Someone on the internet told me, that todays cars are NOT meant to charge up a battery, they are designed to MAINTAIN a battery charge. But I've never had a new battery that was not charged.
Do you charge a new battery before installation?
- Thread starter Corollaman
- Start date
I always charge a new battery before installation. About 30 years ago a mechanic told me it was a "best practice" and I've been doing it ever since.
Wow, I think I learned something today... You guys are awesome!
I did on the bus fleet if at all possible. Some would take several hours to get up to a full charge. Mostly 2 8D batteries in parallel.
Yes
Original battery in mt Tacoma was changed out 2 months ago still strong but it was 10 years old
New battery charged before install
TOMB
Original battery in mt Tacoma was changed out 2 months ago still strong but it was 10 years old
New battery charged before install
TOMB
Do you charge a new battery before installation?
If I have the time to do it, yes. I put it on a Deltran Battery Charger Jr, and usually overnight it's good the next morning.
Zee09
$200 Site Donor 2023
On tractors I usually put the new battery in first and put it on a trickle charger for the next day's use.
I charge first if it's a new battery, or if it's a new alternator. I've been told that the additional draw on the alternator is not ideal. It's not hard for me to hook up the charger, it does remove and doubt and I feel better about it. 
“Do you charge a new battery before installation?”
Yes, with one exception. I once had no choice because I was out on the road when the battery “died”. That occasion was a swap and go.
That's silly. As long as you have at least 10 amps of input the battery will charge at a good pace. But most economy cars and their economy alternators can give 30a easily. The problem is when the alternator is having to always do that and get stressed.
Personally, I would return a battery that was reading that low. Any voltage under 12.4 V or so will result in sulfation, and a battery at 12.08 V would have been sitting in that sulfating for a long time.
Date codes are useful, but self-discharge rates of lead-acid batteries are highly dependent on ambient temperature. A battery stored in a hot environment may be discharged and sulfating within a couple of months. I just bring a small multimeter into the store to make sure the battery is reading at least 12.4 V.
Depends. Once I installed a battery in a parking lot to try and get the core fee back afterwards, but I didn’t need to. But I then drove about 25 miles. I’m pretty sure I’ve done it before.
If that were the case I’d charge it in situ. I test drove a car once where several of the particular model couldn’t start. Finally got a jump start and I promptly stalled it 200 ft from the dealer. Then they found one on the lot that had a reasonable charge.
Nope, never have in 40 years of driving.
Hermann
Site Donor 2023
I did. The F-150 I bought in 2018 sat undriven on the lot for 5 months. When I got it home the battery was having issues. The battery was weak and would not show the screen and auto start stop would not trigger, power seats and windows were very sluggish and the radio would not play. I charged it overnight at 2 amps and it still was running at 1/2 amp for 12 more hours after it dropped from 2 amps, before going into float mode. After that no problems.
Nor have I.
I always charge them no matter the type or size. They are always low on charge somewhat.
Been doing it since back in the day of filling new Atlas batteries with acid at the Esso station.
9 battery started engines in my care.
Been doing it since back in the day of filling new Atlas batteries with acid at the Esso station.
9 battery started engines in my care.
