Some battery taik

[yuke]

Hello everyone I would like to talk about batteries for our diesels. First off I have had good luck with the A.Z. gold group 49 H8DLG but price is now $170. I also have a Sprinter 05 with a 2.7 engine and the Bosch group 49 is about 54 into the 84 month warranty I did not purchase this battery so I do not think any part of the pro rating would apply to me. This Bosch battery is giving me trouble in that seems if I do'nt run the van for a week it does not have enough power to turn motor over if I jump it and run for 15 min. it will restart so battery seems to be getting weak when I took a cell reading hydrometer they are all weak at about a 1.250 reading 1.260 would be good. When I take a volt reading after fully charging it I get a 12.8 reading which to me is good. So my question is should I not waste any more time on this battery or could it possibly be renewed if I flush and charge with epsom salt and maybe put new electrolite in or maybe try hooking a solar charger on it to keep it constantly charged up? The van does not get used much currently but will in near future. I think even a new battery will go dead in a certain time if not used.

[tjts1]

Brands are irrelevant. At best they are relabelers. Batteries are very expensive to ship low margin products so whatever brand battery you buy will come out of the same factory as every other brand available in your area. These are subcontracted products. Your best bet for finding a good battery is to look up the weight specification of the battery on the brand's website. A group 49 battery can vary between 45-60lbs depending on the number and thickness of the lead plates inside. Another thing I look for is removable caps on each of the 6 cells. A battery you can check and top off periodically will last a lot longer than a fully sealed battery.

Buy the heaviest battery you can find.

[Diseasel300]

Disconnect the battery from the vehicle and see if it still goes flat. If it doesn't, you likely have a parasitic drain drawing it down. If it does, the battery probably has a fair amount of sulfating happening and is self-discharging. You may have some success using a battery charger with a de-sulfator function built in. They can sometimes get you a few months to a couple years worth of use if the battery isn't too far gone already.

If you're going to leave the vehicle for more than a couple weeks it would be a good idea to put a maintainer on it. Keeping the battery topped off will make it last much longer when stored.

[yuke]

I did put the battery back in and it did start the 2.7 inline 5 diesel engine. I will see how long it can keep a charge days,weeks, or months if it fails again quickly I have 2 types of additives that claim they can renew the battery life one is 1 tablet/cell the other is in liquid form and says to add 1.5 ounces to each cell and will eliminate sulfation and renew battery I will give that a try before spending $170 for a new one boy did batteries jump in price last 10 yrs. Wish you could still buy the lifetime batteries like you could about 40 yrs. ago. oops giving my age away.

[Texasgeezer]

I'll second Diesesel300 comment about a battery charger that has a desulfate option. I've saved several batteries by putting them through a desulfate cycle. This has worked on small lawn mower type plus larger 12v batteries.

Also, Costco handles Interstate batteries and provides warranty service. Their price has been competitive and we've always had good service from them.

Page with their product warranty for different categories. Quite often better than the manufacturer offers.

https://www.rather-be-shopping.com/blog/2018/03/20/costco-warranty/

[Junkman]

I just use old school batteries for an old school car. Keep it charged and replace when necessary. There is a guy on a Cummins forum that runs his house on batteries. He claims to get 10 years out of all of his big batteries including the Cummins by running the maintenance cycle on them monthly which if I understand the basics is periodically essentially over charging them to de-sulfate them. He has an incentive to do the maintainance because of how expensive the batteries are.

A friend of mine has a 50' boat with 2 banks of 4 batteries. He also takes extra care with them but doesn't get 10 years.

[BillGrissom]

Yes, a trickle-charger is supposed to make one last longer when not regularly used. The Autozone Gold have a good warranty. Drive the car there and they will test in the parking lot (daytime) and replace for free up to a few years or pro-rate. My son recently did so for our 84 300D. I started using the H8 in my 300D's since $20 cheaper and 10 lb lighter than OE size (Frame 49?, forgot) and about the same CCA. I recall it is even listed now for my cars.

I recall it would bolt in fine if I didn't put a Battery Mat (ebay) under it neutralize acid. To get the clamp on with that, I had to fab a special nut w/ a nose to reach the battery tray's stud. I turned down one end of a long hex coupler nut.

[yuke]

Does anyone know what is a good brand good price for a charger desulfator? I have many tools but not one of them. I was toying around with this chemical I bought that claims to bring weak batteries back to life on a small scooter battery and it seems too have worked if so I will try that on my Bosch group 49. I was also thinking a solar charger would be the answer but this chemical company said it would actually add to quicker sulfating of the plates would not know how that is possible but thats what they said. I did ounce try a solar tricle charger and it seemed to have instead of charging the battery to discharge it I think it depends how you have it hooked up in that if you plug into the cigarette lighter better make sure it is live all the time even with key off but not sure on that. If I due have to replace the battery I will check into the costco one and also the A.Z. gold I would like to get one that you can take caps off and check fluid on. I will due that if all else fails just getting tired of having to purchase so many batteries as I have a lot of vehicles.

[barry12345]

There has been growth in shops that sell so called seconds batteries. For most practical purposes they have been fine for most users.

The modern car battery seems to have some issues I do not remember existing many years ago. In my opinion they really have little tolerance for being heavily discharged. Plus seem to develop issues if not in pretty much constant service.

For example even in my time some people put there cars away for the winter. Convention was to remove the battery and put it on a piece of wood in the basement. There was no consideration or expectation for that battery not to return to normal service the next spring. And last the normal expected average lifespan in the process.

I really think something was changed since those days in battery construction. Trying that with todays batteries is likely not going to work out well at all.

