Hey all, recently being in need of a replacement battery, I was looking into lightweight options, especially since the prices of 151R batteries are kind of insane ~$170 for most major brands, even Walmart is like $130. For the same price, you can get a Braille B129, which is a 9.5 pound absorbed glass mat battery, mainly intended for racing applications.

In my research, I found several forum posts across various automotive fan bases suggesting that the Deka brand powersport battery (bikes, quads, etc) is produced by the same parent company as Braille, and is actually the same unit, just labelled differently, and much cheaper!

I decided to try it out for myself:

note, this was just a quick test right after receiving it, so it is not properly or permanently mounted yet. in fact, the battery is so much smaller, I had to put a piece of wood underneath, because the positive terminal wires didnt have enough slack without popping it off all the tie downs

The Braille version is around $170. I got the Deka for around $70, and also post adaptors, so the all in cost is around $90.
positives: over 10 lbs of front end weight reduction!, at least half the size of a 151R
negatives: the reserve capacity of the battery is tiny, like 10Ah, so I plan on using a cutoff if i have to park for more than a day or two. if the alt died while driving you have like 10 minutes of runtime left

 

Obviously you don't plan on having to start that car at -30C.

 

ha nope! it was about 36F that day, and I tested it the following morning after sitting overnight where it was around 20. I live in northeast US where it only occasionally dips well below freezing through the winter. So I think i am good.

I should point out that even though the label on that battery advertises 180 CCA, the equivalent braille battery is rated for about 320 CCA.

 

12 lbs. of battery weight saving at the front: I like that a lot!

I wonder about battery relocation....

 

With how small the battery is, I do actually intend to remove the battery tray completely, and mount it directly to the frame the battery tray hangs off of. that will move it further down and towards the fender.
Are you talking about relocation to the rear? The weight added for extra wiring would probably offset the savings of the smaller battery, but it might be a good option to do with a full size, or even larger than stock battery.

 

That's interesting as well as cheaper than a regular lead acid battery. For longevity/reliability I think this is an interesting idea:

 

Unfortunately, I have no long term testing results, since a few months after installing this, I blew the transmission, and it sat in my garage until a few weeks ago. I let the battery sit dead for about six months, so its trash now. But i am still using it. it has just enough oomph to crank over once as long as its disconnected the rest of the time, and you dont use any electronics before starting

I'm debating whether to replace it with another, or just return to stock.

 

180 CCA vs 370 CCA on the stock. I know for sure when i had my car in the PNW with a NEW 1 month old 151r lead acid battery it had difficulty cranking after sitting overnight and cranking in the cold next morning. I carried a jump pack with me just in case because one time it drained all the balls out of it after i started it early morning for only 2 mins, shut it off and didnt restart it til the next morning. Not that it never didnt crank other than that one time but there is a noticeable lag with cranking speed in the cold.

CCA is definitely an issue.

 

the reason I was testing it is because there was extensive anecdotal reports that despite being 180CCA on the label, that this unit was a relabeled 330CCA battery. It did work very well when it was new.