No wear on 3 year old Group 94 battery?

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Dec 10, 2018
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After trying to hard wire my dashcam, I wound up with a completely dead battery. I took my battery to Advance Auto Parts to charge it.
They used an 80A charger and in 35Mins, the battery was charged. I asked them to do a battery test on it.

To my surprise, the battery showed no wear at all.

My battery is an Autocraft Group 94 battery. Here were the results

Mfg Date: 8/2018
CCA 960 (800CCA, 1000CA Rating)
Voltage 12.8
Temp: 67

So in 3 years of moderate use and 1 heavy discharge, my battery lost only 40CCA? I thought batteries start to go bad in 3 years. Before this, I was thinking about replacing it. The previous battery an AC Delco Group 94 lasted 5 years.
 
It's a 3 year warranty battery they should usually last at least 3 years, years 4-5 are the crapshoot, some batteries may last 10 years, others may last 3-5, but generally on something with a 3 year warranty you should expect it to last at least 3 years.
 
I'd put the headlights on for 5min and retest.

Those battery testers arent foolproof.

OTOH Just noticed a slowstart on the 2013 equinox.. and its the factory battery.
 
80A charger?
Isn't that too high and bad for the battery?
I was wondering the same thing too. The fastest charger I’ve seen was 10A chargers.

The last time I had a battery charged there, it took a whole day. I took a picture of the charger they used and it was a Schumacher.

I was worried too that the rapid charging would hurt the battery, but according to the test it didnt?
 
I'd put the headlights on for 5min and retest.

Those battery testers arent foolproof.

OTOH Just noticed a slowstart on the 2013 equinox.. and its the factory battery.
This was a few days ago. I’ve been driving the car since and had no issues with starting. In fact, it seems to crank a bit faster than before
 
This was a few days ago. I’ve been driving the car since and had no issues with starting. In fact, it seems to crank a bit faster than before
I wouldnt expect once time to kill it you likely just took off a slice of its life.
 
oh it has "wear" (sulfate) the test they ran just didn't show it. and you don't have a starting measurement to compare it to. the battery was certainly hotter than 67F on the inside after charging from dead with an 80A charger. hotter = higher apparent cca. but even so the battery is still healthy don't even think about replacing it. i'm sure others will chime in with much more info.
 
Looks to me like it gained 160 CCA...
The numbers might be mixed up. Cold cranking amps is at 0 Fahrenheit, cranking amps is at 32 Fahrenheit. The temperature was 67 so it wasn't CCA or CA. But maybe they just extrapolated the number based on the current temperature, but hard to say exactly what they did.
 
The numbers might be mixed up. Cold cranking amps is at 0 Fahrenheit, cranking amps is at 32 Fahrenheit. The temperature was 67 so it wasn't CCA or CA. But maybe they just extrapolated the number based on the current temperature, but hard to say exactly what they did.
Right, I'm just going by the numbers the OP listed.
 
Right, I'm just going by the numbers the OP listed.
21411223-4A60-48B3-91F3-0F533CFFA516.jpg

This is what the tester showed. Not sure how it calculates CCA when the test was done at room temperature
 
A truly dead but still relatively healthy battery hooked to an 80 amp charger, that is voltage limited to 14.8v, will instantly rise to 14.8v, and only 35 amps or so will be required to raise it that high, and if it sat dead for a while then it might only accept an amp or 3 at first, and only slowly ramp up.
As it begins to wake up, when a potentially high ampergae source is applied, it will accept more and more amperage, and then in about 3 to 5 minutes( 0f 50+ amps) start declining.

In 30 minutes, the absolute highest state of charge the single automotive starting battery, which was drained dead, can be brought to is the 80% state of charge range, whether an 80 amp chargar or a 200 amp charger.

Charging from ~80% to 100%, takes no less than 3.5 more hours, assuming a voltage is held in the mid 14's that entire time.

Voltages over 14.8v, do not significantly increase the amperage teh battery can accept. Mostly it is turned to heat, and causes vigorous bubbling, forcing hydrogen and oxygen and a sulfuric acid mist to escape the cells.

The Heat can help return hardened sulfate back into the electrolyte
Any battery discharged is sulfated, but when that sulfate is not returned to the electrolyte, by recharging relatively promptly, it becomes hardened, and becomes more and more difficult to return into solution. This hardened sulfate occludes the plates, reducing the surface area for the chemical reaction to occur, reducing both CCA and Capacity, The CCA a measure of how quickly it can release its energy and the capacity being the total amount of electricity it can store measured in amp hours or watt hours, or reserve capacity minutes, which is how many minutes it can provide 25 amps. A 100 amp hour battery can provide 5 amps for 20 hours. the 20 hour rate is most widely used measure of capacity.

Your battery hit with an 80 amp charger does not mean it was accepting 80 amps the whole time. The battery itself decides how much amperage to accept at the voltage( electrical pressure) reaching the battery terminals, and how much it decides upon has many influencing factors, being health, plate design, temperature, size as well as state of charge, and some other factors which would just confuse the reader.

The conductance tester's numbers, when placed on such a battery, hot off such a charger, is not to be trusted.
its good that it did not read poorly, as a poor test in such a situation speaks volumes, but on a warm battery off a high amp charger, does not mean all that much, certainly not to the point one can infer it it as healthy as it was when it left the assembly line and was then fully charged.

The best thing you can do for that battery is plug it into a charger and hope that charger can return it to 100% state of charge in the time you leave it plugged in.
If you plug in a smart charger right after driving, it will read the surface charge voltage from the alternator and ight just flash the green light and say it is fully charged, when it is not.

