The 240 Saga Continues. Dead Battery? Or...?

Yikes, last battery I bought was $47 at Costco, did you buy it at the dealer or something?

Yup. The battery I bought at Costco for maybe $45 has to be ten years old now and still going strong. IIRC, Costco installed it for me and dumped the old one free of charge.

Patricia, after 40 hours, there is no way a functioning automotive battery charger wouldn't have put a usable charge in your battery. You should easily have been able to start your car on that. Was there a meter on this thing? Did it show what the rate of charge was? If no meter, did it at least hum purposefully? Or even warm up a little? Something's wrong ...

Pete (fP)

I bought two portable jump starters at a local chain stores when they were on sale. One refused to charge at all and the other was very low capacity. Portable jump starters apparently come with gel cell batteries - I shouldn't have been surprised. I replaced the dead one with an AGM battery of the same size from the local Batteries Plus; the AGM was twice the price of the whole unit originally, but I now have one unit that works reliably for $100 US!

It's worth noting that these should be charged monthly.

Mike

The problem comes from these things sitting on store shelves for long periods of time, they really do need an expiration date on them for the batteries.

I think you're right. even gel-cells should last two years if charged periodically.

Mike

I wonder if it wouldn't be worth just getting a big gel cel to go with the preexisting jumper cables and battery charger I'm sure

It makes sense.

Mike

Heck even I didn't have a battery charger until recently, I don't think most folks own them. The portable jump starters are a lot more intuitive, and they're clean, simple, anyone can figure out how to use them. I wouldn't trust my mom to cart around a big gel cell and figure out how to hook it up safely with jumper cables. Those things can deliver hundreds of amps if shorted.

RV stores can sell setups for mounting a standby battery, but I'm not sure it's worth the cost to most of us.

Mike

Well, I shopped around for a battery at 1997 prices but, oddly, all I found were those at 2007 prices. Go figure.

The charger said it takes a full 48 hours for its initial charge, so it wasn't letting me down by not working after only 40 hours. Even so, since I didn't need it after all (thanks to the auto club) I simply returned it for a refund.

If I decide to get one to carry around, I'll get the Black & Decker charger that you use via the cigarette lighter rather than connecting directly to the battery. Takes a little longer to charge the battery (10 minutes as opposed to instantaneously), but it's a lot less hassle, especially if you happen to be stranded by the side of the road in the rain or something.

I wouldn't buy one that plugs into a lighter. The lighter wiring on 240s is pretty puny, and any oxidation in the socket will make it not work effectively, that and you're also running through those failure prone fuses and fuse panel. The jumper cable type is far more effective and versatile since it connects directly to the battery. I once used one to bring home a car with a dead battery and alternator by setting the whole jump starter under the hood to keep the ignition powered up.

Sorry - it let you down. The only thing that would have happened during those final eight hours is more of the same. The battery should have achieved at least an 85% charge after 40 hours. More than enough to start your engine.

I guess it's only old-timers like me that still buy at '97 prices. Old habits die hard ...

Pete (fP)