Caring For My Battery

[SuperSport2011]

So last year I put my car away and had my battery on the trickle charger all winter[5 months or so]. This time around I was just gonna leave the battery sitting and a week before I get the car on the road I was gonna hook it up and charge it. Are there any cons or pros to that idea or should it always stay on the trickle charger?

[Iam Broke]

Battery Tender. If your batt goes flat it'll be shot and you may need a security relearn.

[IPT]

why should a relatively new battery go "flat"? My car is stored in a Conex container with no power. I'm hoping as a 2012 with a new healthy battery it'll be fine for 6 months. At worst i'll use a little portable jumper to get it started. Is that an inaccurate perception?

[Wabbit]

Originally Posted by IPT

why should a relatively new battery go "flat"? My car is stored in a Conex container with no power. I'm hoping as a 2012 with a new healthy battery it'll be fine for 6 months. At worst i'll use a little portable jumper to get it started. Is that an inaccurate perception?

With all the constant-on toys in our cars these days, there is a constant drain on our batteries. I wonder if it will even sit idle for six days.

If your lock your doors with your remote, the security system is active and draining.

I know that I can query my car with OnStar, and that has to use battery sitting there waiting for a query.

Certain computer components are drawing battery to keep their settings intact.

[SuperSport2011]

Interesting, what's a life span for a battery and is this something to worry with a 2011?

[two_wheel_mayhem]

My buddy's trailblazer SS won't start right now out in the garage after sitting for a month. He said the battery is new, I dunno? I let the Camaro sit out there for a few months with no charge and it fires right up. I never used battery tenders on any of my cars.

Usually I get about 5-6 years out of a car battery, if I keep the car that long. I've been getting 8 years out of my motorcycle batteries but they are on tenders most of the time when they sit.

[tonyko1]

Okay, your battery will be fine. One of the features of your car at this time is it has a new battery. As a matter of convention, it comes with the following, from the spec sheet:

Battery, maintenance-free with rundown protection and retained accessory power.


So when you get someone stating:

"Once a car battery goes dead the components usually sustain some damage. It will never be the same", ............................

You can rest assured, it will be fine.

Or when Bugs Bunny states:

"With all the constant-on toys in our cars these days, there is a constant drain on our batteries. I wonder if it will even sit idle for six days.

If your lock your doors with your remote, the security system is active and draining.

I know that I can query my car with OnStar, and that has to use battery sitting there waiting for a query.

Certain computer components are drawing battery to keep their settings intact.


Bugs is worried about leaving it for 6 days.........

You will be fine.

[two_wheel_mayhem]

[fz4k98]

I have been trying different combos of how to store a battey for years but mostly on cycles. The worst combo I found so far was to use a maintainer/trickle charger but not keep it on the whole time. I moved it to three different batteries all winter and the next spring I bought three new batteries, for a lawn mower motorcycle and 4 wheeler. They were from 1 to 4 years old.

This winter I have 4 chargers hooked up and left on the whole time to see what happens.

[MMC]

Battery run down protection will not save the battery, it is simply a timer that shuts off any items left on by the driver when they turn off the car.
Leave the lights on and 10 minutes later they turn off, same with the trunk light, dome light, radio and so on. The battery will be damaged and never have the same capacity once it is fully discharged. Parasitic loss from the battery is significant in modern automobiles due to the electronics which are allways powered up. Cold temperatures also reduce the capacity of the battery. Battery tenders are cheap and well worth the money and pay for themselves by providing years of extra service life from your battery.

[MLL67RSSS]

Originally Posted by tonyko1

Okay, your battery will be fine. One of the features of your car at this time is it has a new battery. As a matter of convention, it comes with the following, from the spec sheet:

Battery, maintenance-free with rundown protection and retained accessory power.


So when you get someone stating:

"Once a car battery goes dead the components usually sustain some damage. It will never be the same", ............................

You can rest assured, it will be fine.

Or when Bugs Bunny states:

"With all the constant-on toys in our cars these days, there is a constant drain on our batteries. I wonder if it will even sit idle for six days.

If your lock your doors with your remote, the security system is active and draining.

I know that I can query my car with OnStar, and that has to use battery sitting there waiting for a query.

Certain computer components are drawing battery to keep their settings intact.


Bugs is worried about leaving it for 6 days.........

You will be fine.

The Delco/Delphi battery engineers I used to work with beg to differ. If a normal automotive battery, even a brand new battery, gets drained dead and left dead/uncharged for any length of time will NEVER take/hold a full charge again and will have greatly reduced capacity. For that type of battery service a deep-cycle type battery is required.

Another myth battery engineers laugh at? Sitting a car battery on concrete will discharge it.

As for battery lifespan depends a lot on environment. Heat really kills them. When I lived in Phoenix they'd usually crap out in about 3 years, here in Indy usually get almost double that. The five + year old battery in my truck just crapped out the other day.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_cycle_battery

"A deep-cycle battery is a lead-acid battery designed to be regularly deeply discharged using most of its capacity. In contrast, starter batteries (e.g. most automotive batteries) are designed to deliver short, high-current bursts for cranking the engine, thus frequently discharged of only a very small part of their capacity. While a deep-cycle battery can be used as a starting battery, the lower "cranking amps" imply that an oversized battery may be required.

A deep-cycle battery is designed to discharge between 50% and 80% depending on the manufacturer and construction of the battery. Although these batteries can be cycled down to 20% charge, the best lifespan vs cost method is to keep the average cycle at about 50% discharge,[1] as there is a direct correlation between depth of discharge on the battery and the number of charge and discharge cycles it can perform.[2]"


To the OP, the most important thing it to either charge it and unhook it, or keep it charged with a trickle charger if hooked up in the car. Just don't let it go dead.

[mntgome1]

Originally Posted by tonyko1

Or when Bugs Bunny states:

"With all the constant-on toys in our cars these days, there is a constant drain on our batteries. I wonder if it will even sit idle for six days.

If your lock your doors with your remote, the security system is active and draining.

I know that I can query my car with OnStar, and that has to use battery sitting there waiting for a query.

Certain computer components are drawing battery to keep their settings intact.


Bugs is worried about leaving it for 6 days.........

You will be fine.

Now thats some funny Chet....