Fact or fiction about life of batteries in hot areas

My motor home batteries made it 9 years, Average I'm told is 7 to 10 so I'm happy.

yes, extreme heat or cold can shorten the life However more frequent inspection of flooded wet cells can counter much of that.

I had the "Hot Setup" in the Sierras thanks to a friend who was an employee of a large propane distributor.

LPG block heater and a 120 vac water pump "pushing" coolant through the LPG heater and through the vehicle heater. I used a Magnetek 775-2 charger to keep the batteries up and flipped the manual heater switch to low speed with the heater adjusted to defrost through the dash vents. It burned propane and it used 120 volt power - back in the 70's, perhaps twenty dollars a month and the gas and power needed to be disconnected and reconnected every time I used the pickup. That and lighting off the heater made this a definitely heavy-intensive hands on deal. But the pleasure of instantly starting the engine in -20F temps, and an 80F cab and ice free windows was nice.

BATTERIES!

How does a person judge the relevance between sub zero operation, short trips, high battery loads, versus boiling hot summer temps. Comparisons are fraught with incompatible components.

ktmrfs wrote:

The sedan I replaced the battery after something like 13 years, not because it was giving trouble, but because DW was driving to work long distance every day and decided with winter coming didn't want her to have a battery go bad. And in the winter we do lots of stop and go and use the "rest" function to keep the heat in the car when shopping. runs an electric water pump and fan to circulate the coolant through the heater core to keep the car at a set temp for up to 1/2 hour. Still the batteries last a long time, same treatment with the roadster.

What model vehicle runs the battery down for a 1/2 hour that you own? Seems silly, the moment you open the door in cold weather, all the warm air leaks out almost instantly. Add a little breeze or wind and it's no different than if you left the door open to the barn.

Much more efficient to heat the ambient air directly around your body, and layer /bundle up, correct?

Sam Spade wrote:
pnichols wrote:


I think not.


You can think whatever you want but heat IS a factor, or can be.

If you really care try a search or two on "Batteries + heat".

When a vehicle is moving, there is a lot of air flowing around under the hood.

Well ... at least with respect to my Itasca motorhome's Ford E450 chassis ... "something" (ECU?) is controlling alternator voltage to both the starting battery and coach batteries (they're hooked together via a heavy duty solenoid) in accordance with the outside air temperature's affect on the underhood air temperatures. I know this because I monitor the voltage on both the starting battery and the coach batteries constantly while driving via two four-place-resolution voltmeters right on the cab's dash in front of me.

I have seen voltage on the coach batteries - as applied by the engine alternator sitting in underhood temperatures - as low as only 12.9X DC volts while driving hour after hour in scorching summer heat. In more usual temperatures alternator voltage applied to the coach batteries ranges from around 13.6X DC volts (warm weather after the engine is warm) to 14.5X DC volts (cold weather right after starting the engine).

What this implies is - if one's modern vehicle electrical system maintains underhood air temperature controlled voltages on all batteries connected to it - then at least it's not too-high applied voltages in high underhood temperatures that destroys batteries ... it's merely raw temperature of the battery's chemicals.

I guess what this could mean at first glance before scratching your head is: A battery sitting in your garage in Arizona with a temperature compensated maintenance voltage on it will naturally die sooner than a battery sitting in your garage in Canada with a temperature compensated maintenance voltage on it. I'm well aware of the temperature coefficients in chemical reaction equations - but nevertheless intuitively still find it hard to believe that the sitting-in-the-garage lifetimes of the Arizona battery versus that of the Canada battery would differ by more than maybe a few months.

I'm open to intuition adjustments, however. :)

free radical wrote:

Not true,
I bought chinese made deep cycle AGM and it failed in about two months,,two of its cells were broken..

There are exceptions to everything.
I once had one fail two DAYS after installation.....when an internal connection went OPEN and it was stone cold dead.
You are missing the point.

Those responsible for warranty claims all too often try to make you prove that you did not somehow abuse the product; that is backwards.

Sam Spade wrote:

mkirsch wrote:
Battery manufacturers will make any excuse they can to shift blame for a mediocre to shoddy product. Too hot. Too cold. Too wet. Too dry. Too much use. Too little use. In the end you always end up paying for the new battery.

And tire dealers too. Sub "tire" for "battery" in your statements above.....and add potholes.
NO tire or battery ever failed due to defective parts or workmanship.

Not true,
I bought chinese made deep cycle AGM and it failed in about two months,,two of its cells were broken..

I had original Delco last 8 years in my 85 truck..canada weather mind you summers get quite hot here in Ontario too..

I think too many electronics and computer gizmos kill batteries now faster due to many loads and continous discharging

I've seen threads on auto enthusiast forums on how long batteries should be expected to last. Pretty much invariably, those writing from warm southern climates report significantly lower life than those from cool northern climates, often by a substantial margin (3-4 years vs 6-7 years, for instance). While it's only anecdotal evidence, eventually there are enough and consistent anecdotes that one suspects an actual measurable trend exists.

All other things being equal, the battery under the hood of the car being driven in 90° weather will be quite a bit warmer than one in a car being driven in 30° weather, even if both will be well above the outside ambient temperatures.

It's quite possible that a vehicle driven a lot would suffer battery failure more quickly than one driven a moderate (but consistent) amount. I don't know how the life of taxi batteries compares to that of private automobiles, say. Regardless, I suspect that in the grand scheme of operating a taxi, the battery line item would be absolutely negligible.

pnichols wrote:

I think not.

You can think whatever you want but heat IS a factor, or can be.

If you really care try a search or two on "Batteries + heat".

When a vehicle is moving, there is a lot of air flowing around under the hood.

pnichols wrote:
Since underhood air temperatures are always "high" around a battery under the hood whenever a vehicle is driven ... does this mean that the more you drive your vehicle the quicker it's (sic) battery will die??

I'm not sure if underhood temps while running are significantly hotter than a car exposed to baking sun sitting all day.

And I'm thinking that cars probably sit more than they're driven.

Here is a seldom discussed area of interest for warm climate operation


http://www.matrixenergy.ca/batteries/rolls-water-miser-caps.html