Posted on 08/14/2015 7:36:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
Ohm is a 6-pound drop-in replacement for your car battery. What's not to like about what it claims to deliver. It never needs jump-starting. Works on the coldest days (in temperatures as low as -40C). Lasts more than twice than lead-acid batteries, which go for three years. Here, you are looking at a 7-year average lifetime. No lead, no acid. When Ohm says it is a drop-in replacement they mean that it is installed in the same way.
The site says to "remove the positive and negative leads from your old battery, drop in Ohm, and reattach the lead to Ohm (red/positive lead first to prevent sparking)."
Also, Ohm is "smart" enough to prevent accidental draining if the driver forgets to turn off the lights. It can automatically turn itself off when critically low and switch back on when the driver starts the car.
How it works: There is a "burst of energy" for starting the engine which comes from a bank of supercapacitors. When the engine is not running, the supercapacitors are kept charged by a small array of batteries.
As for materials the company said its supercapacitors are mostly carbon. The batteries are LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate.)
As for dimensions, Ohm's are 9.0"x6.8"x6.8", and will fit Group 35 batteries. "It will also fit in most cars above Group 35, but may require some extra fixturing, " according to the site.
When will you see Ohm in the marketplace? Not yet. Greg Kumparak, an editor at TechCrunch, reported that Ohm is in private beta testing and they plan to roll out a crowdfunding campaign in the next month or so. The website, meanwhile, said they plan to ship Ohm early to mid-2016.
Kumparak of TechCrunch addressed the question of price. He said he was told by the company that they aim for a price point of around $200. Kumparak said that would put it "on the high end of what you'd normally pay for a battery ($120-$180) if you wandered into your local auto parts store."
Nonetheless, viewers might find the pricing amenable considering how long it lasts and some other benefits."Conventional car batteries contain dangerous acid and are responsible for over 24 million pounds of environmental lead contamination each year. Ohm has no lead, no acid, and is safe for the environment." Another promotion point being highlighted by Ohm is its light weight. "It's the easiest, most affordable way to instantly drop 30 pounds or more from your curb weight by switching from a lead-acid battery."
Explore further: New battery could lead to cheaper, more efficient solar energy
More information: www.getohm.com/
Get a charger with a desulfation mode and bang it every year.
Sulfation is what kills batteries. The lead plates corrode into nothing.
My “Smart” brand charger has one.
http://www.amazon.com/Pulse-Desulfator-Batteries-Battery-Regenerator/dp/B00IQ5X91I
“Im just jealous”
And you should be. I’m not saying my old cars are perfect, but I can actually repair them myself (and upgrade the things that aren’t up to snuff, like brakes). A lot of satisfaction turning a wrench on your own car.
I know. I grew up in the desert in California, and we spent all our time building cars in the night auto shop program. We used to pick up all sorts of clean 50-70s cars for a few hundred. We’d fix them up and flip them to keep our main rides running. If I had half the cars I worked on, I could have retired years ago.
It’s funny —had all the time and contacts back then, but no money. Now I have the money, but no time or contacts. Such is life. I still appreciate fine engineering and craftsmanship.
I knew someone would make that comment!
Resistance is futile if < 1 ohm.
Lithium-ion batteries, specifically lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO2), the type used in cell phones, have the highest energy density (about 600 Watt-hours per Liter of volume) of any commercially-manufactured battery. While claims have been made of batteries up to 7 times as powerful for a given size, they all have problems that will probably limit their commercial appeal.
We are living in the golden age of battery life, right now.
What? No, that's not true. If do you a lot of cranking, you might have to wait several minutes for the electric double-layer capacitors to charge back up from the internal LiPoFe batteries, but "one shot"? No.
Perhaps these guys dont want to hassle with investors over control of the product. It happens...............
...
Pesky investors. Why can’t they just give you money and go away? Accountants can be a pain, too.
hey- read the replies from fellow engineers who all agree with me
I HAVE a 12 year old honda civic - just replace the original battery this past year.
You can still get Bel Airs, but you can only get Camaro carcasses right now.
Saved her MANY AAA calls, not to mention batteries(the one in her car has to be more than 10 years old)
BTW, I've got a Savana that turned into a rust-bucket WAY before it's time. Of course I too didn't drive it much, but it spent a lot of time in storage...still rusted out(frame/brake-fuel lines, etc), oh, unfortunately the above product did not work on this vehicle, ...it required too many CCA's not saved before the battery buddy kicked in(or off as is the case)...not to mention a lot of ground connections(because of the rust)probably contributed to battery/charging issues with it.
Ok, the lack of acid is always good. But drop-in replacement? How is that any better than regular batteries? You can take your old battery, unclamp the leads, drop in a regular battery, and re-connect the leads. How does this one improve that process?
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