I'm going to be replacing my battery, and I was going to go with one of the usual car audio suspects: Stinger's car audio deep cycle battery, Optima yellow/red top, Tsunami, etc. You know, something that's got a better capacity and higher tolerance for periods of draining without the engine on.

Anyway, I'm cruising through a parts shop and notice the marine deep cycle batteries that they have for sale there. I don't remember the make off the top of my head... they're big, brown and heavy with "Marine" and "Deep Cycle" written on them. Pretty standard I believe. They're much cheaper than the batteries that are car audio specific and have many more models to choose from. So all I'm really asking is this:

Could marine deep cycle batteries perform as well as batteries made specifically for the car audio market, or is there something I'm missing? I mean they pretty much aim to do the same thing, don't they?
To power devices/appliances for longer periods rather than brief, large cold cranking bursts...

Then again, maybe I'm crazy... and really cheap

 

I can't say I know much about marine batteries, but I do have a suggestion for you. If you have a mild stereo system and just want a little more power, an Optima Red Top or similar battery is your best option. It has high CCAs to start your car up the way it should and can be deep cycled more than a regular battery could. I have a mild system with the Red Top, and I have never run into problems pushing ~500w RMS with the car off for a couple HOURS. If you have or are aiming for a performance system, you should consider a dual battery setup. One to start the car and the other to power your setup. This is where you could go with a standard sealed type battery with strong CCAs for a starter, and add a deep cycle (Yellow Top, etc) for your system.

Let us know what you decide and how it turns out.

 

See, that's the thing: Optimas are great, but pricey compared to the marine ones I've been looking at. And their cold cranking amps are pretty high too. They're just butt-ugly.

And yeah, I'm most likely going to have to resort to a two battery system, but for now I just want to be able to start my car on occasion while it's in hibernation waiting for mods. I'll worry about the second one when I'm closer to finishing, or close at all. I'm doing my brother's system first, but it's almost through......