Dang! Ran my 6v batteries dead............

SoundGuy wrote:

Vintage465 wrote:
Twice now I have managed to kill my Interstate 6v batteries twice flat. I am charging them back up now. What kind of damage do you think I may have done to the life span of these dudes?

Depends on what you mean by "flat". Any flooded battery shouldn't be drawn down any more than ~ 50% on any regular basis, say roughly 12 volts for a 12 volt battery and 6 volts for a 6 volt battery. Occasionally a draw down to ~ 30% is acceptable if it can't be avoided but you sure wouldn't want to do that on any regular basis nor draw down any further than that at all. If by "flat" you mean you've drawn down your 6 volt batteries any more than ~ 5.9 volts then chances pretty good they're toast. That apparent recharge you "thought" you did was just phantom, as evidenced by the fact they're "dead" again. Time for new "dudes". :W

Oops,
it was s'posed to look like this!

When I say flat, I mean it registered no voltage at all on a digital read out. This is the second time they went totally flat. The first time was from me leaving a cargo light on for many days. This time I am really clueless. Now if you believe that setting the batteries on concrete for week will run them down, then that could be it. I've always heard for years that setting batteries on the ground or concrete will kill them dead. Then I was told a couple years ago by a pretty good mechanic that it's a bunch of balony. It's taken them about 24 hrs. to take a full charge or what ever the batteries will take now.