Wanted to share this attempt at getting a little more use out of this battery. We accidentally drained it all the way down to 0.000v. Ive never seen my charger display that before. Even using Pb mode and calling it a 1 cell battery it still would not begin the charge process.
The battery tender charger as well didnt want to begin the charge. We got jumper cables and jumped the battery for a few seconds and then the battery tender kicked in. Its the 5a version of battery tender brand.
I had 2 questions that the smart fellas here might be able to shed some light on. Im assuming the battery is dead, because one of the kids left the 12v LED lights on. I had an adjustable voltage regulator hooked up to (2) of the 8v batteries and the regulator knocks it down to 12v.
What i found strange is the battery with the positive lead was low, while the battery with the negative lead was completely dead to 0.0v.
1. Why did the negative battery die, instead of both batteries dying? The battery that died was 1 year old. While the battery that lived has got to be over 10 years old.
2. Second question is when i hook up my fancy charger to some of the batteries, the voltage will flash, then disappear. Its like it loses and regains connection. Sometimes if i catch it at the right time i can get the charge to start. But usually it tells me "connection error." What is going on inside to batteries to make the connection come and go like that? Pretending my alligator clips and nice and tight on clean metal. Only some of the batteries acted this way. My fancy charger didnt like those batteries. But the 5a battery tender has no problem recognizing them and charging away.