Battery and chargers, maximizing life, etc

[Mike_G]

First post on BITOG after benefiting from the forum for years. Glad to be here.

Ok so context first:. Live in South Dakota with 6 cars (2 are college cars, away from home) 3 daily drivers, and 1 pickup that is driven 10 miles about every week or two. Trips are mostly 5-10 miles except for wife's car which has about 2x 100 mile trips per week.

I've also got 4 OPE batteries: mower, garden tractor, skid steer batteries that don't get used for half of the year.

All batteries outside.

We're tough on batteries, esp the OPE batteries. Cars prob last 3-4 years, pickup about 2 years. I wonder if the batteries are ever charged properly in the short trip vehicles, esp in the winter. I'm sure I kill the OPE batteries, they always discharge in storage.

I currently have a Schumacher speed charger 2/8/12 that's about 15 years old. It seems to do ok, but has no "reconditioning" or trickle modes.

I'm wanting to improve this, and wondering/thinking about a few things:.

1. I probably should keep all OPE batteries in the garage, charging once a month when not in use.

2. Keep pickup on a trickle charger?

3. Is there a need for a better battery charger? What's a good one?

4. Is battery reconditioning possible ?

That's all for now, sorry for rambling, but it's been on my mind lately, being below zero and all.

 

[2010Civic]

I'd get a couple NOCO Genius 1 chargers. $25-30 on amazon.

 

[k1xv]

Ctek. Best bang for the buck is their model MUS 4.3. You could use several.

 

[Cujet]

Right around 60°F is ideal for battery life. I just go to WalMart and get Battery Tender brand units. They work great for maintaining healthy batteries.

As you probably know, batteries will freeze if not fully charged. This physically damages the battery and no amount of charging trickery will bring them back to capacity.

There are plenty of claims that desulfators work. Maybe... But by this time, the battery is well on it's way out. The one thing that can work if the battery is not too far gone, is a constant current charge at 1/10C of the 1hour C rate, for 16hours, to about 18V. But that's well beyond the capability of homeowner battery chargers and is current specific for each size battery.

 

[eljefino]

Cold slows chemical reactions. A battery that has no parasite current will sit in the cold just fine. My plow truck (84 dodge carbureted) is a testament to this-- when the key is off, it's off. No radio, no clock, nothing.

Bring a battery in somewhere warm, and whatever degrades it-- sulfation-- will happen faster. A warm battery starts an engine more easily, obviously, but if you can leave your stuff out in the field and it goes, good for it. I'd look into some sort of preheater, whether its a few tea-light candles on a pizza pan under the oil pan or a trickle charger if you have power within reach.

You don't describe the cars-- some run at 80% SOC to save gas. Some are apparently fixable, like Fords via Forscan. I'd get one of those voltmeters that plugs into the cigar lighter to monitor behavior. If it's below freezing I like to see at least 14.5V when running.

 

[Mike_G]

Good info, there. I didn't realize cold helped with storage, but it makes sense. I think my PU has a parasitic draw somewhere. A few years ago, I did some basic diagnostics with a multimeter which ended in me pulling the fuse on a non-essential circuit, and it improved, but still probably has an issue. Is there a good procedure for this somewhere?

Cars, all fairly old: 2012 pilot, 2011 4 cyl accord (with 51R battery instead of 24A), 2010 Impala, 2008 Taurus X, 2006 Camry, 1996 Chev K1500.

I like the preheater idea, I've read elsewhere they can improve fuel efficiency as well. Only the K1500 has a block heater. They all start well, except for the Accord with 51R - it struggles at around zero. (Interstate battery from PO, I'm not a fan of Interstates, generally). When that battery goes, I'm upsizing to 24A (was stock with 6 cyl motors)

 

[UncleDave]

First post on BITOG after benefiting from the forum for years. Glad to be here.

Ok so context first:. Live in South Dakota with 6 cars (2 are college cars, away from home) 3 daily drivers, and 1 pickup that is driven 10 miles about every week or two. Trips are mostly 5-10 miles except for wife's car which has about 2x 100 mile trips per week.

I've also got 4 OPE batteries: mower, garden tractor, skid steer batteries that don't get used for half of the year.

All batteries outside.

We're tough on batteries, esp the OPE batteries. Cars prob last 3-4 years, pickup about 2 years. I wonder if the batteries are ever charged properly in the short trip vehicles, esp in the winter. I'm sure I kill the OPE batteries, they always discharge in storage.

I currently have a Schumacher speed charger 2/8/12 that's about 15 years old. It seems to do ok, but has no "reconditioning" or trickle modes.

I'm wanting to improve this, and wondering/thinking about a few things:.

1. I probably should keep all OPE batteries in the garage, charging once a month when not in use.

2. Keep pickup on a trickle charger?

3. Is there a need for a better battery charger? What's a good one?

4. Is battery reconditioning possible ?

That's all for now, sorry for rambling, but it's been on my mind lately, being below zero and all.

1. IF you can get a trickle/smart charger on them Id keep in place, if not bring them in.

2. can only help - most good ones come with a battery post connector cable you can fish through the grill and just plug in, a weatherproof unit is a must.

3. Yes - ctek, optimate, noco, prologixx, certain schumachers, the "battery tender" brand... a few others.
There is a TON of devil in the details - note the sizes the manufacturers claim they are " smart" for. This will be measured in an AH range of something like 10-100, the wider the range the more versatile the charger is.

I have my favs as does everyone, I maintain about 20 batteries, it's too expensive for me to ignore.

 

[carviewsonic]

I replaced a couple of twentyish year old Schumacher 1.5 amp chargers with a Noco 2, a Battery Minder and an Optimate, thinking that charger technology (i.e. temp compensation, etc.) has improved in that time. The new chargers were pretty inexpensive compared to the price of batteries.
If one of the cars or the bike are going to sit for more than a week I put a charger on it.

 

[repairman54]

9 BatteryMinder Plus, temp compensated maintainers on my fleet of mowers, sleds, motorcycles, etc. when parked. Got 10 yrs out of my HD and one of my sleds batteries. Only changed them due to age and not for lack of starting power. 10 yrs old is my change out point. Other sled is at 9 and fired up fine the other day. Battery has to be good to crank up a 1200cc injected 3 cylinder motor at zero.

 

[f355spider]

This is currently on sale at costco.com for $40 delivered. 5amp unit, has modes for flooded, AGM, lithium ion, and a 1amp mode for motorcycle or atvs. It also has a "restore" or desulfation mode as well as temp compensation for flooded batteries. Includes a 5 year warranty, and if you register the product within 30 days of purchase they add a year to make it 6 years. And you have Costco liberal return policy as well. Also it is IP65 water resistant too. Lot of features for the money. I just received mine today and will give it a try. I have a Duracell battery maintainer, Griots Garage battery manager, Granite Digital, and several others to compare it to...I'm sure it will work fine.