Roamed around a few accessory places this AM.
With nothing else much to do, looked at batteries. Startling really - all `filled` and sitting there deteriorating. Some shops have great piles of them with what looks like years of dust and even in the biggest place in town -- a 2008 code on a premium battery.
Now that last one looked years younger than some of the other dirty stained jobs waiting to be bought as `new`
Maybe this is one reason batteries other than the original seem not to last as long these days (unless the original sat in a field drained flat for 6 months - then jump started and out with the car as new.)
Wonder if anyone anyone has ever replaced their battery only to have fitted an older one...It`s GOT to have happened somewhere, at sometime hasn`t it?
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Friend of mine had a privately owned car accessory shop in London.
He had a trolley with three or four batteries parked on the pavement.
Except, as a precaution against theft, they were not batteries, but genuine battery cases with nothing inside.
A favourite trick was to pick up one of these and toss it towards someone to catch.
Oh, how we laughed. :)
Edited by ifithelps on 24/06/2009 at 21:28
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Another thing that Costco's handy for - they don't seem to gather much dust there. I thought they'd stopped selling them until I went for some tyres and found them there.
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I was unlucky enough to have to replace the batteries on both our cars last winter. On both occasions I bought 'Energizer' batteries from my local motor factor. They too had a loaded (dusty) rack in the store but mine came from out the back and were checked (without me asking) before being handed over.
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i had a battery die yesterday
it was perfect monday today it wont take a charge,it looks like a factors special in its cloth of white plastic,still unusuall in summer for a battery to just die though
if it was a flying bomb battery you could whip the top off fill it with salt and stick it on the aga for an hour to rejuvinate it
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I think flying bomb batteries weren't expected to last long.
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A bit like "new" cars then. They can sit around for months, or even years, and still legally be described as new. Everything else has a sell by date, and the price gets written down as the date approaches until finally they are sold on Friday evening for 50p or scrapped.
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This thread was prompted by my reading that car batteries start to deteriorate the moment they are filled.
(I also noticed a can of 15w50 Mobil 1 Motorsport - with a 2007 production date written at the bottom.)
I mean, somewhere across the the length and breadth of this fair land is the record holding `elderly - new` battery still on sale.
What`s your guess? two years? Five?...... some of them look as though they have really `seen life` heavy grime and stains on the casings
Edited by oilrag on 26/06/2009 at 10:04
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Just how many of Costco's executives are signed up on this forum. This is the second advert for them this week.
I have been in the place and can't imagine the gum chewing member of staff I saw being much of an expert on car batteries. Any wonder independent retailers with their one to one service, advice and range of stock, are vanishing daily.
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Costco are excellent for Michelin tyres, Bosch batteries, British beef, beer and wine, and much more.
I have no connection to Costco, "just a satisfied customer"!
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In the days before semi-sealed batteries, we would commission a new one by filling it with acid.
The dry plastic case and lead plates would last forever, as would the fresh acid in the bottle, so the age of either was not an issue.
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I remember "dry charged" batteries in the 1970s. You would get the battery without acid, and the acid (which was already diluted to the correct concentration) in plastic bottles. The battery plates were in a charged condition, but they recommended a small charge after adding the acid to get it fully charged up.
It seemed such an obvious way to do it, because it was minimal inconvenience for the customer (just add the pre-diluted acid) and meant that the shop didn't have to do any battery maintainance or rotation.
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i was once down at an uncles in romford and my battery gave up,he had an old one in his garage that was good but was the wrong size,i emptied the acid out of my battery and replaced it with his and finished my jaunts before returning north
it was a very long time ago mind
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