16v alt with kinetik HC16v

[WillPwn4Food]

So just curious, who here has tried running a 16v system with a 16v alt, Kinetik HC16v 16v side to power amplifiers and 12v side to power car electronics? What were your results?

[finkster]

I have not done it but as for practicality it must be a pain in the ass. You will either need to run a 14v alt and 18v alt and isolate the electrical circuits that way or run an 18v alt with a step down module.

Why not just run a beefy 14v system instead and not have to worry about isolating systems. If this is a play car then go for it but if it is your DD then at the end of the day car audio is secondary to making sure the car will not fail on you.

[KiKaZz74]

It should work. There was a thread about it. The concern was the 12v side of the battery not being able to handle the load of the car and there was some reviews about it not being all that stable.

[HHR Ed]

I'll be blunt.

Those 16V batts with 12V taps are junk.

I personally have had 5 out of 6 go bad in a matter of months and have heard similar stories from many other people.

The problem is that the cells become unbalanced due to different charge/ discharge rates from 12V to 16V.

Do yourself a favor and use separate batteries and step down modules.

I myself am regulating my alternator to charge 14V XS Power Batteries, using the XS step downs to go to XS Power 12V batteries.

[SnowDrifter]

Don't do it. Those batts aren't meant to be used as a step down. What will happen is the extra two cells on the 16v side will get severely overcharged since they are taking the stress of the step down. Then you end up with a bad battery.

No real way of getting around it- you'll need either 2 alts or a step down of some sort. Look into pwm dc stepdowns for this as the typical diode based stepdowns used typically used in car audio are very inefficient

[WillPwn4Food]

I'll be blunt.

Those 16V batts with 12V taps are junk.

I personally have had 5 out of 6 go bad in a matter of months and have heard similar stories from many other people.

The problem is that the cells become unbalanced due to different charge/ discharge rates from 12V to 16V.

Do yourself a favor and use separate batteries and step down modules.

I myself am regulating my alternator to charge 14V XS Power Batteries, using the XS step downs to go to XS Power 12V batteries.

Well here's my plan, I want to get the most out of my b2 zero.5's so I can compete in the 0-1000 modified class, so I want to run them on a 16v system. However, this is still my daily driver. I've heard a ton of people say step-downs are unreliable and should one fail, my whole car electrical is fried. Your input? If the kinetik batteries just die after... 6 months or so, I am fine and dandy with replacing it every 6 months. What I'm not okay with is spending thousands of dollars everytime a step down fails.

[SnowDrifter]

Using those batteries in a manner you stated is less reliable. And stepdowns are just a diode pack. Keep them within their thermal range (fans blowing on it) and you'll be fine. If you have a volt meter, you should be able to see anything happening before damage occurs.

[WillPwn4Food]

So a quick shock of 18v and the electronics would be fine?

[WillPwn4Food]

Just messaged Kinetik. Here's the convo.

Hi I've recently decided I want to run a 16v system in my vehicle, and have been researching different ways of doing so. Obviously I know about the dual-alt and step-down module ways, but someone suggested using the HC16v as one way... The alt would be 16v, then from there it would connect to the 16v post on the HC16v. From there, the 16v post would go to a bank of 16v batteries in the back, and the 12v post would go to an additional 12v battery. Is this possible? Will it work? Or will the battery die?

Kinetik Audio

that is possible! you would need a 16V alt then run that to the back to a bank of 16V in the back.. then connect all the 12V posts and run that back up to the front to run the vehicle..but unless you are planning to do competition mainly this is the only reason you need to go to a 16V set up .. this is not recommended for daily use.

[audiofanaticz]

A close friend and competitor had about 13 of his 20 hc16 volt batteries go bad with in a year. Kinetik wouldnt do nothing about those batteries, however in his other car they warrantied 2 of his hc2400 12volts.

He also was using 4 stepdown modules in his yukon, and not using the 12volt posts on those hc16s.

I also know another guy many may know named Ryan aka a21bravo which is also a local competitor and use to run Kinetik hc16s, and had a couple of them bulge or just go out all together, granted he was using them as a stepdown and using bother 12 and 16volts on the batteries. It didnt take him long to step up to all new xs power 16volt batteries, and a lot of them.

I know a couple other people in this state alone that also had issues with these batteries.

Not to mention they are rather weak 16volt batteries.

Id stay far far away from them, it will only be a matter of time. I wouldnt use or suggest the batteries if you could get them brand new with a lifetime warranty for $100 each. Just too much of a hassle with the constant shipping of heavy batteries back and forth.