Hi all,
6 months ago I bought a new Battery for my RS Escort. I drove the car about 10 miles back in July in order for it to fail it's MOT.
I've left the car in the garage sinse. I tried to start it today and it was as dead as dead.
I am now charging the battery, and will leave it charging overnight. What are the odds on the battery being knackered. Does allowing a car battey to drain 'FULLY' do it good instead of bad?
AdyBee...
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No, lead acid batteries don't benefit from being fully discharged like for example NiCads do. The opposite rules apply.
NiCad Lead Acid
Store discharged charged
Cycle beneficial detrimental
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May not have had it..But would suggest watching the charger..thier often comes a point depending on Battery where their is a point. the charger stays in the same state.Ie breaking the resistance. Once it has. which could take longer than overnight.It will charge up OK..If it wont and its under warranty take it back..though they may not change depending on test they do. Assuming they do any test some dont
To answer last question.No never drain that low..Would suggest if car is out of order for some period remove battery or disconnect terminals.No need to remove..
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Steve
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I'd say the chances of it being knackered are better than 90%. The quiescent drain probably flattened it in 2 to 3 months, so it's probably been flat for 3 to 4 months and is unlikely to recover. It might hold enough charge to start the car well (if the car is an easy starter) and might appear okay if you use it daily for a few days, but if you use the car infrequently I'd say it's highly likely to let you down when it's most inconvienient.
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You might get it to work again, but also you may not. If it won't hold a decent charge after you have tried charging it up then I would try to take it back and get a replacement. Just don't mention what you have/haven't done with it. If it does charge back up and you don't intend to use the car then I would disconnect the negative terminal to from the car rather than leave it fully connected. Also if you don't intend to use the car why bother buying another battery yet? The other alternative is to get something like an Optimate - a battery conditioner than you can leave permanently connected when the car is not in use and it will keep the battery in optimum condition.
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If you take the battery back under warranty, they should test the batt using a shunt-loader which basically puts the battery under extreme load to see if the voltage drops off too much.
This takes 10 seconds and will son tell you the batt condition even if youv'e been charging it for days.
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If you do end up getting some sort of Optimate battery charger in the future, just be careful to check the level in the cells if at all possible. This of course depends on how 'sealed' the battery is.
I babysat a vintage MG for 18 months and so bought a battery conditioner to keep the battery fully charged. After about 8 months I went to start it and the was dead as a dodo.
Further investigation showed that the cells had all but dried up, the electrolyte had evaporated (or the water thereof). Yet the battery was new when the car was stored.
So had to buy a new battery for it.
The irony was that a new battery (same size/capacity as used on Montegos) was LESS than the battery conditioner.....
cheers,
Stu
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Go for an advanced conditioner like the CTEK 800 that switches between charging, maintenance mode and off to avoid cooking the battery www.hamiltonclassic.co.uk/ProductInformation/Batte...m
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Hi all,
my Escort started up a dream after charging. As it still needs an MOT I won't find out how it holds it's charge untill the Summer when I get it out of the garage.
My battery charger has a maintenance mode. When the battery is fully charged this mode is adopted to keep the battery in a tip top state. This sounds similar to the battery conditioner you mention.
Would leaving the charger on permanently, in this maintenance mode cost a fortune in leccy?
I also can't disconnect the battery because if I do the alarm detects it somehow and goes off ( VERY LOUD ). There must be a built in capacitor somewhere.
AdyBee..
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Its shouldn't cost much in terms of electricity at all. Just be careful it doesn't 'cook' the battery by leaving it permanently connected (even in this maintenance mode).
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