Porsche Boxster Battery

Unless you are one of the lucky few who owns and drives a Porsche Boxster every day, you probably fall into the larger group of Boxster owners, who take their cars out less-frequently, when the weather is nice or a weekend trip calls for a convertible. Many auto manufacturers know cars like these will see infrequent use, so they will either include a battery maintainer with a new car purchase or offer it as an option. If your Porsche Boxster came with a maintainer, you should definitely use it. If it didn't and you don't drive your Boxster every day, you should definitely buy a quality battery maintenance device.

So why are we leading off a blog about Porsche Boxster replacement batteries with an appeal to use (or buy and use) a battery maintainer? Because maintaining proper voltage in a battery is the best thing you can do to maximize battery performance and lifespan and we know many Boxsters sit for long periods of time in between use. Do you know who else knows this? Porsche does. We can tell, because the first generation of Boxsters came from the factory with massive H6 batteries (the OPTIMA H6 weighs in at 54 pounds!), even in the cars with the smaller 2.7-liter flat six.

Buy a GM truck with a 7.4-liter big block and you can start it all day long with a 33-lb battery. Move into later generations of the Boxster and the OE battery gets even bigger, as an H7! So why do these small engines require such big batteries (63% heavier than the batteries used on that big block)? The truth is, it really isn't about what the engine needs to start, but the electrical demands of the vehicle when it isn't being used. Integrated car alarms, radio memory, seat memory, satellite navigation systems and a host of other modern conveniences all demand more electricity, even when the vehicle isn't being used.

The answer for many automakers is simply to get a bigger battery with more reserve capacity. They can't rely on consumers using battery maintainers religiously and even if they did, they still wouldn't be able to use them at the airport parking lot while they were on vacation for two weeks. However, even a bigger battery only kicks the electrical can down the road to the alternator. Now the vehicle's charging system, which was only designed to maintain batteries near a full state of charge, is tasked with recharging a battery so deeply-discharged, that some of them need a jump-start.

So what can you do to maximize battery and alternator lifespan? As we said before, keeping your battery fully-charged whenever possible is the best thing you can do, but if you don't have access to electricity and you have to store your Boxster for several weeks or longer, fully-charge and disconnect the battery. All batteries have a self-discharge rate, but it is far lower and will take far longer to discharge, than if you have it connected to your car.

So what if you have a newer Boxster that calls for the larger, heavier H7 battery? We have a solution for you as well. OPTIMA now offers a direct-fit replacement battery for those Boxsters, the OPTIMA DH7 YELLOWTOP.