Frozen Battery Cells

[INBellbuoy]

With the unusually cold winter we have had, be sure to check your battery/batteries before heading out to camp. I had two frozen batteries on mine and my buddy has had two on his. I only have to replace 2 6 volt - he has to replace 4 on his MH.

[Erie_Tom]

To ROYP.

I pick up replacement 100AH batteries from the local battery supplier for a fraction of the original cost. They replace them from computer back ups after nine months so they are almost new. The Amish are starting to pick them up to run with solar panels so the have electric without being hooked up to the outside world. This makes it a little harder to get the batteries.
300AH is nice but I physical pick them up and us them in my boat for the electric trolling motor. !00 AH weighs about 60 pounds.

How heavy is a 300ah?

[RoyB]

ERIE TOM - I do something similar here with a couple of those 1800WATT UPS units... Have one for the computer setup and the second one for the Ham Radio setup...

The internal batteries run everything for a good two hours.. Give me plenty of time to shut down down things when the power goes off...

I will be adding a 300AH Battery bank in the bed of my truck to support my emergency radio OPS and be available to use when camping as well. These will go to a two-pin 4-AWG connector on the truck next to the 7-way trailer connector. I'm thinking about adding a 2-cond cable and plug outside my window hookup here to plug into the truck bed batteries from my battery grid here in the radio room... That should add a few more hours to the setup...

I monitor my batteries when being used and when they drop to around 12.0VDC I either go into charge mode or turn them off... Makes for good deep cycle batteries for a long time time doing this... Both these 1800watts UPS units have external battery connectors on them.

Roy Ken

[ol_Bombero-JC]

Erie Tom wrote:
It depends on the state of charge in the battery.Electrolite will freeze if it does not have the correct specific gravity.

I tried to copy the answer but could not post it.

Do a search ""Will electrolite freeze"" and look at the chart. This should help

Here's one of many battery sites-

"Can my battery freeze?"

Forth FAQ topic down.

~

[Erie_Tom]

I found two UPS uninterrupted power supplies and took out the bad or old batteries.

Take the batteries into my basement. ran leads from the UPS to these larger batteries for the winter months and use them as back ups in the ham shack or for other things I need twelve volts. Batteries just setting on the shelf in warm conditions could still lose 1% a month

[MNGeeks61]

I usually leave the battery in the trailer, but mine froze this year, as I was under the (possibly mistaken) impression that shore power/inverter would trickle charge it. Reading the inverter manual it does have float states, so I just replaced the battery as it was a 2010 hybrid starter/deep cycle battery. I replaced it with a pure deep cycle battery and am researching if the inverter is working correctly.

[empty_nest]

For the few min's it takes, I pull the battery and store in the house. Never a concern that way. There is really no reason to leave it in the trailer over the long winter months.

[AH64ID]

Charge them, check the fluid level, and don't abuse them.

If one is prone to abuse a set of lifelines might be in order, freezing won't damage them, they discharge slower than most, and are sealed so no maintenance is needed.

[2oldman]

..

[beemerphile1]

Most batteries die of abuse and neglect, just like yours. Consider it a learning experience. Next year keep them charged and they won't freeze.

[Erie_Tom]

It depends on the state of charge in the battery.Electrolite will freeze if it does not have the correct specific gravity.

I tried to copy the answer but could not post it.

Do a search ""Will electrolite freeze"" and look at the chart. This should help

[gbopp]

My two 6 volt house batteries froze a few years ago. They were slushy, not frozen solid.
I thawed and recharged them, they came back and worked great.
I was lucky. I now keep them plugged into shore power 24/7/

[Shadow_Catcher]

The solar panel keeps our battery charged and we got down to -20

[Dave_H_M]

bguy wrote:
Treat your batteries like a pet.
You wouldn't leave your pets out in the cold, right?

My batteries are outside dogs. :W I can't even imagine lugging those things into my house for storage.

I take oldman's route.

[bguy]

Treat your batteries like a pet.
You wouldn't leave your pets out in the cold, right?