A friend of mine has a Toro walk-behind self-propelled 22in mower and it has an on-board battery (12v, looks about 8 AH in size). The battery is used to turn a starter to start the mower engine but there is no charging system on the mower. I assume you are supposed to charge up the battery with a battery charger, though my friend says he did not get a charger with the mower.
Mower is about three years old and the battery never gets used (and has never been charged) since my friend uses the rope starter.
This past summer I hooked up an automatic battery charger to the battery, figuring it was long overdue for a charge. The battery would not take a charge, with the green led on the charger coming on immediately indicating a fully charged battery. I checked the voltage and the three year old battery which has never been charged was putting out 12.9v.
Last week I was doing some work on my truck in his garage and ran my truck battery down by keeping ign key in Acc position and playing the radio (radio only draws 0.2A but total draw on Acc pos was 4A - dunno why, blower motor was off, only thing I can see working are the dash lights, anyway a different topic). I was stuck in the garage at night, my friend wasn't home, so I hooked up the lawn mower battery to my truck battery for about 45 min and picked up some charge. The truck battery was now able to spin the starter weakly, it was not doing that before, just clicking (I eventually found an old radio in the garage and was able to access its internal 12v power and thus charge my battery and start my truck).
I passed by the garage today, figuring the mower battery needed a charge and again it refused to take a charge. The open circuit voltage on the mower battery was 13.0 volts! The ambient temp was 15 deg F. The battery is still able to start up the mower
I have never come across an automotive battery that can sit around for three years without a charge and still put out 13.0v (or even 12.65v, which is the normal fully charged oc voltage.
Mower is about three years old and the battery never gets used (and has never been charged) since my friend uses the rope starter.
This past summer I hooked up an automatic battery charger to the battery, figuring it was long overdue for a charge. The battery would not take a charge, with the green led on the charger coming on immediately indicating a fully charged battery. I checked the voltage and the three year old battery which has never been charged was putting out 12.9v.
Last week I was doing some work on my truck in his garage and ran my truck battery down by keeping ign key in Acc position and playing the radio (radio only draws 0.2A but total draw on Acc pos was 4A - dunno why, blower motor was off, only thing I can see working are the dash lights, anyway a different topic). I was stuck in the garage at night, my friend wasn't home, so I hooked up the lawn mower battery to my truck battery for about 45 min and picked up some charge. The truck battery was now able to spin the starter weakly, it was not doing that before, just clicking (I eventually found an old radio in the garage and was able to access its internal 12v power and thus charge my battery and start my truck).
I passed by the garage today, figuring the mower battery needed a charge and again it refused to take a charge. The open circuit voltage on the mower battery was 13.0 volts! The ambient temp was 15 deg F. The battery is still able to start up the mower
I have never come across an automotive battery that can sit around for three years without a charge and still put out 13.0v (or even 12.65v, which is the normal fully charged oc voltage.
