Batteries in cold weather.

[Kelvin12]

Is it my imagination that batteries today and not up to scratch in the colder weather. I have 4 in the back of the bus, 12v and 24v hook ups and in particular the 12v's are really going flat virtually overnight. Even isolated by switch they loose power very quickly. The 24v'ers need to be kicked over every couple of days otherwise they go flat despite also being isolated. Same brand and less than 12 months old. Meantime the 4WD toads battery keeps charged for what seems like forever and never fails to start despite the cold and being a similar battery but different brand. I can't remember batteries ever going flat like this before in my time. I won't mention the brand but they are supposedly up the top end. Maybe its a case of the bean counters saving a buck.

Dirk

[BruceS]

Be interesting to put a Wattsmeter on them over night just to be sure there is nothing bleeding them Dirk.
Cold weather is harder on them for sure but they should be good for a lot more than 12 months.
I know ordinary batteries are cheaper than these new ones but if they need replacing twice as often it might work out dearer in the long run.

[T1 Terry]

When Trojan was bought out by who ever it was the quality collapsed, take the caps off and look inside, still the same size case but only half the battery in there, the rest is air space. Genuine European lead acid batteries cost 3 times as much as they do over here, but they also weight 3 times as much if not more. They have to handle the cold, a failed battery in some of those areas would mean certain death, not just an inconvenience.

[Kelvin12]

Bruce,

Batteries are supposed to be top end quality.... but if this is an indication, well.... They used to hold power for a few weeks but now virtually overnight they loose all. They did pick up a bit with a 30 minute run out to Aysons Reserve but next morning they barely had enough to light up the LED on the mobile phone charger and then didn't last long at all. The 24v'ers were barely enough to get the solenoid clicking let alone turn the motor over after 2 and a bit days. Odd these batteries, the 4 of them seem to be failing all at the same time.

At the moment the 12v's are at the auto sparkie for a charge and see where we are going after that. I'll get the 24v'ers over there when we see what sort of battle we are going to have. Bought a 4 batteries within a couple of days of each other.

G'day Terry,

Batteries are sealed types. Hopefully make a warranty claim here and put it to better quality. Seems like a "Century" ago good batteries were all the go....

Dirk

[T1 Terry]

Century/Yuassa had a very good name at one time.... so either you have dud batteries or a problem with the charging. If they have been under charged for 12 mths they will be heavily sulphated and that severely effects the capacity. See how you go with a warranty claim but if you don't have any luck we might be able to get some of the missing capacity back

T1 Terry

[Busman]

Dud batteries or something is bleeding them, why don't you take the battery lead off, don't rely on the switch, you may have wired something up before the switch and forgotten about it.
For me the only way to be absolutely sure is total disconnection.
Replaced the battery from Century (battery world now) in wife's Magna recently, we have an account with the local one, so they were able to identify when we purchased it was 9.5 years old ! I didn't believe it either but yep it is true.
And it gets really abused, started twice a day and driven maybe 600 metres to the farm, hardly ever any decent run.

[bagmaker]

we have a battery in the VW Touareg original since 2003.
Sits under the passenger seat nice and cosy, i reckon thats got a lot to do with longevity.
Also, its a big bugga and clearly good quality.
Perhaps we should keep them wrapped up and cozy on the big rigs too?

[native pepper]

I ran into a bloke with this sort of trouble, but he was using starter batteries for everything and not deep cycle. Sounds like something is earthing to me.