Brand New Battery Not Used: Why Dead After 1 Month ?

If it was installed in a car, it's entirely possible that the key off current draw was high enough to drain the battery in a month. This is especially true for newer cars with lots of electronic gadgets. If you have to leave a car sit that long, it's a good idea to use one of those solar battery chargers or a "battery tender" type device to keep the battery from going flat.

nate

There is a possibility it was not fully charged to begin with. If you installed the battery but didn't use the car much before storing it for a month there may not have been enough of a reserve to power all the electronics that slooowly draw a battery down because they are running all the time.

Did your car alarm go off the whole time you were gone maybe? aka flashing lights, horn and all that. dumb question, but worth asking. Also not to say a new battery can't go bad either.

It really isn't the battery so much as the car. Most modern cars aren't really "off" when you turn the key off. The radio is pulling a minimal amount of power to keep the presets, the clock is pulling a minimal amount of power to keep time, the computer is pulling a minimal amount of power to do what ever in the heck it is that computers do when they are supposed to be off.

All these "minimals" add up over a month. If you are going to have to leave it that long disconnect the battery or, as another poster noted, get one of those solar rechargers if the car is in the sun. The seem kind of hokey but in my experience they work ok. Steve B.

Is it an Exide??, if so normal crap for them. Charge it up & see if it holds, if it doesn't, don't be surprised. Take it back for warranty replacement.

On 2005-08-01 snipped-for-privacy@none.com said: >Newsgroups: rec.autos.tech >On Mon, 1 Aug 2005 12:53:30 -0400, "Robert11" >wrote: >>Hello: >>Installed a brand new battery in my car, but then unexpectedly had >>to be out of town for about a month. >>Battery was totally dead when we returned. >>Was wondering: what kind of "life" can one expect for a brand new >>battery that was not used, or-recharged ? >>Shouldn't it still be good after 1 month, with no use (or >re-charging) ? >

You probably won't know how long that new battery has sat in the store before you bought it. Batteries self-discharge in storage. They may not be fully-charged when manufactured. My experience with checking charge-state with a hydrometer on my "new" car batteries has been modertely discharged, often as much as half. Once, I watched the car's charging system take a month to build the battery back up (Honda Civic).

I give new (vented) batteries a vigorous forming/freshening charge before putting them in service. Especially on my solar-power battery bank ($750 worth).

Tom Willmon near Mountainair, (mid) New Mexico, USA

Net-Tamer V 1.12.0 - Registered

Side note: this is why you always call ahead to the parts store when you are buying a battery; if they are a GOOD parts store they will do this for you so it will be ready to go when you arrive.

nate

HE HE HE I bring my equipment and test the battery before I leave the store. All of the posts seem correct. Exide did build lots of crap. I returned three myself. And infant mortality is a factor in batteries. They are more apt to fail when brand new than after two months. Or the poster could have left something on. All he can do is take it back for warranty and see what they say. If they charge it and give it back to him and it lasts, then he probably did leave something on. It sure wouldn't hurt to check the system for parasitic draws right from that start this time.