It looks like the battery on my generator is gone. It is about 5 years old. I purchased Schumacher charger but it was not able to revive the battery. I was not impressed with the charger. It claims the battery is good but putting a voltmeter on it during the cranking tells me that either the battery is NOT charged or it is dead. I am not sure if I should go for another charger or just get a new battery and forget about another charger. Is 5 years expected life of a sealed lead acid battery? It is 15AH 12V 3x6x7 inches. It probably had about less than 5 starts on it.
Battery life of small CPE battery
- Thread starter Vikas
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You need to top off thecharge on these every 3-6 months with a good automatic charger/maintainer. Unless you have a higher end Honda or similar generator, most do not have a voltage regulator or 12v charging circuit, so they're not charged while running. 5 years is average lifespan. A decent 12v 12-15Ah battery should run you 40-$60. The hard part is finding one with nut and bolt terminals if you need them.
Most SLAs in that size have slide on 1/4 inch terminals. As far as brands go, Powersonic makes decent SLAs. You could probably also get away with a ytx9-b s (censor doesn't like without spaces) powersport battery with about the same lifespan and cranking amps.
As far as the charger goes, if a battery is severely overdischarged, it can't conduct current very well. So when you put a smart charger on it and it pumps 500mA or more into it, the voltage shoots right up and the charger thinks it's full, when it isn't. This is where dumb chargers or smart chargers with supply/recovery mode come in handy.
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3-4 years is about it.
JHZR2
Staff member
Those batteries never last that well. You do have a few options. Nothing says you must use the exact same size battery. Or that it must be installed in the generator. Since use of this seems like a rarity, you could go so far as to even just jumper it to your car. Similarly, you could have a dedicated battery you can easily put on continuous long term float maintenance charge. Something like those Walmart value $49 batteries come to mind as they have so much more cranking capability than the little one.
Another option is to buy a very small battery in a similar form factor, but get one that ships dry and that you have to fill with acid. Yes, setup time is longer but you're buying shelf life.
I am unaware of any small batteries that will last longer than yours did. You certainly can spend more, and not get one bit more value. A larger battery may have more cranking power when old than a smaller one.
From my experience, keeping small batteries on a small 5 watt solar panel year round helps extend battery life. I also prefer to buy maintenance type batteries that I top up twice a year.
All of my small batteries are left out in the bush with no supplied power other than generators and solar panels. Overwintering in particular requires the need for solar panels. I keep the big deep cycle batteries on 40 watt panels with a voltage controllers. The smaller batteries don't need that kind of power and small panels don't need controllers.
With maintenance and solar panels, I can get up to 7 years out of small batteries.
Originally Posted By: Lubener
You could get that if you hang a maintaining type charger on it. The solar panel has nothing to do with it.
I used my Lithium jump starter (aka pocket one which has the size of about two iPhones) to start the generator. Later, I was shocked that I was able to yank the chain and got it started but wonder if that worked because the engine was warm enough. I do not want to throw out my shoulder by trying to save $40 bucks on the battery but the manual start was quite effortless. That was the 1st and the only time I used the rope starter. This 5-7K generator.
I also realized that I already own one of those fancy "do everything" microprocessor based "hobby" charger and have set it up in the "Pb" mode with 1.5A charging current. Given what you guys have said, it probably will NOT work but worth a try.
I am trying to remember if Costco carries this 3x6x7 battery. Calling Costco to find that out is useless as I was on one hour hold with the constant barrage of the advertisement. I finally gave up.
There are always the Lithium ferrous phosphate batteries like the Ballistic brand.
They do tend to last if left disconnected and charged and used from time to time. They self deplete at the rate of 10% per year. However, after a long period of non use I don't think anybody knows if they will hold a charge. Certainly, they can't be allowed to go dead.
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JHZR2
Staff member
Originally Posted By: Cujet
There are always the Lithium ferrous phosphate batteries like the Ballistic brand.
They do tend to last if left disconnected and charged and used from time to time. They self deplete at the rate of 10% per year. However, after a long period of non use I don't think anybody knows if they will hold a charge. Certainly, they can't be allowed to go dead.
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Go below 2v and you dissolve the copper current collector. Charge back up and plate it out, there's a risk of a major failure.
this is what i would get as replacement.
battery
many of the batteries that come with stuff nowadays are very poor quality.
you might try an eq or even pull the vents and add a cc or 2 of distilled water to each cell.
then hold it at around 15v a few hours.nothing to lose.
if it has not been kept charged fully over those 5 years it is sulphated badly.
at least you bought the means to maintain the new one.
and none of the fancy chargers can bring back a worn out sulphated to death junk battery.
your charger is fine.
for something that has to work in an emergency a new one is my choice.and use your new charger to keep it good.
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