6lb 6oz ultra light weight battery

[heavystarch]

New member (just started poking around here last night) here but I wanted to contribute since I searched the forums and did not yet find this item noted.

I've always been a fan of making cars lighter and one easy way is the Braille "no weight" batteries. They have one that is just 6lbs 6oz!! They are expensive but considering a typical battery weighs 40lbs that is a nice 33lb weight loss. One caveat with their lightest battery - it's not good for cold climates. But they have one that is 11lbs 8oz that is made for daily use in normal applications.

Maybe someone could pop the battery out of their Yaris and weigh it just to see what the potential weight savings would be with either of these batteries. BTW I am in no way affiliated with braille - just think it's a great idea and only takes minutes to lose a few pounds.

Here's a link to their site:

[eTiMaGo]

Dayum that's light... Did they stick a couple of AA cells in there?

But seriously, good find, need to do a bit of research on these....

[heavystarch]

found another light weight battery company (not quite as light but still half as much as any typical battery).

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/batteries.htm

[BailOut]

A 33lb weight difference translates into a 0.33 MPG increase.

With a $180 price tag it is around $120 more expensive than a standard 12V battery.

If you average, say, 40 MPG, a 0.33 MPG gain is a 0.825% increase.

If a gallon of gasoline costs $3.00, then this battery saves you 3.00 x 0.825 = $0.025 per gallon. If your average fueling is 10 gallons, this saves $0.25 per fueling.

At this rate it would take the battery 480 fuelings to break even. If you fuel up 3x per month it would take 40 years to achieve this.

In other words, it's not even close to being worthwhile.

[lostmind]

Except for the cool factor.....

[punch]

Originally Posted by BailOut

A 33lb weight difference translates into a 0.33 MPG increase.

With a $180 price tag it is around $120 more expensive than a standard 12V battery.

If you average, say, 40 MPG, a 0.33 MPG gain is a 0.825% increase.

If a gallon of gasoline costs $3.00, then this battery saves you 3.00 x 0.825 = $0.025 per gallon. If your average fueling is 10 gallons, this saves $0.25 per fueling.

At this rate it would take the battery 480 fuelings to break even. If you fuel up 3x per month it would take 40 years to achieve this.

In other words, it's not even close to being worthwhile.

he's doing this for the speed factor not consumption factor....

[SmallCarGuy]

On that note, he's gonna pick up .0003 seconds in the 1/4 mile... LoL

I love the idea of saving weight and such, just for the sole fun of adding up all the saved weight in the end... but you gotta commit to do it all out (Strip that baby), or save your money... cause if you just do little pieces, your dollar or "Comfort" to result ratio is just too crazy.

That's a sweet weight for the battery alone though... a good place to go if you want to save every bit of poundage.

[jdium]

Originally Posted by BailOut

A 33lb weight difference translates into a 0.33 MPG increase.

With a $180 price tag it is around $120 more expensive than a standard 12V battery.

If you average, say, 40 MPG, a 0.33 MPG gain is a 0.825% increase.

If a gallon of gasoline costs $3.00, then this battery saves you 3.00 x 0.825 = $0.025 per gallon. If your average fueling is 10 gallons, this saves $0.25 per fueling.

At this rate it would take the battery 480 fuelings to break even. If you fuel up 3x per month it would take 40 years to achieve this.

In other words, it's not even close to being worthwhile.

It is worthwhile from a performance point of view. As these cars do not have much power or the potential to make much power cheaply, losing weight is a very effective way to increase performance. Being that the Yaris will never be a good drag car, and has no ability for large sticky tires adds to the benefits. Removing 33 lbs from a 2200 lb car is a 1.5 % weight reduction...or about the same as adding 2 hp to a Yaris...or what an exhaust or intake adds...

[heavystarch]

Originally Posted by jdium

It is worthwhile from a performance point of view. As these cars do not have much power or the potential to make much power cheaply, losing weight is a very effective way to increase performance. Being that the Yaris will never be a good drag car, and has no ability for large sticky tires adds to the benefits. Removing 33 lbs from a 2200 lb car is a 1.5 % weight reduction...or about the same as adding 2 hp to a Yaris...or what an exhaust or intake adds...

and that was my precisely my point.


