Battery Life

I would guess that deep discharges from lack of use, and also lack of maintenance (not topping up fluid, dirty terminals and case) are the major reasons for failure. I have always found the I get at least 5/6 or more years of use from batteries in my "daily driver" (I clean the terminals once per year, and check the water twice per year). I change them anyway, but more for peace of mind, than any real need.

 

I use a battery tender religously on the 355, but after 3 years, I am putting a new battery in it shortly. Just don't wish to take a chance with that car, as even a marginal battery seems to wreak havoc with them or so it seems from what I have read here!

Will make a trip to WalMart one of these weekends....

 

In Florida I change my battery between 2-3 years becausethe heat kills them
And my cars only sit a day at a time.
DM

 

Yeah, I have a battery load tester I bought from Griot's Garage, but just the same, I am going to replace the battery....

 

Heat and disuse tend to kill batteries.

My old Celica tended to eat batteries: I had to replace the 3 year old factory Panasonic battery after the car sat in storage for a year. A couple of years later, the no-name replacement battery had to be replaced when the car spent the work week in the airport parking garage for several months. A couple of years after that, the "Die Hard" collapsed internally. But the battery in the Celica sat about 8-10 inches from the glowing turbo.

The "Die Hard" in my Alfa sits in the trunk. The Alfa sat for six months in my garage in MA before I sold the condo. No battery tender, but not even a clock draining it when the car is off. It started right up when I had the car transported the end of '04. After two years in storage after that, the battery seems dead, now. The date sticker on that battery is 1993.

So there are a two extremes: the Celica would terminate a battery in a couple of years, or less when the car sat for a while. The Alfa's battery lasted 13 years despite long bouts of disuse.

On the battery tenders, I'm not sure that keeping it topped off all the time is quite as good as letting it cycle from time to time -- but I've never researched this on car batteries. (I know that NiCad and other computer (and shaver) batteries go bad when left on the charger all the time.)

 

Different chemistry types. Neither will lose life if you use a "smart charger"....but most inexpensive devices use a trickle type charger so it does shorten the life of the nicads. Also, Nicad and nickel metal hydride do have a "memory" effect and will lose storage capacity if constantly topped up. That is not the case with a lead acid battery...they do not have this memory effect.

I have a bunch of NMH AA batteries for various devices, and use a smart charger for charging them.

 

Many battery charger manufacturers claim to be able to reverse this sulfation process. Whether that is true or not, I don't know.

 

I respect your theory technically, but in my superstitious alternate reality, I believe in the Edsel Murphy law of batteries...

If it is really, really easy to replace (like a Porsche 911), it will last a really, really long time.

If it is really, really hard to replace (like a C4 Corvette where you have to practically remove a frame bracket and the cruise control), then it will last a really, really short time.

 

I change the batteries of both my daily driver Honda and Lotus at the same time: every 5 years. In both cars, previous batteries died at 6 years.

Ken

 

While Algores current climate crises has turned Minnesota into a tropical paradise, it was not always so. Winters would come in mid December and sometime in January a two week long deep freeze would set in, with steady overnight temps well under -20 F.

At any rate, I used to always but the best/most expensive batteries with the longest warrantees. But they always went dead on me, regardless of brand. After a year and a half and it was curtains. But I noticed the cars I aquired with old raggy cheap POS batteries and the darn things never died. Hmmmmm.

About year ago something I read something here that made me think about this more deeply. You buy a 60 or 72 month battery, they come with a full replacement somewhere around 12-24 months, with 50% cost the following year, decending in increments therafter. So if its dies at 18 months, and full replacement ended at 12 months, your paying half again the cost of that expensive battery to replace it.

But if you buy a cheap 24 month battery with one year full replacement, and 50% the following year, if that battery wont last 24 months its going to lose them money. I have started thinking the cheaper batteries are not only a better buy, they may actually be a better battery. I have a 24 month Walmart Delco I put in the John Deere garden tractor in 2001, and it was still working well last summer. We'll see how it works this year. Either way its already just about outlasted the most expensive battery I could have bought, and its in a pretty harsh environment. I leave it sit in the tractor all winter and never charge it and its always started in the spring.

 

All of the better batteries now come standard with a 36 month free replacement warranty. Even Costco and Sears Diehard.

 

Well, a week ago it was near 80 degrees and I was laying slate tile. The ice went off the area lakes a few days ago and the Geese and Robins are here. Today the temps dropped below freezing and its snowing and sleeting. Supposed to have below freezing nights for the next week. Brrrrrr!!!! We also had the coldest February on record. No, on the tractor its been kind of an experiment. I dont fix the battery or cables unless its a problem. Last year I had to clean the cables and all that, but it had been a couple years I think.

Over the years I have had the greatest trouble with MB diesels. A Diehard, one through Batteries Plus, one MB Bosch replacement, and one Interstate. Its a big heavy battery but in four different cars not one of those batteries lasted over a year. I have a cheap total off brand one in the 380 roadster, and four years now and it still works. But thats a gas motor for whatever thats worth.