12v battery goosed after a year

[Wonky]

I don’t think it matters that much how old the battery is, there 3 things that kills batteries.

1, being flat, ie being below 11.5 volts.

2, not charging at the “amps” the battery is capable of to reach  the full state of charge. What is the out put of the machine…?

to be clear on this. You could start a battery many times in a day but the amps required to charge the discharge that  starting requires is never met.. thus a slowly flat battery. And it’s fooked later.

3, a slow drain  will kill a battery. And Remember in lockdown how many peeps were charging car batteries with leads to cars or just running cars to charge them. That’s cos cars and there computers (ecu's) slowly discharge the batteries.. as well as all batteries slowly discharge anyway..

 

[scbk]

3 hours ago, GarethM said:

Is it running any electrical solenoids etc, not saying the battery isn't a Friday special but solenoids use a surprisingly large amount of current or maybe current leakage.

 

Out of interest what's it on machine wise.

It's the tcp dumper converted to log splitter, has about as many original parts left as katie price!

 

 

 

3 hours ago, openspaceman said:

How hot does it get?

 

Good idea, I wouldn't have thought it would get hot, the grill behind is an air intake so it's pulling air past the battery not blowing warm on to it.

 

I think I will need to make another battery mounting elsewhere, atleast to get it away from worst of the vibrations and warmth

[GarethM]

I did have a quick look over the manual, it does have a few electric things including safety stuff etc.

 

Once you've sorted the knackered battery and providing it's putting enough charge back during normal use I would personally fit one of those red key battery isolators.

 

You can't loose a charge if it's isolated.

[Dan Maynard]

19 minutes ago, GarethM said:

You can't loose a charge if it's isolated.

Unfortunately, yes it can, called self-discharge.

[Dan Maynard]

4 hours ago, scbk said:

This yuasa battery has gone straight from fine to fooked, not like a normal flat battery

This is the way modern batteries tend to fail, not like they used to.

 

If it's a splitter does it sit for a few months over summer? I'm back on the idea of charger/conditioner, costs less than a battery and will treble the life.

[scbk]

6 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

This is the way modern batteries tend to fail, not like they used to.

 

If it's a splitter does it sit for a few months over summer? I'm back on the idea of charger/conditioner, costs less than a battery and will treble the life.

I'm out all year splitting wood, from summer heatwaves to winter blizzards, so it's running every week or two.

 

 

Just looking now, sounds like sealed AGM batteries like on motorbikes would be more resistant to vibrations.

I think it was a sealed battery the machine had to start with, the original mounting position was lost to a large hydraulic cooler.

[woody paul]

Are you sure the battery is the problem, not the starter or ignition short. 

 

[Dan Maynard]

57 minutes ago, scbk said:

I'm out all year splitting wood, from summer heatwaves to winter blizzards, so it's running every week or two.

That's shot my theory then, should survive that.

 

Could be vibration, if you have bad luck it causes fatigue which can obviously break connections.

[Dan Maynard]

Another thought leading from that, had poor starting on the Spitfire for a while which I thought was bad battery but actually some of the cores in the battery cable were broken near the crimp, age and fatigue.

[Macpherson]

17 minutes ago, scbk said:

I'm out all year splitting wood, from summer heatwaves to winter blizzards, so it's running every week or two.

 

 

Just looking now, sounds like sealed AGM batteries like on motorbikes would be more resistant to vibrations.

I think it was a sealed battery the machine had to start with, the original mounting position was lost to a large hydraulic cooler.

 

Interestingly enough today I was looking into the minefield of buying a new battery for my Passat without needing a mortgage or upsetting the cars delicate electronic sensibilities.

 

The battery I was offered by my local motor factors was a very wrong Yuasa EFG at £140 and as I looked into that the first advice was that these were susceptible to damage by vibration... curious, as I spent a whole other life repairing motorcycles and only ever fitted gel filled batteries on jet ski's and motocross bikes, so it would seem that things have become a bit more 'precious' recently

 

The battery 'original I think' that's in the car is an AGM Varta and luckily I've managed to find one at a decent price, but I guess the lesson is that stuff moves on with you noticing, and a battery is no longer just a battery. 

Anyway if you suspect vibration to be the reason for your repeated battery failure try sitting it on an inch pad of high density foam, nearly all batteries that I've fitted have had an insulating tray.

 

The main other reason for battery failure in my experience would be faulty voltage regulation of the charging system or some kind of short causing a drain even when everything is off which is quite easy to check.... the easiest thing to do to avoid  a drainage is simply to disconnect the battery [ pull the fuse ] when not in use.. good luck👍