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Car Battery Tips

Top Ten Starting Battery Tips

  1. Wear glasses when working with a battery, because it might explode.

  1. Keep your non-sealed battery properly filled with distilled water and the top clean. The plates must be covered at all times.

  2. To prevent permanent sulfation when not in use and especially in hot weather, keep your battery continuously connected to a "smart" or maintenance charger or recharge your battery at least one per week. Cheap unregulated "trickle" chargers will kill your battery.

  1. In hot climates, keep your battery as cool as possible and non-sealed Low Maintenance or sealed AGM batteries are recommended.

  2. When buying a replacement battery, be sure it matches your charging system & Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) requirements, physically fits, and is fresh.

  1. Keep the battery cable mating surfaces and terminals free from corrosion.

  2. Avoid a deep discharge of your battery. This could kill it.

  1. For longer battery life, do not add acid or additives and keep your battery securely fastened.

  2. Use chargers (or settings) that will recharge batteries over eight to ten hours.

  1. Thaw out a frozen battery before attempting to jump or recharge it and always jump batteries positive-to-positive and negative-to-negative. For negative grounded electrical systems, the last negative connection should be to the frame or engine block away from the battery.

For additional battery information, please go to

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Reply to
Bill Darden
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BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING

Do you get paid for every visitor to your site or something, you seem very intent on making sure everyone knows about your site, even when most people dont give a toss.. they buy a car, it has a battery on it, when it dies they jump start it (most can figure out the red lead goes to the red terminal, if they can't they call the RAC out)

if it dies again they go and buy a new battery, 30 to 40 quid or so if you shop around. then if it dies in the next 2 years, they take it back and get another one free.

Reply to
CampinGazz

Bill, please ignore this buffoon. As he talks about the RAC, I can only assume he's a UK resident, and I apologise for his behaviour on behalf of the entire Nation.

Reply to
QrizB

I'll second that. Just spent quite a while on the site, and wish i had found it a week ago when the Defender suddenly would not start. I was fitting a new Varta at 7.00 this morning, ready for the drive to Billing this evening.

I now know the difference between a normal and deep cycle battery, also that you cant test the alternator by disconnecting the battery while the engine is running, heat can affect the battery life and when I should top it all up etc etc etc. Loads of interestng stuff there, thanks.

Guy

Reply to
Guy Lux

just don't run it for long without a battery. something about too much current blowing the diodes in the alternator.

what is the difference between a normal and deep cycle?

Reply to
samuel mcgregor

In article , samuel mcgregor writes

Voltage, possibly?

Lead acid batteries dislike any sort of discharge. You can mitigate this by design (but not eliminate it entirely - full discharge is VERY bad for lead acid cells).

Deep discharge are for applications where the usage model is charge-discharge(lots)-charge, etc. Examples are running tools, caving/mining lamps, camping and outdoor recreational activities, such as battery powered PA systems. The battery outputs its stored energy at a steady rate, until it is flat (or close to it). Then it is recharged in one go. The best example of a cell designed for this purpose is the "Cyclon" designed for the US military (IIRC), I can't remember if it is 'gel' or if the sulphuric acid is absorbed in blotting-paper-like material (I think the latter), but it works in all orientations, including upside down, and can be flattened and recharged repeatedly. The "leisure battery" I use for odd jobs in the garage is similar, but is wet-plate with a liquid electrolyte, very similar in appearance to an ordinary car battery (but with thicker plates as the main difference).

In contrast, vehicle batteries dump a lot of energy when they start the engine, but recharging starts immediately the engine is running. The energy usage is intense but brief, and they stay close to fully charged almost all of the time. Even when they can't crank the engine they're usually far from fully discharged. For a given AH capacity, they can produce a far greater instantaneous current than the 'leisure' type, but deep discharge will kill them, as the plates 'sulphate' and, being much thinner, are easily, permanently damaged.

Regards,

Simonm.

Reply to
SpamTrapSeeSig

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