Compared to other weight reduction replacement parts::::

• carbon fiber hood ($300) - 5lbs (just read this in another post a CF hood)
• carbon fiber hatch ($525) - maybe 10lbs (just estimating based on hood)
• carbon fiber sparco seats ($2700ea) - probably 20-25lbs
• custom cat back titanium exhaust ($500 est.) - maybe 15-20lbs
• 6lb-11lb braille auto battery ($180) - aprox. 25-33lbs

Now of course you can start stripping your car of things like the spare tire and seats but if you plan to keep this as a daily driver that's not quite as practical. The $2700 sparco seat isn't realistic in this car either - just an example of something easily replaced for weight reduction.

I'd like to hear other folks experience with weight reduction replacement parts in the Yaris or maybe there are things you can get rid of and not lose practicality, safety and reliability.

[cali yaris]

Do they make a battery box that size?

[cali yaris]

Is this the Odyssey you meant?

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc680series.htm

[YarisPR]

It sounds great. I love the idea of a lightweight Yaris but all I've done is add weigth including a extra battery hahahaha Maybe I'am not a light weight type.

[heavystarch]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

Is this the Odyssey you meant?

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc680series.htm

yes I believe those are the lightest 12V batteries Odyssey makes. Still half as much weight as a regular battery but from what I gather only about $80. For $100 more the lightest braille sheds another 8lbs 10oz.

[cali yaris]

Odyssey 680 cranking power vs. 570 Braille.

not sure about storage longevity between the two though -- can you park your car for a week and still start it up?

[WRBlue]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

Is this the Odyssey you meant?

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc680series.htm

The Odyssey is an infinatly better deal than the Braille JDM awesome one. Especially if you can find the Genesis black one. Genesis batteries are made by Hawker right next to the Odyssey - the only difference is the Odyssey's are orange-ish and the genesis's are black. You can find a Genesis one for $60. A decent wet cell usually costs 40-50. $10 for a 30lb savings is good.

Rule of thumb - 100lbs = 0.1s in a quarter mile. thus 30lbs saving = .03s

The Braille battery is identical to the Genesis I used to have in my high compression DSM. Started perfectly fine till about 50F.

not sure about storage longevity between the two though -- can you park your car for a week and still start it up?

Yes, but not too much longer. After about a month/month and a half, I started having problems. Nothing a jump wouldn't fix though.
One problem I did have though was I left it in the car over a winter. With a slight hatch leak and sub zero temps, the dry cells absorbed water and froze and never worked again.

Do they make a battery box that size?

Ya, but its expensive. And they make a metal jacketed version too.
But the nice thing is that, becaue they are a dry cell battery, it is NHRA and SCCA legal to mount them in the passenger compartment without a sealed box. If you have a sedan, you don't need to worry about it, but hatches (and fastbacks) are considered part of the passenger compartment.

[Black Yaris]

Originally Posted by BailOut

A 33lb weight difference translates into a 0.33 MPG increase.

With a $180 price tag it is around $120 more expensive than a standard 12V battery.

If you average, say, 40 MPG, a 0.33 MPG gain is a 0.825% increase.

If a gallon of gasoline costs $3.00, then this battery saves you 3.00 x 0.825 = $0.025 per gallon. If your average fueling is 10 gallons, this saves $0.25 per fueling.

At this rate it would take the battery 480 fuelings to break even. If you fuel up 3x per month it would take 40 years to achieve this.

In other words, it's not even close to being worthwhile.

notice this thread is under preformance modifications... yeah a lighter car is better fuel econ.... but for the most part we are lookin at 0-60 times and 1/4 mile times... better throttle responce, so in all actuallity a lighter car will get you worse gas mileage from hammering on the gas to achive better times

[blueskana]

Look for the deka, just a re-badged braille and around $90 from Helix13, the mini guys.

[cali yaris]

I went to the helix 13 website, and found the Braille for $159 (good price). I didn't find a re-badged version. Can you provide a link to it? Thanks.