Battery Storage Scenario

[SweetLou]

If I store new fully charged batteries in my shop for 6 mo through winter where the shop could be as cold as 10-15 degrees, would they be all right for next season? Or, should I use my harbor Freight battery maintainers to keep them up? They are cheap and there would be no one around to check them for the 6 months

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Switch shut off is the grand assumption

Until proven otherwise by testing not guesswork 🙂

[pianotuna]

Usually, but NOT always.

SweetLou wrote:
If you shut off the batteries at the switch, you shouldn't have to take off the negative cable right?

[SweetLou]

If you shut off the batteries at the switch, you shouldn't have to take off the negative cable right?

[MEXICOWANDERER]

DEFINITIONS

A good brand of battery maintainer is like a seafood meal at Red Lobster


A Harbor Freight battery maintainer is like Dumpster Diving


BORG has been maintaining my 800 dollars Lifeline batteries for 8 years but 24/365

And I would trust the BORG less than a good battery maintainer which is 100% automatic.

But then some people would *** away a hundred bucks on utter nonsense then ***** because pay parking

Go Figure

[Tom_M1]

I had a cheap Harbor Freight maintainer short out on me. Maintained my two Trojan batteries down to zero volts and they froze and busted. Since no one will be checking for 6 months, I think the safest approach would be to charge them fully then not use a maintainer.

[garym114]

Motorhome in storage six winters in Anchorage along with toad, six 6v batteries and two 12 starting batteries. All charged fully and ground removed. Lowest temp was -24. No problems with any of them the next spring.

[solismaris]

Ensure they are fully charged and they will be fine through the winter. A discharged battery will have a much higher freezing point and could easily freeze in a cold winter and be destroyed. A fully charged battery is safe down to any temperature likely to be found in the lower 48 states

[schlep1967]

SweetLou wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:

SweetLou wrote:
If I store new fully charged batteries in my shop for 6 mo through winter where the shop could be as cold as 10-15 degrees, would they be all right for next season? Or, should I use my harbor Freight battery maintainers to keep them up? They are cheap and there would be no one around to check them for the 6 months

Just curious, why would you buy new batteries in the fall if you are not going to use them all winter? Just wait and buy new batteries in the spring.

Needed replacing this past spring so virtually new

That makes more sense. 🙂

[SweetLou]

schlep1967 wrote:

SweetLou wrote:
If I store new fully charged batteries in my shop for 6 mo through winter where the shop could be as cold as 10-15 degrees, would they be all right for next season? Or, should I use my harbor Freight battery maintainers to keep them up? They are cheap and there would be no one around to check them for the 6 months

Just curious, why would you buy new batteries in the fall if you are not going to use them all winter? Just wait and buy new batteries in the spring.

Needed replacing this past spring so virtually new

[RJsfishin]

Quote:
Those $10 Harbor freight models will not charge a battery if it is under 9 volts.
------------------------------------------
Surely you can come up w/ a better reason than that for bad mouthing a 1 amp charger. Who would want to connect a 1 amp maintainer to a battery discharged to 9 volts anyway ?? Fer a 5 dollar bill I have found them to be quite reliable.

[schlep1967]

SweetLou wrote:
If I store new fully charged batteries in my shop for 6 mo through winter where the shop could be as cold as 10-15 degrees, would they be all right for next season? Or, should I use my harbor Freight battery maintainers to keep them up? They are cheap and there would be no one around to check them for the 6 months

Just curious, why would you buy new batteries in the fall if you are not going to use them all winter? Just wait and buy new batteries in the spring.

[schlep1967]

If I were going to hook my $100+ battery to a charger/maintainer ..... it wouldn't be a $10 Harbor Freight version.

You can get several different brands of decent quality for around $30. I have this one I use on my motorcycle that cost $50 Charger/Maintainer

Those $10 Harbor freight models will not charge a battery if it is under 9 volts. The extra money for the one I linked will charge a battery from dead. It brought both of my batteries on my diesel truck back overnight when I killed them by leaving the switch on.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

The 10-15 degrees would be a small, make that tiny, percentage of the total time. Although not mandatory a temperature compensated maintenance charger would pay for itself by extending battery life.

[profdant139]

Is there a good reason not to use a trickle charger? Maybe I am missing something. I keep my batteries on one of those BatteryMinder Plus things -- supposedly, they pulse and keep the battery from sulphating. But I have also heard that this is a hoax and accomplishes nothing more than an ordinary trickle charger would do.