Short battery life

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Chris142

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My mom does not drive anymore. We use her car (99 Sportage)about once a week, to take her to see my dad or to appointments etc.

I know that letting batteries sit unused is fatal to them.

When it's not being used I hook up either a Battery maintainer or one of my smart chargers that have a maintain option to it.

No acid is boiling out so I'm assuming that it's not being overcharged.

I'm replacing a bad battery every 9-12 months! The best was a JC battery from A-Zone. It lasted 3 yrs or so. Maybe more but she was driving back then.

The last 3 have been Deka batteries from Battery mart. The average life of these is about a year.

The charging system checks out fine, clean cables etc. Just bad batteries.

Junk Deka batteries? 3 in a row?
 
Sounds like my 80 year old dad's car. I bought a charger and every 6 months hook it up.
 
If the car isn't driven much at all you should connect the battery maintainer with a timer to turn that maintainer on about 1 hour a day only.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
If the car isn't driven much at all you should connect the battery maintainer with a timer to turn that maintainer on about 1 hour a day only.



Why?

A proper maintenance charger will take the voltage to float with the current super low, like a few mA, just enough to balance internal losses and parasitics from the car.

An hour a day will be worse. Why? because good chargers do a constant current then constant voltage before float. So the charger will take the battery to >14V under these conditions, and will do so daily. Id rather see the battery sitting at 13.4V or so, temperature compensated, then taking it to a lot higher day after day, which is what will happen if you let the maintainer reset.

Telecom batteries see 10+ years of service sitting on a float charger in a benign environment. Unless the car has a short or issue that is causing funky drain, or the alternator is poor and has a ton of AC ripple, maintenance should do fine.

I have had a recent issue with about 1 year of life out of two JCI WM batteries at this point in my truck...
 
Get a VW/Audi solar panel. They put them on the cars at the factory and enterprising techs liberate them from new cars and sell them on ebay for $15.

Assuming the sportage has a cigar lighter that works with the key off.

You get sunshine in California?
laugh.gif
 
CTEK makes a fantastic battery maintainer you can use. Mine has been great for years.
 
Curious what maintainer/charger is used.
Agree with JHZR2 regards to keeping a maintainer on full time rather than an hour a day - the first charge state of current rather than once charged, float/maintains.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142

When it's not being used I hook up either a Battery maintainer or one of my smart chargers that have a maintain option to it.


Either bad battery or bad charger.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
My mom does not drive anymore. We use her car (99 Sportage)about once a week, to take her to see my dad or to appointments etc.

I know that letting batteries sit unused is fatal to them.

When it's not being used I hook up either a Battery maintainer or one of my smart chargers that have a maintain option to it.

No acid is boiling out so I'm assuming that it's not being overcharged.

I'm replacing a bad battery every 9-12 months! The best was a JC battery from A-Zone. It lasted 3 yrs or so. Maybe more but she was driving back then.

The last 3 have been Deka batteries from Battery mart. The average life of these is about a year.

The charging system checks out fine, clean cables etc. Just bad batteries.

Junk Deka batteries? 3 in a row?


Proceed with caution. Calling Deka junk around here will stir up the locals...
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
I have 3 shumacher charger/ maintainers that I swap around. I'm not at home so I can't tell you the part #'s right now. Trying the $5 one from HF this time


Go buy a proper multi-stage charger that does the job properly. If it gets real hot where you are (or real cold), get a temp-compensated one. Battery Minder 2012 would be my pick.

If you live in SF area where it seems to be 65-85 year round, then another one may work.

Still the HF one isnt smart enough to do a proper charge regimen, which may be part of your issue anyway.

I have a schumacher that I like for fast charge, but I have found it takes the voltage up really high sometimes - high enough to induce gassing. So if using a schumacher, you may well be drying out the batteries, which kills them, and if done for too long, can cause a thermal runaway.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
I have 3 shumacher charger/ maintainers that I swap around. I'm not at home so I can't tell you the part #'s right now. Trying the $5 one from HF this time


I've heard bad things about the cheap HF chargers. Something like defective electrolyte caps shorting out or so.
 
One of my chargers has a light that comes on solid when the battery is charged then it blinks when in maintain mode. It cost over $100 so one would assume that it wont hurt a battery if left on all the time.
 
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I never heard of a battery dying within a year, whether used once a week. my folks only drive once a week (retired) and no maintainer used and original battery lasted 10 years. I dont buy it that it needs a maintainer, despite how little its used. Stop buying the same battery. Try one from costco, and test the alternator and make sure there is nothing that might be putting drain on the battery. Clearly something aint right. even a cheap battery should survive over a year. hope u find a better battery/ and or the problem.
 
What does the digital multimeter say? And what should the battery read when you put the multimeter leads to the battery first thing in the morning?

What voltages indicate healthy battery, bad battery, etc? Including readings when car is running, and alternator should be engaged?

I did get a multimeter, for all my projects. What should they read? Would sure help in diagnosing if a battery is at fault. I would also verify what the smart charger is doing with the multimeter. Couldn't hurt.
 
the majority of auto batt maintainers/trickle chargers i've seen do NOT do a true float charge. They are a steady-state-- 1-2.5A depending on the model that cut out at 14V, sit, then cut in when the batt drops to 13. so they are on-off-on-off anyway, whether running on a timer or not. I've never actually come across one that regulated to a steady-state voltage.

I've left these in use 24/7 for years and they've never developed a problem unless A) an outboard desulfator is used (eventually destroys the charger) B) the battery is already damaged (in which case the charger ***slowly*** vents the battery, never reaching 14v).

Try a different battery brand. avoid gel cels or agm. just get a good, heavy, flooded type. in my experience the maintenance free batteries hold up fine but old-school vented can be nice since you can still monitor and add fluid if it's overcharging and losing water.

different brand... i've had good luck with advanced auto, silver.
 
You can either charge it overnight once a week or get a decent (non HF) battery maintainer. Either way you will have to connect it up after driving.

If you charge it up overnight with a normal charger, you can probably get away with every 2 or 3 weeks.
 
Invest in a decent quality battery.

The Interstate battery in my pickup has no issues, and I only drive it once or twice a month (at the most). Sometimes it sits for a couple months at a time and I never use any sort of a maintainer or trickle charger.

The punch date on the battery is June of 2008, and I won't invest in a new one until this fall-that will be over 5 years without an issue in conditions just as bad, if not worse, than yours.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
You can either charge it overnight once a week or get a decent (non HF) battery maintainer. Either way you will have to connect it up after driving.

If you charge it up overnight with a normal charger, you can probably get away with every 2 or 3 weeks.


+1

I have a boat that is used a couple of times a year. But, I connect it to an "automatic" 10A charger every 2-3 months for a full charge. That battery is now over 10 years old and still works, but it's showing some weakness from age.

Another option that I provided for my elderly dad who drives little, is a small (1A) float charger that goes into true float when battery is fully charged. I checked it and it's exactly 13.8V like it should be for float use.

It was under 10$ shipped from china on ebay.

Did you check operating voltage on your "maintenance" chargers?
 
Hey I think I may have found a problem. The batteries that keep failing are group 26. According to A-Zones site the car calls for a Group 58.

I wonder if the 26 does not have the necessary CCA?
 
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