Doe's a Car Battery replacement have to be the same AH?
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Doe's a Car Battery replacement have to be the same AH?My car battery is pretty much gone, It's the one it came out of the factory with. In terms of buying a new one does it need to be the same AH?
Ex my current one is 390A and 43AH but the one I'm looking at says 500CCA and 54AH
Sorry if this is a silly question, I've not had my car long
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Re: Doe's a Car Battery replacement have to be the same AH?No expert, but I believe as long as it is the same voltage, a larger capacity battery is fine. Just make sure it'll fit in your car first! You don't want a battery that is bigger than the tray it sits on.
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Re: Doe's a Car Battery replacement have to be the same AH?Higher AH rating is fine - just means your battery is over-spec'd for your application.
If you had a massive stereo then you'd be fitting a battery with a higher AH rating to cope with the extra current draw.
You'll probably find it spins over and starts much quicker! -
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Re: Doe's a Car Battery replacement have to be the same AH?I believe the first number is the number of Amps the battery will allow to be drawn from it. This number being higher means that, as JC says, it should crank faster given the starter motor will allow. The second number is a rating of how long the battery will last without being recharged (by the alternator, in a car). You shouldn't have to worry too much about this unless your alternator is on the way out. Cranking power (the first number) is far more important. So long as it's similar or a little higher, then you'll be fine.
AH stands for Amp-hours. For example, your current battery, given a drain of 43 Amps, will last one hour. If that number is higher, it can obviously give more amps in the given hour, but if you lower the drain to 43 Amps, it will last longer than an hour. The maths can be a bit tricky, but it's useful in every day life. All rechargeable batteries are rated in Amp-hours, for big batteries, of mAh (milli-Amp-hours) for small batteries like rechargeable AAs and phone batteries.
