Battery died...maybe early?

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Originally Posted By: silverrat
Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
If he was primarily driving short distances, then the battery may have been constantly undercharged and sulfated itself to death.


+1. A $40 Battery Tender Plus hooked up overnight a few times a year does a great job at extending battery life.




Could you link to the specific model you would recommend? I am interested in this but there seem to be different types.







Deltran Battery Tender (021-0128) 1.25 Amp Battery Charger
http://www.amazon.com/Deltran-Battery-Te...ery+tender+plus

It's what I use Costco for $40. Does what it says it's a slow safe charger temperature compensated built like a tank. No water loss when charging or heat up. An alternator is a crude bulk charger that the battery can't absorb it's full charge.

When you buy a new battery hook it up with a slow charger to get it fully charged. This will prolong battery life. Also use a slow charger depending how it's driven to top off a 80-90% charge battery. You need that SLOW safe charge for the battery to absorb that full charge when battery is at 80%.
 
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Originally Posted By: crazyoildude
My brother bought one and it lasted a year then got another one under warranty and that one went dead about 2 years later ...I then read the reviews and they don't seem to be the greatest battery but who knows they could have changed for the better. But wal mart replaced the battery no questions asked so thats a good thing..
I used to have luck with the auto zone batteries but according to my parts guy in commercial they are not so great anymore either but i get the big auto zone duralast gold battery for $90.00
I always buy the biggest battery i can fit into the space where it sits i still believe the bigger the better when it comes to batteries.



Batteries die because of how they are treated not what brand they are. You can buy the biggest fanciest battery that will fit in your car but if it's chronically under charged it won't last through the warranty period.
 
I do agree with you to a point.. i guess all the people that wrote the reviews on that battery just treated them badly..Who would have known..the reviews for the $48.88 battery were pretty good.
 
Over the years i have used WalMart Ever Start Maxx witch are rated good by Consumer Reports. Each has lasted from 5 to 7 years. They used to come with a 108 month pro-rated warrantee.I would get a new one for $40-$55 when they failed.
 
My 2005 Tacoma still has the original factory battery, over 10-1/2 years old. I'm going to swap it out this summer as I know it's just a matter of time before it dies. Still cranks OK, but I think I can tell it's just a hair weak now. I have popped the cell caps and added distilled water a couple of times since I got the truck new.
 
Run the battery you've got now. The short-ish life of the OE one could have been a fluke. Enjoy the balanced handling and good MPG of the smaller size. If this one conks out in 2020 get a middle-of-the-road JCI in the bigger size.

However, the temptation is there with WMs generous 30 day return policy to get a bigger one while the clock is ticking. Hmm.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Run the battery you've got now. The short-ish life of the OE one could have been a fluke. Enjoy the balanced handling and good MPG of the smaller size. If this one conks out in 2020 get a middle-of-the-road JCI in the bigger size.

However, the temptation is there with WMs generous 30 day return policy to get a bigger one while the clock is ticking. Hmm.


I'm just going to stick to the OEM battery size for now.
 
I started several years ago changing batteries when 36 months old.
Read somewhere 39 months is average life in my area.
It cost approx. $35 per year per battery and lowers the odds of getting left with a dead battery.
 
Originally Posted By: gregk24
So this morning I got in the Accord to head to church, I turned the key and heard clickclickclickclickclick. GREAT! Dead battery. The car is a 2012 and has a mere 36K miles, is this normal for such a "young" battery? What gets me the most is that one day its working fine and the next its dead. I figured I would take this opportunity to upgrade to the V6 battery (24F) but neither Walmart or AutoZone had them in stock, so I went with the EverStart Maxx 51R from Walmart, a Johnson controls product (same provider that Honda uses) however this one has 90 more CCA's. I do notice the engine turns over more quickly, and it wasn't slow to turn over with the previous battery.
20160117_164033_zpsezgayads.jpg



Note in most cases more CCA in same footprint means thinner/weaker plates. Best to shoot for same CCA but sometimes what's on the shelf has more.
 
Originally Posted By: Bebop367
I started several years ago changing batteries when 36 months old.
Read somewhere 39 months is average life in my area.
It cost approx. $35 per year per battery and lowers the odds of getting left with a dead battery.


But up north it might be 48 months or more. Heat is what does in a better.
 
Modern Cars that sit for weeks on end are basically deep cycling their batteries.

An alternator can relatively quickly recharge a battery to 80% State of charge, but that last 20% is always going to take about 4 hours, and that is if the vehicle is actually driven for those 4 hours and the voltage regulator is allowing the Mid 14's to be held for those 4 hours.

The happiest battery is the one which gets to live its whole life close to 100% charged and has an owner who realizes this and actually makes an attempt to get the battery to 100% SOC, rather than imparting the alternator with magical, physics defying, instant battery charging properties.

It takes time at the proper absorption voltage for the battery temperature to fully charge a battery. There is no way around this, even if you recently polished you chromed hi amp alternator.

When one gets excellent lifespan from any particular battery brand, it is more due to their vehicle's ability to fully charge that particular battery, and perhaps never allowing it to be depleted to less than 99% SOC.

Some batteries require higher voltages be held for longer to reach a true 100% charge.

With 2 flooded batteries of the same size, and weight, I will always choose the one with lower CCA figures as the plates are thicker and more durable, and as such it will retain its capacity longer than a starting battery with plates as thin and porous as possible for maximum surface area.

