Legitimate need for battery charging or ripoff?

Lee Galitee · 2010-11-21T06:41:40+00:00

A roadside assistance company sells batteries with a warranty. Car has a no start condition, customer calls for warranty replacement on battery. The battery guy comes out, puts his test unit on the battery and charging system, tells them the battery just needs to be taken somewhere to be charged at X amps for X hours. This is a car that's driven daily. Customer takes vehicle to legitimate shop, SAE cert'd mechs, they tell him the charging system is fine, the battery is shot. Is "the battery needs charging" ever likely valid advice for a daily driver? In decades of driving I've never once, ever had a battery that needed to be "charged". They've either been good or they were shot. I try to stay on top of distilled water in the battery, getting 8 years or so out of a battery not unheard of for me. I'll have a battery sit for months in a car never being fired up, cranks up just fine. Or is it more likely this company is just trying to dodge doing a warranty replacement? This same company's techs are in the habit of telling customers to "run the car for half an hour it'll be fine", not in a left the lights on scenario, the battery was just dead after sitting overnight or whatever. Typically, no it's not fine after running it. Obviously the battery came up dead for a reason. Opinions?

Nov 21, 2010 20 Replies

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cuhulin 15 years ago

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5 Reasons To Own A Portable Car Battery Charger cuhulin

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Legitimate need for battery charging or ripoff?

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