PSA on battery life

Do you guys or your mechanics ever check the level of the water in your batteries?

Do you ever top it up with distilled water?

I never did this with my ‘05 and went through 3 or 4 batteries over 13 years and almost 600k km. We add water on a regular basis to forklift batteries at work so I’m doing this with my ‘18 now on the thought that this will extend its life.

 

And don't forget a fire extinguisher

 

Adding water to a lead/acid battery will only help if the acid gets so low as to expose the plates.

 

I think you just invented something All-in-one, jump pack, tire inflator with first aid kit!

 

Those small jump start packs are great, but don't count on them. Sometimes a battery can go from perfect, to completely dead and can't be started by jumping it off. BTDT on the side of a dirt road 20 miles from the closest parts store on a Sunday night. Fortunately there was another vehicle with us who carried my wife to an Autozone. We called ahead and asked them to stay open for us. I stayed with the truck and had the old battery out by the time she got back.

Five years is typical for any battery. Some will last a little longer, I've seen some go 7-8 years. The most expensive battery I ever bought only made it one year. It's hard to predict life of any electrical component.

 

Ive been using the Hulkman multiple times at work for older vehicles or those that have sat too long. 3 jumps and its indicating 95% remaining on its charge.
You can also use it to charge a phone or its built in flashlight which also does SOS or flashes Red.

 

I became a believer in these tiny jump packs four years ago when I needed to pull my previous 4x4 out of storage. It had been parked for a couple of months with all of it’s lights left on (bad break-up’s are hard on vehicles). Needless to say the two year old, generic parts store battery which was in there was very dead. I used a friends tiny jump pack to save having to push the SUV (which also had nearly flat tires) out to the street. It took two jumps (it started the first time, then stalled when we disconnected the unit). Jumped it a second time with a friend keeping the revs up and it stayed running. Thinking I may have to jump it again on the way home (I didn’t, that battery lasted for another two years) I checked and that tiny jump pack still had more than 50% charge!

I will add that I’ve not had any luck using the tiny jump pack to start the 6.7 Diesel in my work truck, though that didn’t surprise me.

 

Oh man I did not expect this statement to catch up with me this fast haha, January 2016-October 2021 and 121,836 miles later current me had to buy a new battery.

 

Just got my Hulkman from Amazon this afternoon. Will be nice to replace the jumper cables in my emergency kit with this and not have to worry about hooking up another vehicle.

 

Future you and future me should go out and get dinner.

<--- Five years, three months and not a hiccup. I should start researching replacements.

 

If you are as lucky as me you have about 5 days until that decision is made for you haha

 

I would bet good money that those who have had batteries die early had lost too much water. I have to refill the battery every year with distilled water. It appears the water drops about 0.5 to 1.0 inches per year. The more you wheel (water sloshes and seeps out ports in top) and the hotter the climate, the faster the water will drop. These batteries require yearly maintenance if you don't want to replace them early.

 

My factory battery was pushing 4 years old and working just fine. But with all these product shortages and hyperinflation going on, I decided to go ahead and replace it now. But I turned in a 15+ year old dead trolling motor battery for the core charge and kept the much newer factory Taco battery as a spare.

 

I had a noco one it wouldnt even jump my rider mower. you guys made me buy a hulkman

 

Checking/topping up the battery (with distilled water) should be part of your oil change routine.

I also put a tiny spritz of WD-40 on the battery terminals every oil change, seems to help keep the corrosion away without being messy like grease.

 

Basically the point of this is to prevent oxygen getting to your terminals, that's the biggest factor. No oxygen infiltration means no corrosion. We run into this situation at my work in an industrial situation on 36V and 24V battery set-ups (multiple batteries) in our electric tuggers. Normal products like CRC battery protectant (the red stuff you see everywhere) washes away quickly, especially if the quick fill system leaks and the de-ionized water gets to it. I've found a light coat of grease (lithium, top shelf Mobil 1 synthetic, etc) does great in that application. Automotive, yea you can get away with a thin spray like WD-40. But as an example I replaced the 6 year old battery in our Camry as a preventative measure. I used the lithium grease spray and later on Fluid Film on the terminals and at 6 years old there was no corrosion or "white fuzz" to speak of.

 

I used to use grease on my cars (back before you were born ) and got tired of getting the grease on me when working on them, switched to the WD-40, one of the few things I use it for actually.

I had several EVs at my old job(s), the red CRC or equal worked fine -- I didn't have any quick fill system, just me, a battery bottle and an aching back from all that bending to fill them...

 

Yea, I'm kinda spoiled by that quick fill system, when they work properly. Seems I'm the only one who fixes them, and changes the Deionizer filter...We have a forklift and our personal tuggers that require manual filling. I made an adapter to hook to the quick fill system for easy filling. Not sure if I'm lazy or creative

 

"Resourceful"

 

There are some thing you just cant make up. And this is one of them. After reading the start of this thread last week. I decided to order one of the portable battery pack jump starters from Amazon. I ordered it and a case in a combo pack. The jump starter was one day Prime delivery (Friday) and the case was 2 day Prime delivery (Saturday) The case was delivered Friday a day early and I got a message from Amazon saying the jump starter was running late. Said delivery Saturday. Saturday came and went no jump starter. "running late" Same Sunday no jump starter.
Now I haven't jumped anyone off in over 15 years. But guess what happened at work yesterday? A new guy I had hired 1st day on the job went to leave work yesterday afternoon. Dead battery. I had to jump him off.
And guess what was waiting on me at home when I got there?
Like I said some things you just can't make up.