The importance of cool batteries

softdown · January 2017

A picture is worth a thousand words?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6024911/uploads/editor/he/tt3l2dneje5a.jpg

Marc Kurth · January 2017

Might be a good overall view, but........

I'm in the red part of Texas. My cheap auto parts store branded battery is 6.5 years old and starts my daily driver '99 Chevy truck engine great. The battery in my wife's February 2011 SUV hasn't been replaced yet and seems to crank at full speed.

softdown · January 2017

It is way oversimplified for sure. Sometimes the best way to teach?

Perhaps your vehicles have light colored paint jobs? Perhaps you garage them or tend to keep them in the shade?

The lesson is that heat kills batteries. That is a good lesson to be sure.

I'm in the blue part of Colorado. My batteries also tend to do well.

westbranch · January 2017

yes The lesson is that heat kills batteries. That is a good lesson to be sure.

And COLD, read anything below freezing, weather tells you VERY quickly that you better replace that battery in your vehicle despite its age, cause otherwise you will be parked and the car will be towed or jumped... Sept/Oct is new battery season here.

Mind you I got over 12 years on the factory original Ford battery in my 78 P/U and then another 8 years powering my first camper... after we woke up July 1 to 6 inches of fresh SNOW at a remote lake.... thank goodness we were not there alone!

softdown · January 2017

My understanding is that being cold prolongs the life of batteries. Even being very cold. The problem in truly cold environs is that batteries lose so much power when they are well below freezing temperatures. The battery would be fine at ~26C/75F. Yet the owner decides to replace it because it didn't crank so fast when it was 30 degrees below freezing.

Plus people in the north just don't want to deal with a dead battery in January when there is a meter/yard of snow on the ground. So they replace the battery in Sept/Oct.

westbranch · January 2017

you are so right... well, almost, for me, now,....
out come the tools, meters, etc a check of the cells SG etc, top off H2O and a hard charge overnight, etc ....replace as needed..or,...... just suspect ?>.. next fail back it goes.. last time I had problems it was a 2 yr old jobber, that was accepting charge, but wife's stop and go on a Friday shopping, |I had to phone my neighbour to come give me a jump.. it was the heavy startup draw with max 5 min. between stops and near Zero F temps...came alive for s week then same old same old... similar to going to 30% SoC and thinking 'ah, 20 min of full sun will get em through'...! No es Nada!

Marc Kurth · January 2017

softdown said:

It is way oversimplified for sure. Sometimes the best way to teach?
Perhaps your vehicles have light colored paint jobs? Perhaps you garage them or tend to keep them in the shade?
The lesson is that heat kills batteries. That is a good lesson to be sure.
I'm in the blue part of Colorado. My batteries also tend to do well.

Yes of course and your graphic does a great job of making people think.
You were active in previous threads where I have pointed out that heat is often the primary enemy - sometimes more that excess deep cycles.

Marc

dennis461 · January 2017

Copied chart from Interstate batteries?
I do not see any references (on Interstate website) to backup the data.
Reasonable estimates I suppose.
http://www.interstatedealers.com/informing-the-customer.asp

mcgivor · January 2017

Keeping batteries/cells fresh is an old trick, store your D, AA, AAA,C,9v, or whatever you have in the freezer, puts them to sleep and extends their shelf life by lowering self discharge.

The importance of cool batteries

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