Thread: Battery storage/maintence

Hi Andrew, you could keep them on a trickle charge either using a 240 volt battery charger if you have AC available or you could use two solar battery trickle chargers.

If you have plans to use them some time in the next 12 months than trickle charging in one form or another is the way to go.

Either way, this will keep the batteries in good condition but if you are planning to leave them unused for many, many months with out use, you would probably be better off saving the cost of getting a trickle charger and just selling them now while they are still in good nick.

If you leave batteries for to long, even with a trickle charge, they will eventually die of old age.

Cheers

I'd probably consider an automatic charger to keep them on float. As a matter of fact, I am currently building the automatic charger kit to add to my Arlec 4A charger. (The design was published in Electronics Australia ans is available as a kit from Jaycar). This was to keep the County batteries charged but I've now sold the County.

However, Drivesafe's right, unless you are going to use them in the near future, you might as well sell them. The maintenance probably isn't worth the hassle. Just put the money aside for the next battery.

Ron

Hi, I work in the battery industry and we once had a tech come visit from the ACDELCO factory in Detroit and he once told us a story about how to store a battery over long periods of time. Freeze them!! It sounds like b/s but they do it in the factory to prolong the shelf life and he said he did it each year to his boats batteries while they were in the winter period, much to his wifes discusst. The theory is that the colder a battery is the slower it discharges and slows down the affects of sulphation. He also told us that the story of dont put a battery on concrete was not true. The coldness lowers the state of charge so when you install it it seems flat, but once warmed up the state of charge increases. He told us to go sit on some concrete and see how our bum feels after a few hours. In a way it makes sense because batteries do seem to fail during winter, but I dont think my wife will allow me to try out his theory, plus our freezer isnt big enough. Thats my two cents worth of trivial nonsense. I agree with p38, sell them off if your not going to use them.. cya....B