Battery frozen - ???

Get a new one that's not frozen

The main reason to keep a battery charged in the Winter is so that it will not freeze. I think it is certain that your battery was discharged which is why the battery froze.
Unless you are going to keep a battery charger hooked up all of the time to your chassis battery, to keep it topped off, you had better disconnect it and bring it inside.

Bring the battery in and let it thaw 48 hours. If you try to charge it take it outside in a protected area. Frozen batteries are known to explode now and then.

Or save yourself the hassle and just get a new one.

You need a Trik-L-Start combiner to send charge voltage from the house battery to charge the chassis battery.

rgatijnet1 wrote:
The main reason to keep a battery charged in the Winter is so that it will not freeze. I think it is certain that your battery was discharged which is why the battery froze.
Unless you are going to keep a battery charger hooked up all of the time to your chassis battery, to keep it topped off, you had better disconnect it and bring it inside.

If it is fully charged and disconnected, it won't self-discharge enough to freeze over a winter unless it's already a bad battery. There's no need to take it inside to prevent freezing, assuming you are not in an actual arctic location. Disconnecting (if not provided with some means of keeping it charged) is important as there are usually parasitic loads that will discharge the battery over time.

azrving wrote:
Get a new one that's not frozen

X2 not worth the hassle to recover a frozen battery. Only dead or dying batteries freeze in non Arctic climates. Your battery was shot before it froze.

I would go as far to say that you now have a dangerous battery. A fully charged battery can go to -90f before it freezes. Yours froze and I'm betting may have cracked the case or shorted out the plates.

Last thing you want is battery acid on everything or on you. Get a good one and next winter put a full charge in it and then disconnect the ground. It should survive just fine, I've been doing just that for over 30 years.

Charged batteries freeze at extremely low temperatures such as minus 62 degrees at an 85 percent charge. So you weren’t maintaining your RV. Properly dispose of that battery and maintain your new battery. See....http://www.trojanbattery.com/pdf/WP_DeepCycleBatteryStorage_0512.pdf

Rob,

Let's start at the beginning.
Are you sure it is frozen?
Tap the surface with a straw or a plastic spoon handle.
They often look frozen when they are low on water or just old. They can also form skim ice the cells the same way sea water freezes at the top by pushing the salt down.

If it is, and it is a typical automotive battery, it is probably toast. It should have retained the charge from last month's drive. If you left something on and killed it so dead that if froze, then yes, it will be good for a core deposit.

If it is not really frozen, get an extension cord and put it outside to charge it. Make up the water level with at least de-ionized water if not distilled and then try charging it. You may have a low grade bomb on your hands when it is charging, so treat it as if it is. It also may come back to life and be a good battery for years to come.

As a waterman on the east coast, I got to deal with this a lot. Just do be careful. If you want to go near it to see how it is doing, stop the charger and give it a minute. Then go near it. If you run a bare hand along the side and one cell is warmer than the others, that's "Game Over".

Good Luck

Matt

I agree with the others; don't bother with this battery. Just get rid of it before it brings you a lot of grief.

In my opinion and experience, if the battery is frozen it is no good. If it was good it would not have frozen. Get a new battery!