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Flat Battery REcharge???

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 7:40 pm
by dank
Went away for 3 months asked the old man to put the battery on trickle charge...he forgot...I came back to a 3.5 month old Battery reading under 9V therefore not able to charge with your regular battery charger/maintainer.

Is this battery dead and ready for the bin or can I get it Charged at an auto elec or specialist battery shop?

cheers

Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:28 pm
by 84ZOOKSTA
I would be throwing it away and getting a new one.
If a battery is maintained in a flat state it will kil it, you may be able to get the voltage back up there but the capacity will be reduced and so will the cold cranking amps.


Cheers
Simon..

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 8:58 am
by Jimbo
Dont throw it away.......both my batteries were left for 6 months in my old 4wd while it was kind of stolen. They were dead flat....i rang the battery guy i bought them off and he said just put them on charge for 48 hours each. Anyway those batteries are now in my GQ over a year later and working fine!!!! One big discharge shouldnt kill the battery.

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:30 pm
by bazooked
Jimbo wrote:Dont throw it away.......both my batteries were left for 6 months in my old 4wd while it was kind of stolen. They were dead flat....i rang the battery guy i bought them off and he said just put them on charge for 48 hours each. Anyway those batteries are now in my GQ over a year later and working fine!!!! One big discharge shouldnt kill the battery.
not unless they start to sulfate!

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 3:57 pm
by Jimbo
"not unless they start to sulfate!"

True but 3.5 months isnt THAT long. i have been away for similar periods without any trouble so far.

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 5:30 pm
by r0ck_m0nkey
bazooked wrote:not unless they start to sulfate!
In which case you could try some Inox Battery Conditioner. Costs about $10 for a bottle which does a typical N70 sized battery. Never used the stuff, but supposedly works and for that price compared to a new battery, couldn't hurt to try.

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 9:01 pm
by dank
Spoke to the local battery specialist shop in pakenham and he said to bring it in and he'll give it a charge on the 60 amp charger to see how it goes. Its only almost 4 months old so the sulphation that could damage the plates inside hopefully won't be too bad. Its an exide extreme and the guy in the shop reckons the plates inside are too fragile on these batteries. but we'll see what happens I'll take it in for a charge.

if i get a year out if it its better than nothing....am spending too much on my budget toy! locker, gears and modded cam, head, and twin barrel carby in last month! haha...better than spending it on drugs i keep telling my girlfriend ;)

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 10:31 pm
by 84ZOOKSTA
Once it is fully charged (if you can) get the auto elec to load test it, see what amps it can now produce. It may still have enough CCA's (cold cranking amps) to start the zook but might not be enough to run the winch under high loads.


Cheers
Simon.

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 10:14 pm
by dank
battery screwed didn't even register a reading on the multi meter at the battery shop....

JV marine have Puma 620CCA for around 130 bucks. Get Free JV marine club card or whatever its called and get somthing like 10% off purchase price....go Budget 4bys!

Or i could get an Optima Blue top for $385...hmmm 750CCA

Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:46 pm
by bazooked
did he actually charge the battery? or just put the meter on to tell u its flat??

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:10 am
by Jimbo
I would be pretty dissapointed to have a battery die after only 3.5 months!!

I got my 720cca Supercharge batteries (the ones that i left for 6 months) for $140 each. So far been very good...used them for winching, fridges and so on.

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:22 am
by dank
the guys had it on the charger for over four hours and it didn't even lift a charge. apparently not a warranty claim.

where can you get supercharge ones from jimbo?

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:01 pm
by bazooked
hahah 4 hours on a charger, isnt goin to do anything, try 24 and ya will bring them up.

Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:06 am
by Jimbo
Yeah i would take the batteries home and do it myself. As i said i had to charge mine for 48hours bring them back. They just want u to buy another one off them.

You can get supercharge batteries from a lot of places. They come with a 3 year warranty now for the gold series. They are a really good battery for the price.

Try http://www.supercharge.com.au/contactus.htm


Jimmy

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 5:38 am
by dirtyGQ
you need to get well over 15.5 volts into the battery before it will start responding.

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:48 am
by bazooked
98% of battery chargers u buy will not charge at 15.5 volts of the shelf.

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 8:57 am
by blkmav
bazooked wrote:98% of battery chargers u buy will not charge at 15.5 volts of the shelf.
I'm looking to buy a decent smart charger to do both my cranking and deep cycle battery as I don't drive often enough to keep them fully charged. What do you suggest?

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:50 pm
by Dooley
Try and charge it yourself.

Then check voltage, discharge current and/or specific gravity.

Voltage ain't a foolproof method of checking a battery. Just because it can still charge up to it's full voltage doesn't mean it can get to it's speced capcity. Of course if the voltage is bad it's not a good sign, but still a good idea to check the others.

Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 2:48 pm
by bazooked
i bought a charger from repco it was a projecta from memory, cost mee 100 bux trade, and its a 6 amp job and puts out 14 volts when charging., needless to say ive charged alot of batteries without any problems, stay away from the cheapo supercrap ones and some of the auto ones, as they only seem to put out about 12vs.