Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Tip when charging your car battery.......

This tip is obvious to me but I wonder if to others?

I have always been taught to place a piece of wood under the battery if out of the car when charging. Simple really.
If when the battery is out of the car over the winter period dont just place it on the ground concrete and connect up!
If you do, it will shorten the life of the said battery because the heat generated by charging is dissipated through the bottom of the case and reduces the inside temperature of the electro-light to a lower temp than is optimal for longevity.
It needs to be maintained at a warm constant temperature to ensure charging and longevity.
If you want to have your own distilled water, just place a plastic container outside when and if it ever rains.Decant into bottles and its free.
Also good for ironing.
:xmascheers:

Take my distilled water from the garage dehumidifier Peter - don't need to wait for rain!
However, at this time of year I do have to wait for the dehumidifier to defrost

Cheers,

Regret to advise wood under a battery is an old wive's tale. If you are charging it to the extent heat is generated, something is wrong. In any event battery cases are good insulators, heat rises and lead is the most conductive part of the battery so heat will conduct up through the terminals.
Heat degrades batteries and so does overcharging. Cold temperatures are good for storing batteries - not so good for performance though. If you look at the stats you'll find batteries need replacing more frequently in hot climates because of progressive separator degradation, which also happens when you overcharge them to the point of 'gassing'. Equally, never or seldom charging leads to the dreaded sulphation of the plates - irreversible loss of capacity - so it's a compromise.
As for rainwater - it's better than tap water but deionised is preferable and distilled is the ultimate. Unless you are in really hot weather or overcharging you shouldn't be losing water as the sulphuric acid electrolyte has an affinity for water and should reach and maintain equilibrium concentration.

Trevmar: thank you for bringing me into the 21 century, I found your post most interesting. My tip is one that I was told as a boy and always remembered. There must be many other OWT out there and they need to be updated as well.
For good luck : touch wood
2 many cooks spoil the broth: get out of my kitchen
A stitch in time saves 9 : mend it you lazy Bas....
Cheers

Very droll Graham

how about putting one of those circular paraffin heaters used for warming sumps, under the dehumidifier? warms the car and plentiful supply of battery water to boot?

Well hopefully my 35 years in the battery industry wasn't completely wasted. Edison said "Man's inherent capacity for lying comes out best when he is talking about accumulators"

Trevmar, you should do an article for Morganatica on batteries. My attempt after years of taking care of ship's batteries has stalled for the present...

Peter, splendid idea (I did use a paraffin space heater in the garage a few years ago but the clean, low odour fuel doesn't seem to be available locally any longer)
Main use of the water is to mix with antifreeze so I don't use tap water in cooling systems...

Cheers,

What is the average lifespan of a car battery? My Sebring needed a new one after four years while I threw out the battery of the 4/4 after 14 years as a precaution. The "new" battery in the Morgan is from the year 2000 - that's why I stick to the Austrian "Banner" brand.

Frank

Gents - I'll look into Morganatica. Does anyone know how to upload a .pdf document to this forum? I have a scanned copy of an article that is pretty good on lead-acid batteries.

Bodger - depends on definition of life..........most people would say failure is failure to start the engine, which is very much temperature dependent. Also, one bad experience requiring a jump-start may get you through another year when it warms up!
I'd say 6-10 years life is average, so you were unlucky with the Sebring, and lucky with the Mog........there are so many variables with conditions of use, and remember the car battery is really only a capacitor that fires up the engine - the alternator supplies the power when you are driving. That's why vehicle SLI batteries are so different to 'marine' deep-cycle storage batteries. It's also why you'll find politicians and journalists don't know the difference between energy and power.....now don't get me started (groan)........

I've just had to replace my Dehumidifier after seven years, the circuit board went gaga and although Ebac could have taken it for repair, the potential cost outweighed getting another. I keep three large ice cream containers full of distilled water, and use it for cooling systems, and occasionally for rinsing the car. Local water is very hard and leaves marks if left to dry without leathering off. In fact when using the old dodge to lift carpet pile.... for example when a piece of furniture has left dents - by placing an ice cube over the dent - it leaves a small pile of 'limestone' when it's evaporated off.

I believe that batteries fitted to new cars are a higher spec than replacements, because in my experience they last at least ten years, and longer with a conditioner. Maybe I don't pay enough for replacement batteries!