I have a late model MB new battery free from my sister, and I was wondering how I should store it. I have it in the basement right now, But do I need to drain anything?

Thanks,
Shaun

If the battery already has acid in it, then you cannot drain it. To keep the battery in good condition you will need to put a battery charger on it at least once a month, better to charge it every two weeks. Use a trickle charger or taper rate charger and let it cherge until the battery is fully charged (with low output battery chargers it can take 12-24 hours to fully charge the battery - the slower the better to prevent overheating the battery). With a taper rate battery charger look for the charge rate to go down to zero or, better, check with a volt/ohm meter and look for 13.2 to 13.5 volts.

Good Luck!
Tom

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America: Land of the Free!

1977 300D: 300,000+ miles

American Honda: Factory Trained Technician & Honor Grad.
Formerly:
Shop Foreman;
Technical Advisor to Am. Honda;
Supervisor of Maintenance largest tree care co. in US for offices in Tex.

Thanks Tom!

If you can borrow an equalizing charger, it would be good to equalize the battery once every 6-12 months.

Go to www.vdcelectronics.com - they make a product called BatteryMinder that you leave hooked up to your battery all the time while in storage. It maintains the battery and uses about 10 cents of electricity a day to do so and also reverses sulphation - which usually builds up and destroys a battery if it is not regularly charged while in storage. I sprang for one a few months ago and am extremely pleased with it. You can hook up up to 4 batteries at once - and forget them for months! One battery I hooked up was 7 years old and not working very well - It now performs like new. They offer a 100% money back guarantee on the BatteryMinder if you don't like it along with a 5year no hassle warranty. I have found that it will not help a battery that has been frozen. Since my Mercedes is not driven 7 months of the year - it is great not having to worry about the battery!!!

Also, set the battery you wish to store on something that does not drain heat from it, like a cement floor: put it on a piece of wood or something else that will insulate it.

Cement floors seem to wreck batteries, even here in Miami, where it doesn't really get cold.

__________________
Semibodacious Transmogrifications a Specialty

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo sedan 171K (Rudolf)
1985 300D Turbo TD Wagon 219K (Remuda)

"Time flies like and arrow, yet fruit flies like a banana"
---Marx (Groucho)

Shaun,

I have a lot of experience and litterature regarding battery maintenance.It sounds to me that Moedip has come across a neat new product which I will have to check out. There are a couple of things to remember about storing batteries.First of all to reduce the discharge rate, the batteries should be stored in a cool place like on concrete. Secondly in order to accurately check a stored battery's state of charge,you must either wait a couple of days after charging or put a load on the battery to remove the surface charge. You should then read a voltage of 12.6 volts with a digital volt meter. This reading indicates a fully charged battery.

Hope this info helps,
Peter

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Auto Zentral Ltd.

10 cents a day? DANG!

My window airconditioner runs me about $40/year to cool my garage. if it takes 10 cents per day to run a battery charger ($37/yr + charger) and a new battery from walmart is $40-$49 for a high quality Johnson Controls battery, where is the savings? I think your electricity usage numbers may be slightly off, but either way the savings just dont add up.

__________________
Matt
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI 145,000MI
1999.5 Jetta TDI 287,000MI
2001 Suzuki SV650S 26,000MI
2008 Yamaha Vino 125 11,000MI
http://www.crazymatt.org

Autozen: Store batteries on concrete? Thats the worst advice ive come across in a long time! Cold concrete is about the worst thing you can store a battery on! I'll be sure not to buy and batteries from your shop!

The truth is, insulate the battery by storing it on a shelf or on a spare piece of wood. Richard Eldridge is correct. cold concrete floors are no good.

__________________
Matt
2003 Jetta Wagon TDI 145,000MI
1999.5 Jetta TDI 287,000MI
2001 Suzuki SV650S 26,000MI
2008 Yamaha Vino 125 11,000MI
http://www.crazymatt.org

Peter- after having my batteries on the BatteryMinder for a month and taking it off for a few days my batteries read 12.76-12.9 volts - they are fully charged. I then put them back on the BatteryMinder and will take them off as I need them.

Car54 - I paid $270 CDN for my Factory Mercedes battery - leaving it on the charger for 7 months is still cheaper than buying a new one. Also at the same time my Mercedes battery is being maintained, so is my garden tractor battery and my outboard motor battery - all on the same BatteryMinder. My savings is definately worth the expense. The 10 cent figure was from their website. Every year I have had to buy a new garden tractor battery and every 2 years a new outboard motor battery because they are not used most of the year. In your case it may not be economical to use - but in my case it is. Cheers
Maurice

Car54, where are you? You've got to come out of the dark ages, man. What you say about battery storage was correct advice 50 years ago. With the plastic battery cases used in production today,the best way to reduce discharge during storage is to keep the batteries cool. Temperature and storage discharge rate are directly proportional, but don't take my word for it. Contact the technical department at Johnson Control (which makes Interstate batteries),and let them set you straight. If you connect with someone who hem haws, let me know and I'll scan the info from print and post it. I receive periodic professional publications from Interstate Battery which is owned by Johnson Control which is one of my sources for info as listed in my first post.Also I believe MOEDIP is correct. You are not going to get an MB66 or MB88 battery for $40.00 anywhere.

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Auto Zentral Ltd.

Hey Peter - by the way - the 7 year old battery that revived was an Interstate VW battery - it is being used, on loan, for 2 months now in my friend's Audi. This battery sat in a corner of the basement for 3-4 years without being charged. I topped off the battery with distilled water and put the unit on it for 1 month - the results speak for themselves.
maurice :p :p

I just retrieved the copy of the patent for the charger device described above. This thing delivers about 13 volts at 1 amp maximum. Considering losses it draws about 15 watts of power form the AC powerline. So 10 cents a day for electricity is way over the actual cost, unless you have really really high electric rates.

__________________
I got too many cars!! Insurance eats me alive. Dave

78 Corvette Stingray - 3k
82 242 Turbo Volvo - Manual - 270k
86 300e 5 speed manual - 210k
87 420sel - 240k
89 560sl - 78k
91 420sel - 205k
91 560sel - 85k
94 GMC Suburban - 90k
97 Harley Davidson Heritage Softail - 25k
00 GMC Silverado 1 ton 30k

Thanks dave - all I know is it works! I am going to look at a 1929 Chevy coupe this PM. If I get it I will buy the 6 volt unit to use on the battery.

I don't see what a difference the battery case would make. Haven't batteries had plastic cases for the last 50 years? I suppose there is a better kind of plastic being used now. But batteries are lighter than they used to be. I recall getting a battery at K-Mart that had a bunch of white plastic pellets, like styrofoam. I was told that this was because there was too much room in the battery, what with the thinner plates. It was a crappy battery (Exide, I think) and lasted only two years in a Hyundai with no serious accessories.

Have you noticed that cold weather energizes batteries? I have noticed the opposite: when the battery is cold, it has a lot less energy. Could it hurt to put a battery on a board? Again, I had a good battery and put it on the concrete floor of my shed. One month later, it wouldn't take a charge at all.

__________________
Semibodacious Transmogrifications a Specialty

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo sedan 171K (Rudolf)
1985 300D Turbo TD Wagon 219K (Remuda)

"Time flies like and arrow, yet fruit flies like a banana"
---Marx (Groucho)