going to have serveral high powered amplifiers running, it is advised to use an upgraded alternator as well. They recommend having your Kinetik Power Cell installed by the store you purchased it at or by an experience installer who will thoroughly check your electrical system prior to install.
Kinetik makes choosing a Kinetik Power Cell simple. Our model numbers are equal to the wattage needed for your vehicle. For peak performance and maximum lifespan of all electrical equipment in your vehicle simply add up the total wattage needed for all of your aftermarket equipment including all amplifiers, lights, winches, video and other electronics. The Kinetik Power Cell model number designates the amount of wattage it will be able to run. For example: your aftermarket system includes a 300 watt amplifier, a 200 watt amplifier and 40 watts of additional lighting. You have a total of 540 watts of additional power so you can run this system on a single HC600. If you are replacing your factory starting battery with a Kinetik Power Cell, you should factor in 800 to 1200 watts aproximately to run your factory equipment as well. If your stock alternator is 90 amps your factory electronics use around 1224 watts (90 x 13.6 volts). So adding an aftermarket system of 540 watts to your factory needs of 1224 watts would be 1764 watts of power needed. In this case we would recommend purchasing a single HC1800 or higher. If you plan to purchase additional electronics, you may want to factor them in as well. Remember you can always use more than one Kinetik Power Cell in your vehicle, adding addtional Power Cells at a later time is always an option.
Kinetik Power Cells can be mounted anywhere in your vehicle since they are sealed, non-hazardous and do not leak. They recommend replacing your factory wet cell battery with a similar Kinetik Power Cell and placing additional Kinetik Power Cells as needed near your amplifiers for best performance. For example: If your factory electrical system requires 1800 watts and you have 2000 watts of aftermarket equipment in your vehicles trunk, the best case scenario for this install would be to replace your factory wet cell battery with a Kinetik HC1800 or higher and install a Kinetik HC2000 or higher in your vehicles trunk with the aftermarket equipment.
When replacing your factory battery, connect your positive wire harness to the positive terminal and the negative wire harness to the negative terminal. Run both positive and negative wires (using the proper gauge wire and length, see the wire gauge chart in your users manual) directly from the front battery or power cell to your Kinetik Power Cell, wiring positive to both positive terminals and negative to both negative terminals. If absolutely necessary you can ground your Kinetik Power Cell to the frame or body of the vehicle. Kinetik strongly advise soldering all ring terminals anytime they are used. You may then connect your equipment to your Kinetik Power Cell, be sure to use distribution blocks and/or fuse assemblies as necessary.
While Kinetik Power Cells are compatible with most standard 12 volt charging systems and battery technolgies, they recommend using Kinetik Power Cells exclusively throughout the vehicle for maximum voltage, performance and longevity of your aftermarket electronics as well as the Power Cells. This will minimize self discharging of power storage devices in the vehicle when not in use. Kinetik Power Cells have a very low self discharge rate, much lower than the rate of a standard wet cell car battery. When diferent types of power storage devices (batteries or power cells) are used in parallel in an electrical system, current will have a tendancy to flow between storage devices unnecessarily resulting in heat build up and loss of power where it is needed the most. When Kinetik Power Cells are used throughout the installation, current will flow directly from the Power Cells to the load in a balanced manner, minimizing 'fighting' between unlike storage devices.
Yes it will IF the alternator is working and the proper size and your starting battery or power cell is in working order. Be sure to get the proper size Kinetik Power Cell based on your vehicles needs.
You may want to have a professional check your alternator and charge then load test the starting battery. Adding more power will only temporarily fix the problem if your alternator is not charging the system. Most car batteries rest at 12.6 and 12.8 volts. If your batteries voltage is lower than this after your vehicle has been allowed to cool down with the motor off than there is a good chance your alternator is defective.
Adding Kinetik Power Cells to your vehicle will not add extra load on your alternator or lower your voltage like adding 'wet cell' batteries will. Due to the low ESR and high voltage of Kinetik Power Cells, your voltage will actually increase. Kinetik Power Cells also charge more efficiently and quickly than a standard 'wet cell' battery, reducing the stress on your alternator.
Wrong! Ohm's law is not negotiable. Yes a highly regulated power supply can help stabilize the output of an amplifier, but the power has to come from somewhere. If an amplifier is trying for 1000 watts output and your voltage is at 14 volts then you need 72 amps of current to provide this (14.4 volts x 69.4 amps = 1000 watts). If voltage drops to 10.5 volts while the amplifier is trying to do 1000 watts, a regulated power supply will automatically demand 95.2 amps of current. If the electrical system was already taxed at 69 extra amps, then 95 amps is only compounding the original problem, lowering the voltage even more and starting the downward spiral to fried electronics.
Kinetik Power Cells can be charged in a properly functioning vehicle charging system or with any high quality 12 volt battery charger. For best results and maximum power output and lifecycle for outboard charging, use a Kinetik Power Supply or Maintainer to charge and maintain your Kinetik Power Cell. If you are charging with an automotive type charger, always use chargers that are "voltage regulated, two stage, automatic or microprocessor controlled". Do not use chargers that only have amp settings such as 2, 5 or 10 amp settings that do not regulate voltage. These chargers increase in voltage as the battery or power cell charges, leading to an over voltage situation that will ruin the cells. The proper charging range for Kinetik Power Cells is between 13.5 and 14.4 volts. Any quality battery charger will stay in this range. To "bulk" charge or "quick" charge your Kinetik Power Cells for one to three hours use voltages between 14 and 14.4 volts. To saturate (fully charge) or maintain your Kinetik Power Cell for extended periods of up to months at a time, use a float voltage between 13.5 and 13.8 volts. Kinetik Power Supplies and Maintainers automatically switch from bulk to float charge as needed during the charging process to optimize performance, lifecycle and charging time of your Kinetik Power Cell.