Do NOT expect your vehicles charging system to be able to do it any faster, an alternator might be capable of 130 amps, but only when still cold, spinning fast, and when fully fielded by the voltage regulator, over cabling that can pass 130 amps, and when the loads are capable of sucking up 130 amps, the depleted battery being a load.

A Healthy starting battery can likely be 100% discharged relatively quickly, and if promptly recharged to truly full, last about 75 to 100 cycles.

If it is slowly discharge to 0%, then only returned to 85%, then 100% discharged to 0, then recharged to only 85%, it might last 15 cycles, whereas a marine battery might last 15 to 75, and a true deep cycle battery 130 to 200. All will be obviously compromised before total failure, which in an automotive starting battery is usually revealed on the coldest morning.
Staving off capacity and CCA decline is done with true full recharges, and decline is only linear when true full charges occur, the decline accellerates when less than full recharges occur.

The best thing one can do is insure true 100% regular charges occur, and 100% discharges do not. The higher the average state of charge, the longer it will last, and temperature has a big effect on longevity too, each 10 degrees C doubling the rate at which the sulfuric acid eats the plates.

Also, while the high amp recharge is not great for batteries each and every time, they will not seriously detract from its performance, as the battery can only accept so much, and the heating which occurs, of a battery with some degree of hardened sulfation, either helps dissolve that sulfate back into solution, restoring surface area for the chemical reaction to occur, or the high amperage blast knocks the hardened sulfation off the plates faces and it sinks to the bottom of the cell, but opens up some plate surface area for the chemical reaction to occur. Obviously if plate material sheds, that is lost capacity, but if it opens up surface area for the chemical reaction to occur, that can make it appear to have restored cranking ability.

Its my opinion, and my experience, that sulfated batteries, benefit from a deep discharge, and a high amperage blast, especially when the charging source is capable of truly fully charging the battery, meaning holding it at high enough voltage for long enough for it to reach a true 100% state of charge.

Every partially sulfated Battery I've blasted with high amperage and then held mid 14's until amps taper to very low levels, or the temperature compensating hydrometer reveals the specific gravity to have returned to pre established maximums, generally 1.270 to 1.285, the battery afterwards, even when it has cooled back down, to crank a starter faster and or retain more voltage with lesser loads over longer.

A high amp recharge each and every time is not great for the battery, but here and there on a battery that has lived its life less than fully charged is beneficial, in my experience.

You noticed this with your starter seeming to turn even faster afterwards, and if you have the ability to plug in a decent charger, especially one which brings the battery to 14.4 to 14.8v for a decent period of time, you will likely notice it spinning even faster, and your battery will thank you. If One got all overexcited with the positive results and decided to drain the battery over and over and high amp blast it over and over, then this is of course damaging to the battery. But the heavily sulfated battery could, might benefit from two back to back deep discharges promptly followed by high amp recharges to truly full. Measuring potential improvement is another matter.

Removing the surface charge, after driving, is likely key in getting a smart charger to actually decide to seek and hold absorption voltage for a respectable period of time. Surface charge can stick around for quite a while, and fool a smart charger into thinking it is being hooked to a fully charged battery. In general try and drain the battery to 12.6v or less before hooking up the smart charger. If it quickly keeps flashing the green light and dropping to voltage in the mid 13's, then it either might be nearly truly fully charged, or pretty well sulfated, or the charger is just a POS.

One really interested in battery/charger performance/efficacy needs to know how much amperage the battery is accepting at the voltage the charger is holding the battery at. A 5 amp charger might only need to deliver 0.7 amps to hold 14.8v, and a group 94, if still healthy, likely can be considered fully charged when it requires only 0.25 amps or less to be held at 14.7, at 77f. This figure is an educated guess for a relatively healthy flooded group 94. maintenance free usually need to taper to even lower levels, as do AGM's

Obviously nobody needs to go through this effort, the battery is basically rented, it will fail even if treated perfectly, at some point. The end user can however affect when, and most easily by insuring a true full recharge occurs regularly, but especially when it is deeply discharged, intentionally or not.

No Lead acid battery is immune to living its life chronically undercharged. The higher its average state of charge, the longer it will live, and going from 80% to 100% charged, takes no less than 3.5 hours, and that is on a new healthy battery held in the mid 14 volt range for that 3.5 hours. Lesser voltages and less healthy batteries increase that time to 100%, towards the ridiculous. The battery will only accept very small amounts of amperage at high states of charge. Perhaps this is where the term 'trickle' being so beneficial to a battery, earned its reputation, but trickle charging a deeply discharged battery will not only take days and days, and perhaps longer, but it does not stand the same chance of blasting hardened sulfate from the plates, or redissolving it back into the electrolyte.

But if the trickle charger is left on long enough to actually return the battery back to 100% of its remaining capacity, then the battery is far happier than if it is only returned to 90% charged at a higher amperage rate.

Ideal for lead acid batteries is always 100% charged, and kept cool, and when a battery is deeply discharged, accidently or intentionally, the more important the prompt, true 100% recharge becomes, and this can take several restarts of a smart charger, bleeding off the surface charge in order for it to restart and seek and hold absorption voltage. The AGM setting on smart chargers also tends to hold absorption voltage for a bit longer, and when it drops to float voltage, that AGM float voltage is usually 13.6v vs 13.2v for the flooded setting, and more voltage means more charging and a abttery chance for higher states of charge to be achieved over night, or on a questionable sulfated battery, days. Just do not leave a smart charger set to AGM on a healthy flooded battery for days and days. Overnight should present no issues unless it is 105f outside.

Always be careful charging batteries in hot ambient temperatures, and the higher amperage the faster they will heat from within.
 
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