Battery charging
 

My car's been stored since 11/26 and I took my dad's voltmeter to check my battery today. I have the Optima Red top and it's almost a year old. It read 9V. So I took out the charger and charged it very close to 12V. Is this normal? My car's only been sitting for a month. Is my alternator going bad maybe? :noes:

I am wondering if the car's low electrical drain (security system or other) is enough to account for the loss (assuming you left the battery connected). While it is true in cold weather a battery is less able to pass current, for an unused battery, losing charge due to leakage should be less--which is why people store their batteries in the fridge until needed. If your alternator produces 14.2+V at idle, it should be fine. If you have the inclination, you might want to put an current meter in series with one of your battery lines to see what current flows when the car is off.

Hmm, thanks Carleton. I'll look into that. But my battery is disconnected BTW.
How's your max and wrx doing?

Battery was disconnected!?! Hmmm... you'll definitely have to look into that some more.

My cars are mainly doing great...gotta love winter tires!

Yeah same here, but too bad there's no snow! :hide:

Bumping this thread because I had a similar thing happen to me. I have an Optima Red Top, less than a year old, that fully discharged (not even the security LED was blinking) in about 5 weeks during which my car was not used. It was in a cold garage, but it WAS still connected to the car. I figured the resistance of all the wiring was enough to discharge it in 5 weeks, although it still seems really fast given how an Optima is advertised as being able to hold full charge for a year!

00MaxSE, if yours was disconnected then that's even weirder. Although coming down to 9V from 12V in a month is not that farfetched, and 9V on an Optima might be enough to start the car (just guessing).

it's normal. btw, it should crank with 9v. you should have tried it before you charged.

my 7volt batteries usually fall to 3 after a few months of sitting in the warm house so no doubt a lead acid one will behave the same way being out in the cold.

I've let my cars sit for 3+ months, connected, and they still crank no problem






Not Optimas though http://s92599732.onlinehome.us/smili.../kekekegay.gif

yeah it will crank. won't crank with 5 but will with 9. or it should anyway. people just think that anything other than 12 will not get you running which is not true.

amps, we don't need no stinkin amps!







http://s92599732.onlinehome.us/smili...iles/hsugh.gif

But it couldn't be normal for it to fully discharge in 5 weeks, especially if MrGone can go 3 months or more.... maybe there's something wrong with my wiring.

I didn't know that cold was bad for a car battery; I though the colder the better since heat shortens their lives.

A lot of Maximas drain the battery if left sitting, my 4th Gen has done it since it was brand new............I traced it to the alarm system and phone, but I have seen other Gen 4 & 5's do it as well, so it is a common issue, depending upon how the car was originally equipped. Fast way to put a stop to the problem (without pulling fuses or disconnecting the battery every time you let it sit) is a battery maintainer. You can get models that plug into the wall (what I use on all my vehicles) or you can also get solar units if no power is available.......................and, if the car is stored in the cold, the maintainer will significantly lenghten the life of any battery............

Yeah, I bought one of those and it's been plugged in ever since. :cool:

colder = more resistance


lots of batteries sold at the beginning of winter :hs:


keep in mind one of my cars is a 68 Mustang with almost no parasitic losses ;)


I'd be very surprised if a BMW could last 3 months

:werd:



the guys down at Napa swear by them

but I haven't dropped the dough on one yet :(
(and it's been a year + since :o .... considering I've put <25 miles on my Mustang in the 3 years I've owned it, you think I would have bought one by now lol).

Thanks for the good info, guys. I think int he future I will just disconnect the battery if the car is going to sit for more than a couple weeks.

Disconnecting the battery is only fixing half your problem. The one problem that it will fix is not draining your battery so quickly (unless the battery itself is going bad, regardless if it's a year old or not) The other problem that it will not fix is that a undercharge (unused) battery is just as bad as a overcharged battery.

Do as suggested and get one of those "battery maintainer" "batter tender" "trickle charger" whatever you want to call it. Just make sure you get on with a auto feature where you can leave the charger hook-up for an indefinate period of time. When hook-up it monitors the battery voltage, and if the voltage drop below a certain volts it will turn the charger back on and apply very little amps until the battery voltage gets back up there. Using a battery charger like this is a lot better than
1) leaving a battery hook-up in a car that's in storage
2) un-hooking the battery and leaving it in storage

Well the Optima claims to be able to go 12 months without a charge and still start a car, so would I really need a battery maintainter (is that the same as a trickle charger?) for just 3 months out of the year?

