Quote:
Originally Posted by PanzerSD
I agree, but if a battery is properly maintained, and a vehicle is stored mostly in a garage through the cold months, I've seen batteries last 10+ but these days, the maintenance free batteries I never expect to last more than 3-4 years.
A GOOD replacement for the batteries is the same batteries in the 04-current Chargers. It's the SAME battery, I'm not sure who makes them but there are alot of parts in those cars bade by Bosch and Behr and lots of (K) logos and VDO. Sizeable chance the batter is Bosch.
I'll look next time one of the police cruisers is in the shop and see if it's Bosch or not.
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Batteries last a whole lot longer in the cold than they do the heat. Heat is the biggest killer of batteries. Alot of times batteries are junked when they are still in fact good. The plates become sulfated and no longer take a proper charge. This is especially true on deep cycle batteries.
Heres a question for everyone here.
DOES ANYONE ON HERE OWN A HYDROMETER? LET ALONE KNOW HOW TO USE IT? a good hydrometer will tell you a lot about a battery. the battery on my motorcycle would not take a charge due to sulfation. this was caused by improper charging. i had a charging system problem,and i was forced to keep the battery on the battery tender, often charging it from dead. the battery would no longer hold a good charge.
Heres how I fixed it.
Batteries from time to time need to be "cooked" . No I dont mean melt the case or even get the battery hot for that matter. They need a heavy charge, but in doing so, they have to be kept cool. A motorcycle battery would normally melt down when charged at 10a for more than a couple hours.
i got out the trusty old 2a/10a MANUAL(does not shut its self off) charger and set it to the 10a setting. i set the battery in a bucket and filled it with cool water, about 2 inches from the top of the battery. i hooked the charger up and let it charge for 24 hours, keeping a close eye on the water level in the battery its self and making sure the water in the bucket stayed cool. at the 24 hour mark i switched it to the 2a charge rate and allowed it to stabilize. that battery is still like a new battery today.
This is the procedure that exide uses on its industrial batteries for their first charge. When I worked for a forklift company we didn't have the space to set them in water, so we kept close watch on the temp. of course, we also did acid adjusts there too.
Sam's club sells a battery charger with a desulfation mode. This hits the battery with large bursts to help break it off the plates.
It is best to own both automatic and manual chargers.
ok, im done