My 90AH capacity Northstar AGM battery however has 930 CCA and cranks my engine violently fast. It can also accept huge recharging currents when deeply discharged. It will accept over 80 amps from my alternator and will accept 65 amps from 2 plug in charging sources in parallel.

I deeply cycle it often, and often well below 50% charged, and then charge it to 14.46v at 77f and then hold 14.46v, until amps taper to 0.42.

It is 25 months old and has over 225 Deep cycle on it, and I can not detect any performance loss, and I have all the tools and the desire to detect performance loss.

Impressive battery, in my opinion. But it requires high amp recharges from its most depleted state and 100% recharges to maintain this good performance.

All lead acid batteries will last longer if fully recharged and when it gets to live its whole life fully charged. Relying on the alternator to achieve 100% charge, is not wise. It can do it, but only if one drives long enough. About 4 hours after 80% charged is reached, and perhaps not even then.

Most people have absolutely no idea when a battery is indeed fully charged either. Voltage is not a good indicator unless one knows the fully charged voltage of their particular battery when it was new and fully charged. Surface voltage will remain and throw off any attempt to estimate state of charge by voltage alone.

Many people like to claim such and such a voltage means the battery is fully charged. This is simply incorrect. My Northstar battery has a fully charged resting voltage of 13.06v. If I see 12.8 rested volts I know the battery is only about 90% charged and it will take about 2 hours for it to reach 100% when held at 14.46v at 77f.

Many other people claim a battery is fully charged, when their charging source first flashes the green light. This green light mocks any human who believes it. The charger likely holds absorption voltage for a set time span, or when amps taper to a certain amount.

As ideal absorption voltage and the amount of time in which it is to be held, most automatic battery chargers, with their one size fits all algorithm, is more of a one size fits none.

Those seeking a true 100% charged with an automatic charger should unplug the charger when it first flashes the green light, and disconnect it from the battery. Turn on the head lights until battery voltage drops below 12.6v, and then restart the charger, then turn off the lights.

One might have to do this a dozen times before a Hydrometer will indicate all cells to be at their maximum value of ~ 1.275 or higher, especially on a mistreated/ chronically undercharged battery.
 
Yeah, I noticed on my '04 Vic that the battery was always 80% or less. I only recently (before it got wrecked) figured out that it was undercharging because the alternator was putting out 13.2V all the time once it warmed up. I had noticed that the voltage seemed pretty low, but I only put 2+2 together about 6 months ago.
I found a function in the PCM that was a coolant temperature vs commanded voltage output of the alternator.
Code:


1023F 13.29V

170F 13.29V

120F 14.00V

65F 14.00V

20F 14.70V

-1024F 14.70V

Dumb right? So its always undercharged. It warms up to 170F within 10 minutes.
This is my modification.
Code:


1023F 14.30V

190F 14.30V

120F 14.50V

77F 14.70V

20F 15.10V

-1024F 15.50V

Unfortunately, it never got extensive testing with that program uploaded. I only know that it did follow my program for voltage output.
 
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Originally Posted By: wrcsixeight
Modern Cars that sit for weeks on end are basically deep cycling their batteries.

With 2 flooded batteries of the same size, and weight, I will always choose the one with lower CCA figures as the plates are thicker and more durable, and as such it will retain its capacity longer than a starting battery with plates as thin and porous as possible for maximum surface area.

Good post.

I do the same. For mild climate of So Cal we don't need high CCA, we like higher reserve capacity.

Some brands have North and South version of the same battery size, the South has more reserve capacity while the North has higher CCA.
 
Quote:
An alternator can relatively quickly recharge a battery to 80% State of charge, but that last 20% is always going to take about 4 hours, and that is if the vehicle is actually driven for those 4 hours and the voltage regulator is allowing the Mid 14's to be held for those 4 hours.
Can you do some back of the envelope calculations to asset these claims?
 
Originally Posted By: Vikas
Quote:
An alternator can relatively quickly recharge a battery to 80% State of charge, but that last 20% is always going to take about 4 hours, and that is if the vehicle is actually driven for those 4 hours and the voltage regulator is allowing the Mid 14's to be held for those 4 hours.
Can you do some back of the envelope calculations to asset these claims?


I'm sure you could find a chart somewhere with the internal resistance vs SOC vs temp vs incoming voltage.

But if you play with a manual dumb charger, its built-in ammeter, and the assumption that it maintains approx the same voltage as a car's alternator, you'd notice the ammeter at full scale for the first while, then it tapering off.

A car battery is +/- 80 amp-hours, so a 6 amp charger will give all its got for a while. A 100- amp capable alt at highway speed might allow 30-40 amps, if the battery will also allow it. It's probably the battery's resistance that's the limiting factor to how much current flows-- I don't expect the alt to be full fielded at cruise RPM except if the engine's running while jump-starting another car.

Then watch your dumb charger as it gets to "a point" where 2 amps are going in, and still trickling in. It would take 40 hours at that rate for an empty battery, or 8 hours for an 80% charged one. The previous 8 hours could have stuffed 48 amp-hours, or more than half capacity in.

But it's a slope, and I got a D in calculus II, so that's as far as I can 'splain.
wink.gif
 
Do you have to disconnect the car's battery cables when connecting a battery tender to it?

Also I read somewhere recently that a car battery exploded when someone was trying to recharge it in zero degree weather.
 
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