How are you keeping your batteries healthy this winter? full time multi stage maintainer? Start and warm up monthly? Occasional check and charge? Disconnect and ignore till next spring? Desulfater - snake oil or must have?
I know there has been discussion in the past about fires.
It is probably a good time to peel the label off the top of a “no maintenance” lead acid battery
and see if there are hidden caps that could be opened with a pair of sharp dental picks.
If so, leave those caps in place for now,
get and start a stopwatch to record the time segments you are expending,
disconnect the battery,
remove from the vehicle,
take it outside,
put on a full face shield and
synthetic fabric overall,
have a helper on stand by
have baking soda on hand to neutralize,
then gently pry the caps off,
top off with distilled water slowly using baby medicine syringe.
When cells are topped off with distilled water
reinstall caps temporarily,
hook up a
https://pulsetech.com/products/xc400-xtreme-charge-4amp-battery-maintainer-charger(or similar)
and charge for 24 hours to 48 hours
checking occasionally to see whether
the yellow 75% LED has blessedly gone off
and the annoyingly slow green 100% LED is finally on.
Now use your Deka 00231 temperature compensated battery hygrometer
https://www.amazon.com/East-Penn-Temperature-Correcting-Hydrometer/dp/B0002KKTYUto check the specific gravity of each cell
and write down below last year’s numbers.with new time & date.
Note degradations.
Reinstall cell caps,
Now hook up your
Konnwei KW681 Car & Motorcycle Battery Tester with OBD-II Diagnostic Tester ($13 at select thrift store)
www.konnwei.comand do all the available tests (SAE, EN, IEC, DIN, EU, JIS, CCA, CA, MCA)
for standardized amp capacity and internal battery ohms of impedance.
Write all results down below last years values - note any degradations.
Ponder anew whether those picky Japanese have created a better test than SAE.
Now use a MAC Tools Model B77300
with its lovely old fashioned analog meter
to do a ten second 130 amp load test,
keeping in mind a cell might explode.
Re-install battery in vehicle,
or leave out for boosting your home standby battery back up uninterruptible power supply(s) for home electronics.
Total up time on stop watch, convert to hours,
divide by at least 2000, (or your total paid work hours last 12 months)
then multiple by your last year’s gross income
and see if the result is several times
what a new $@#& battery costs.....