One problem with disconnecting the battery frequently is that resets all the presets and ECU memory.... Maybe I should buy one. Does this look adequate?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=3418

Yes, you really need a battery maintainer; and no the unit you have the URL for is NOT what you want. Look at these units:

http://batterytender.com/default.php?cPath=11_2

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?&SKU=77655

I've used both, and they are excellent units.......

And, there are many others, but they must be electronically controlled units that have a "float" or "storage" mode, BUT DO NOT TRICKLE CHARGE (this "cooks" the battery over time)..........this is the unit I like, can handle multiple cars, tractors, cycles, etc. all at one time:

http://batterytender.com/default.php?cPath=11_6

And here is a solar unit if you do not have access to line power: http://www2.northerntool.com/product-1/200263124.htm

Thanks for the info. Those are way more than I can justify spending. I'm looking at this one now: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=42292

I'm sure it's not as full featured, but if it'll work, you can't beat that price.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for................

Right, and I don't wanna pay for all those features. This one is cheap since all it consists of are two battery clamp leads, an AC > DC 12 volt transformer, and a little floating circuit thingy...bam, that's all I need. And if it breaks, I only wasted $10.

EDIT: Actually I might go with this Sears one for $25 http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...ers+%26+Cables

Let me repeat myself.......................

OK, I bought the Sears one, which seems to be the cheapest well-made float battery charger/maintainer. It only does 1.5 amp (and then of course whatever milliamps for maintaining) and I plugged it into my dead Red Top. Well, the red "trouble" LED comes on right away. That seems to suggest that mine is a "problem" battery...meaning maybe it's too far gone.

I've tried using a borrowed 6-amp charger (which had been left out in the cold for months and may itself be broken, complicating things...) for two nights already and the battery is still dead. When I hook it up to my car, the interior lights and LEDs do not work. When I turn on the headlights, I'm getting a VERY faint glow.

Could this <1 year old Optima be dead? Here's a brief history: it was in my car from last April until November, the car being driven about 2-3 times per week, mostly longer trips. My alternator is almost brand new. At some point in September or October, I left my trunk lid open by accident and a week later I went to the garage to find the battery dead. Got a jump start and it worked fine. Then on December 1 I put the car away, forgetting to disconnect the battery, and found it dead about 5 weeks later. So that probably counts as two deep discharges.

Hopefully if it's gone I can get a replacement under warranty. From now on, I'm gonna be using this maintainer all the time....

You need to put the Optima on charge with a known charger, and then load test it (special equipment), and if it fails, it is toast, regardless of the warranty.................

Here's the one that I bought about a month ago. http://www.jdheritage.net/DeerelyDep...Items/5004.asp
It works great and you get a certificate that gives you a free battery condition monitor. :grinno:

Cross-posted this in another thread but I figured I'd post here too:

UPDATE: I tried several different chargers, including a big automatic charger at an auto parts store, and they all indicated that my Red Top was stone cold DEAD. I even called up Optima customer service to find out how to make a warranty claim since the store I bought it from (Batteries.com) no longer sells Optimas. They said to take it to a local battery store and have them do a proper load test.

Well, I took it to a Batteries Plus and they said they would have to charge it overnight before they could even do a load test because it was only showing SIX (6) volts! I went back today and they told me it's fine, it's showing 900 cold cranking amps which is better than the advertised 800 CCA! I saw it myself on their meter. So I guess the battery is fine.

From now on I will be plugging my $25 Craftsman battery maintainer in whenever I park the car for more than a day!

QUESTION: I have some heavy duty (4 and 8 gauge) ground wire (from a grounding kit) in my engine bay, connected to the battery negative terminal. Could all this extra wiring add to the load on the battery when the car is off, or does it make little difference? Thanks for any help.

QUESTION: Since I have a Red Top with an extra set of terminals on the side, my grounding kit is connected to the side negative terminal. This means that if I ever want to disconnect my battery, I have to disconnect both the negative terminals and that's a pain. Is there any problem with just disconnecting the positive terminal?