Killed my battery in 1 season. What happened?
We bought our new trailer in September of 2012. By the end of last season, the battery would not take a sufficient charge. It will function for a very short period of time, but I can't as much as di...
Forum Discussion
There are basically 3 ways to kill a battery.. And perhaps some more that may kill it not your fault.
FIrst: Deep discharging it
Starting batteries need to be kept well fed, like 80 percent capacity
Marine/Deep Cycles. also do not like running down too far.. Not sure how far but since they are mostly starting say 70-75%
DEEP CYCLE (True DEEP CYCLE) can go down to 50 percent before major damage happens.
If you take a starting battery down below 12 volt,, Likely ruined (My Deep cycles have done that several times, and now, 9 years later, they are ruined, but at 9 years.. Well average is 7-10).
Second, if it is a flooded wet cell.. Not keeping it wet (That is adding distilled water as needed) Or Adding NON-distilled water.
Two B: is overcharging this applies to both flooded and Maintenance free. One of the older converters. The Magnetek 6300 was designed for 110 volt operation and on 120 it WILL overcharge the batteries given enough time.. Some of the more modern ones I do not know about.. My converter is a Progressive Dynamics 9180 with charge wizard and on new GC-2's it .. Well I used to water 'em annually.
Finally,, (This does not apply I think) Storing them discharged for the winter, That will kill 'em when they freeze, The freeze point of a discharged battery approaches the freezing point of water... of a fully charged battery it's like forty, or more, below.
IN addition there is the posibility of a defect in manufacturing or materials.
And you might check the terminals (And other key connections in the electric system.. on my chassis battery the first 3 times it "Failed" Cleaning fixed it.. The last time DEKA fixed it (New battery) again see 9 years above,
FIrst: Deep discharging it
Starting batteries need to be kept well fed, like 80 percent capacity
Marine/Deep Cycles. also do not like running down too far.. Not sure how far but since they are mostly starting say 70-75%
DEEP CYCLE (True DEEP CYCLE) can go down to 50 percent before major damage happens.
If you take a starting battery down below 12 volt,, Likely ruined (My Deep cycles have done that several times, and now, 9 years later, they are ruined, but at 9 years.. Well average is 7-10).
Second, if it is a flooded wet cell.. Not keeping it wet (That is adding distilled water as needed) Or Adding NON-distilled water.
Two B: is overcharging this applies to both flooded and Maintenance free. One of the older converters. The Magnetek 6300 was designed for 110 volt operation and on 120 it WILL overcharge the batteries given enough time.. Some of the more modern ones I do not know about.. My converter is a Progressive Dynamics 9180 with charge wizard and on new GC-2's it .. Well I used to water 'em annually.
Finally,, (This does not apply I think) Storing them discharged for the winter, That will kill 'em when they freeze, The freeze point of a discharged battery approaches the freezing point of water... of a fully charged battery it's like forty, or more, below.
IN addition there is the posibility of a defect in manufacturing or materials.
And you might check the terminals (And other key connections in the electric system.. on my chassis battery the first 3 times it "Failed" Cleaning fixed it.. The last time DEKA fixed it (New battery) again see 9 years above,