I put a new battery in one of our cars about a year ago. The car sat around for this past winter with me periodically starting it and letting it run. You have to do this as the clearance inside the modern alternator can be reduced by corrosion to the point the alternator is found seized. At least in our climate.

That battery this spring seems to have partially discharged. To the point the car would no start. It could been an electrical loading from the car itself but I suspect not in my case. It has a full warranty for two years. I fear it will still test good. Yet I suspect it is on its way out possibly. It did recharge normally but at the same time I really do not think it should have self discharged as much as it did.

A type 49 or the close equivelant was about 50-75 dollars at the seconds shop. Those second battery places are so busy these days I suspect the batteries are just one of several things. Batteries that have shelf sat beyond the recommended period. As they sit there with the acid in them. You will see a best sold date on the batteries in a modern dispensing shelf. On a lot of brands or there probably is a code.

Before grabbing the one out front. Check the labels on the ones near the back. In many if not most cases you will see they have had much less shelf life expired. Or manufactures are just pulling a percentage of their normal production off the line and selling them to these seconds shops. The price like all too many things may have increased.

This is not the battery I may have the problem with. It was purchased across the counter as an original replacement type from Honda.

In many places the batteries on hand are managed by the supplier. When sold the supplier is paid. So the shelves undergo fairly periodic attention by the suppliers. To verify the terms for the consignment are being lived up to plus no pre charged batteries go past the charge limitation date.

I just figured where those batteries probably go. Common sense is they are not scrapped. To recharge them and relabel with a new shelf date label. Then the may sit yet another year on the shelf might hurt the brand name.

There is also usually a line up a the seconds battery place I frequent. I seriously doubt there would be enough real seconds to meet the demand for them. Today they sell so many batteries I think their supply must be very constant. Perhaps never on their sales outlet shelves more than a month.

It is only good but semi unethical business to reduce what life span of batteries could be. If you have a pretty large segment of the market. A partial monopoly almost. Or you just might save production costs by reducing some design effect or material usage. That made batteries of old more semi deep discharge designs. This I know is a pretty cynical viewpoint.

Comparing it perhaps to exhaust systems. Where the original exhaust components will on average last far longer in service usually. Than their aftermarket replacements will usually. Things may be headed this way.

[rreeuuvveenn]

Originally Posted by Texasgeezer

I'll second Diesesel300 comment about a battery charger that has a desulfate option. I've saved several batteries by putting them through a desulfate cycle. This has worked on small lawn mower type plus larger 12v batteries.

Also, Costco handles Interstate batteries and provides warranty service. Their price has been competitive and we've always had good service from them.

Page with their product warranty for different categories. Quite often better than the manufacturer offers.

https://www.rather-be-shopping.com/blog/2018/03/20/costco-warranty/

I bought batteries from Cost..o, two year reteran, no problem,

If you read the disclaimers, it says not for DIESEL,

Gas engine are less needed for strong battery to start,

went to the specific warehouse, with a battery analyzer,

Seven batteries on the shelf, where half the CCA nominal,

went to the Inters...t outlet few blocks from my home,

Their price for the same batteries from Cost..o, was double!!!!,

But the CCA was Double,

The Battery outlet did not want to say anything about the Batteries with the same producer label,

english is my second language, my first is bed as well,

[torsionbar]

Always wondered why, with all the enviro regs of recent years, they haven't mandated the battery be located inside the cabin. Heat and vibration are the two enemies of automotive batteries, and there's plenty of both under the hood. Move the battery to under the rear seat, like you find in the w210, and the battery magically lasts 10+ years.

I just installed the 3rd battery my E300 has ever seen since 1998, about two months ago. The battery I removed was dated 2008 and still worked. Only reason I replaced it was the engine seemed to crank a little slow on cold mornings.

[Mxfrank]

When I had my 210, the floor under the battery compartment was swiss cheesed with rust. And yes, the vent was installed properly.

[strelnik]

Originally Posted by yuke

Does anyone know what is a good brand good price for a charger desulfator? I have many tools but not one of them. I was toying around with this chemical I bought that claims to bring weak batteries back to life on a small scooter battery and it seems too have worked if so I will try that on my Bosch group 49. I was also thinking a solar charger would be the answer but this chemical company said it would actually add to quicker sulfating of the plates would not know how that is possible but thats what they said. I did ounce try a solar tricle charger and it seemed to have instead of charging the battery to discharge it I think it depends how you have it hooked up in that if you plug into the cigarette lighter better make sure it is live all the time even with key off but not sure on that. If I due have to replace the battery I will check into the costco one and also the A.Z. gold I would like to get one that you can take caps off and check fluid on. I will due that if all else fails just getting tired of having to purchase so many batteries as I have a lot of vehicles.

I own a battery desulfator which I have used for twpo years, especially to wake up 36V fork lift batteries.


I believe it is a Schumacher brand and cost about $50-55 on Amazon

[tjts1]

Originally Posted by torsionbar

Always wondered why, with all the enviro regs of recent years, they haven't mandated the battery be located inside the cabin. Heat and vibration are the two enemies of automotive batteries, and there's plenty of both under the hood. Move the battery to under the rear seat, like you find in the w210, and the battery magically lasts 10+ years.

I just installed the 3rd battery my E300 has ever seen since 1998, about two months ago. The battery I removed was dated 2008 and still worked. Only reason I replaced it was the engine seemed to crank a little slow on cold mornings.

Because there's a massive voltage drop over long high load DC battery cables. The longer you make the cables the the lower the voltage you'll get to the starter motor and glow plugs so you have to upsize the battery. Also a battery in the engine bay will retain more heat over night.