Battery's freezing?

[path1]

Batteries...

I know a dead battery (or low on juice) will freeze in cold weather.

What about a fully charged battery, with temps not going below 15 degrees?

(In-law 300 hundred miles away. He calls me and is getting his RV ready for summer. His battery is dead and he keeps his RV plugged in 24/7 He thinks battery froze last winter and I don't think a health battery will freeze and he has other problems).

Battery is hooked up to another charged right now, to test further.

Thanks

[Chuck_thehammer]

AJBert wrote:
I must have some very uninformed batteries. I have a dual (starting) and deep cycle batteries for my boat, which both sat out the last couple of winters with our coldest temps being -15F. Come spring they both still had a charge and never froze. No, they were not hooked up to a trickle charger over the winter nor did I ever bother to check them.

The TT battery was kept charged and no problem with it either. It also set outside over the winter and I did check the power panel whenever I wandered into the trailer.

my Quote from above
parasitic draws .. inside and outside of the battery... make a Big deal

some people have great Luck with batteries in Cold.. some never do.

some people have great Luck with batteries in Cold.. some never do.


age, the purity of the acid and water.

the amount of sludge under each cell.. YES all used batteries has Some.

END of Quote:

I have replaced MANY batteries for people . that the battery was working fine the day before the cold snap...
retired auto mechanic 43 years.

[AJBert]

I must have some very uninformed batteries. I have a dual (starting) and deep cycle batteries for my boat, which both sat out the last couple of winters with our coldest temps being -15F. Come spring they both still had a charge and never froze. No, they were not hooked up to a trickle charger over the winter nor did I ever bother to check them.

The TT battery was kept charged and no problem with it either. It also set outside over the winter and I did check the power panel whenever I wandered into the trailer.

[Chuck_thehammer]

parasitic draws .. inside and outside of the battery... make a Big deal

some people have great Luck with batteries in Cold.. some never do.

age, the purity of the acid and water.

the amount of sludge under each cell.. YES all used batteries has Some.

[valhalla360]

wing_zealot wrote:
If battery has been unplugged since last November it likely froze. It would have been fully discharged in about 2 weeks and would likely freeze the next time it got to about 20 degrees for a day or two.

Truck sat for 6 months last winter in Michigan (temps below zero several times). The battery was down but not dead and no signs of freezing.

[wa8yxm]

Fully charged -40 (C or F) is not a problem.. Have tested myself.

[RoyB]

If a battery freezes then you will see the tall tale sign of cracks in the case and no fluids inside after all of that ran out through the craked case after it warmed back up...

Don't believe you have a frozen battery. You do have a dead battery however and being a DEEp CYCLE it is tooast now since being sitting there all this time being discharged. Death of batteries start right away just when the charge state hits the 50% (approximately 12.0VDC) charge state.

We work hard here knowing what is going on with our batteries... Batteries are too expensive to have to replace them every year...

I probably look at my batteries every four or five days here and glance at the Meter panels to see their approximate charge status... My batteries will show 12.6-7VDC after being charged up and sitting for awhile. They seem to like to drop down to the 12.5VDC range and sit at that level for months just sitting there diconnected... When they drop to 12.2-3VDC I also will put a trickle charge on them.

My original battery bank was up and running in 2009 and is just now showing lower performance which is dropping down to the 50% charge state quicker than before... Looking to replace them this season... Out of my four batteries I have one go bad in 2009 becuase I was charging them with a single mode charger and boiled out my fluids.. I stopped using the ssecond one just recently in 2012 - it was not holding its charge like it should. The remaining two is just now starting to drop performance - One is good and the other one goes down to 50% charge pretty quick... Time for new batteries as all the special charging routines don't help any more...

Roy Ken

[Chuck_thehammer]

in a case like this a 1 dollar 24 inch zip-tie... will keep it plugged in.

I also place a 5 gallon bucket over the post for trailer plug..

SO can not unplug and can not get covered in ICE/Snow... and I hope Ohio never sees 10 below.

and YES a Good but discharged battery will FREEZE solid... at Zero degrees..
I am a retired auto mechanic. I have seen it many tines. at there homes or at our shop. and it is Dead forever.

[wing_zealot]

If battery has been unplugged since last November it likely froze. It would have been fully discharged in about 2 weeks and would likely freeze the next time it got to about 20 degrees for a day or two.

[valhalla360]

Even dead, I'm not sure it would freeze at 15F. Pure water freezes at 32 but the battery water even dead is far from pure which drops the freezing point substantially.

[gbopp]

Cheap, easy fixes are the best type of repair. 🙂

Thanks for the update.

[path1]

OP here....HOLD your answers folks. And Yes, Thanks for answer. I know now and I hope I never see -90.

Brother in law called me back. He took the battery out of his RV and is trying to charge battery on his work bench. In the process of hooking up his battery he found His elec cord to RV fell out or got pulled of socket. Maybe when cleaning garage or something.

At any rate, The cause of his battery problem has most likely been found. Pretty hard to keep RV charged up with no juice since last Nov.

[Boon_Docker]

A fully charged lead acid battery will not freeze until the temp is below -90F.