battery disaster

J

john gosnell

Member
Last week My son moved our rover and reconnected the battery conditioner charger Ctec .8amp and he put the leads the wrong way round and it was 3 days later when I found that the leads were wrong. I have reconnected but the Battery although showing fully charged will only just turn the engine. Up to this issue there was no signs of battery failure in fact while the car was being restored the car was not started for several months and it always started easy. Is it possible the reversed cables have wrecked the battery
The other thing is the battery terminals has an earth disengage so as the battery stays healthy while not in use, I only mention this as I don't think that the wrong connection would have any issues with other electrical items.

john
 
Most chargers have a cut-out in the event of connecting it incorrectly, as normally it wrecks the charger not the battery. I'd try another charger before changing the battery.
 
Hi, Lead acid batteries thrive on being worked ie, charged and discharged, the higher rate the better. They don't like being left dormant in any state of charge, those smart chargers are OK for short periods but I don't like using them long term, the charge cycles are too low. I prefer to put them on another car and use them, rotating batteries round if necessary.

Colin
 
firstly I actually replaced the charger that had been using to a unit that has a 5amp charge rate, but I still cant get my head around that one week the battery was full of life the following week after the charger issue the battery was dead, I checked the Voltage and it read 12.17 V which is only a half charge rating
 
Hi, A batteries voltage is only half the story, it can show 12v but have no current capacity to turn the engine. You need to have a 'drop' test done on it to show its capacity, this puts a load on it and shows if it can hold it. However to be fair trying to start it is a 'drop' test and it obviously can't.

Colin
 
I believe the C - Tek has built in wrong way round connection protection, try charging the battery overnight with a conventional battery charger first and see if it will then start the car.
 
Can you jump start the car with leads and let the car charge itself. Then retest it?
 
A very important factor can be what type of lead acid battery you are using? If it is a calcium lead acid battery this could be your problem. Calcium technology batteries do not like going flat at all and to get them charged you need a higher charge voltage to get them back on track.
Modern lead acid start batteries are not so good on cycling and can fail very early if they go flat to many times.
Contrary to Colins comment modern lead acid start batteries most definitely do not like being heavily cycled, they work best with very shallow discharges, using your starter motor to start your car is a very shallow discharge taking typically 1/30th to 1/50 of the batteries capacity. However Colin is correct in saying that many of these low cycle charge systems are not up to snuff. Lead acid batteries tend to suffer from stratification of the acid electrolyte which on low cycles is not sufficient to overcome this.
My preferred system is to trickle a battery at 14.2V continuously, the resultant bubbles seem to stir the electrolyte sufficiently to over come the problem. Using this method when I load test the batteries the internal impedance (ie the health of the battery) reduces over time.

Graeme
 
all sounds complicated, this new charger I bought is a C TEC MXS 5.0 amp unit and it has as part of the program something called a recond option which may be what has been talked about. It says when selected to recon the voltage is increased which as mentioned creates gassing.

john
 
Hi, I bow to ghce's superior knowledge on batteries, In my defence I did mean that their use on a car in regular use is good for them in as much as the discharge and charge rates are better for it than being left dormant or with low rates. I know that vehicles with winches need deep cycle batteries because they get taken down lower. They do get better controlled rates from the alternator than modern chargers.

Colin
 
Yes the best battery is the one that's being used all the time. I to am very sceptical about alot of 'smart' chargers but any thing is better than a battery sat doing nothing.
 
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