How many batteries have you gone through?

What Brand Batteries are you buying?

 

You are losing a battery within a year and you're using a battery tender???

That's strange.

Kai

 

Agree. You might want to try a different tender.

I just replaced the battery in my Maserati. I don't drive it nearly enough. I tried all sorts of batteries but the best I think are Interstate. I used an Optima last and it was amongst the worst.

 

I have put 2 new batteries in my 348 over the last 6 yrs.

I dont drive it often enough.

 

Heat kills batteries. Florida is not kind in the heat department. Batteries that live in the engine bay die much mor rapidly than bateries that exist elsewhere in the chassis. Still, when I lived in Fla. I used to get 3-4 years from batteries. Now that I live in the just barely cooler Texas, I tend to get 5-6 years from batteries of aily drivers, and I got 5 years on my first Optima in the F355 and 4 on the second. But I drive mine at least once a week.

Draining a battery all the way down accelerates the killing of the battery. You tend to loose 15% of store capacity every deap drain. So, if you are not going to drive the car for a week, you shold trickle charge it to keep it fresh.

BUT make very sure you do not OVER-TRICKLE the battery, vent all the water, and ensure a rapid death of the otherwise long lived battery. Any trickle charging at higher than 13.2 V can (or will) boil off the water over time.

 

Open Roads - know how you're feeling. My 550 had an alternator failure last month, my mech replaced the alternator but figured the battery was still good, charged it up and sent the car back. Wrong...got the dreaded "Clickety click click" when I tried to start it up the next day. No problem, go to fire up the 430..."click click". And just last month my 360 got a new battery as well. None on tenders because I have no plug in my parking spaces.

The 550 battery was about 3 years old, the 430 about 5 years old, and the 360 was about 4 years old. Not too bad considering the heat of Hong Kong, infrequent usage, and no tender being used. But all happening within a month was very annoying.

 

I had five tenders going this winter:
Golf cart
motorcyle 1
motorcycle 2
355
SLK
Only the DD Volvo was without.
The SLK battery died once after I left a dome light was on, and the car has had battery issues ever since (probably an obscure relay I'm about to replace). So I'm careful with everything.

It doesn't sound right that you would lose a battery with it on a tender. It should constantly keep the battery topped up.

And if it seems inconvenient to keep your car on a tender, because of the connection, think about rigging one to go into your cig lighter. That's how my 355 is set up. It's worked great through two winters.

 

There is certainly a lot of different batteries out there.

If you want it to last longer go for a gel type battery. Or spend more and get a marine type of battery.

 

Did you use the red top or yellow top Optima? The red top is a good battery but does not have great deep cycling capability. I have had great luck with the yellow top Optima batteries. They are designed for excessive deep cycle charging without damage.

 

Two years ago I replaced the battery in my 575 with an Interstate MTP 91. I keep it on a tender but, in winter I put a slow charge on it if I haven't driven in three weeks or so. No problems. In summer the tender keeps it up well.

In all my other cars I service the terminals at least twice a year. I get well over six years out of those batteries. One died after twelve years.

 

I have an Interstate in my 308,use Deltran Tender and no problems.The battery is 5 years old now.I made sure I got one that i can check the water level in it,and yes sometimes I need to add a little Distilled water to it.What I don't like about Maintanance Free batteries is that you cant check the levels in each Cell,put a Charger on a Battery low on Water/Acid you short out the cell/cells which in turn run down the Battery.Plus Battery's are not made as good as they used to be.And yes Heat is a Battery's biggest Enemy.

 

Dont you switch the battery off if you leave it for more than a few days? I do and never had a problem with my 328, 512TR, 575 360, or 430. I miss the battery switch on my 458.

 

Open Roads,

You need to make sure that you are using a true fully automatic battery tender and not a manual trickle charger. Manual trickle chargers will boil your battery and kill them. If you use a quality fully automatic battery tender or battery maintainer then I have never heard of a battery going bad while using one.

A buddy of mine thought all trickle chargers were battery tenders, so he hooked one up to his 456 and it only took a couple of weeks to first boil it and then kill it.

Another thing to look at, for most batteries if they are taken all the way down to almost dead, battery maintainers are not the right way to charge them back up to full charge. Battery maintainers work best at keeping the charge up but not bringing them back from the dead


As for using fully automatic Battery Maintainers/Tenders, I have both Deltran and C-Tek brands about 25 of them being used on everything from Motorcycles, ATVs, Snowmobiles, Go Karts, to Cars. I have not had a battery go bad in the last 10 years

If you use them religiously and properly, they can keep your batteries going for many years.

 

2 batteries in 4 years. Both of them the factory Ferrari ones because the car is still under warranty. If I still have the car after the warranty, I will most likely get an Interstate, it seems to get the most votes.

 

I forgot to mention that the best battery as far as weight, power, size and longevity is the Odyssey AGM batteries. I have these on all my vehicles.

They cost a bit more but weigh 30 to 40 percent less, are 30 to 40 percent more powerful are significantly smaller and last 10 to 12 years.

I am just now switching over some of the vehicles to Lithium Ion starter batteries. Only because they are smaller, lighter still and very green in nature. Don't know how long they last yet but with an 80% weight savings they are just too tempting.

 

Optima batteries were good until they got bought out a few years back. Bdelp is correct, Interstate batteries are the best out there IMHO, especially the MTP series.

 

Last fall I replaced my 308's 6 year old Interstate battery with the same. It was shot and wouldn't hold a charge anymore but still lasted 6 years. I usually plug in the tender one evening during the week just to keep the charge up. I probably should leave it plugged in all the time but don't trust it not to have a problem and burn up the car along with the garage. I can usually go at least couple of weeks before the charge drops to a point where the car won't start.