Check Your Batteries!

[Jon S]

I've checked 3 of my 5 car's batteries so far and each one required a pint of distilled water (even my daily driver and my Mustang with a 6 month old battery).  They all start the cars fine, but I always check them and top them off/charge for the winter.  I was very surprised they required so much distilled water!

[walt chomosh #23510]

jon,
  My NAPA "commercial" battery  in my 1955CDV is drinking water big time! Charging rate seems normal,but I've cked the battery and found the level below the cells....twice! For what ever reason,this does seem to be the best battery I've bought so far as far as service and reliablity...walt...tulsa,ok

[russ austin]

Check your brand new batteries. All the batteries I have bought required water.

[Jon S]

I found that with my new Mustang Motorcraft battery and 6 months later it required a pint.  Glad I checked it!

[Jeff Rosansky CLC #28373]

Be sure to check the electrolite when fully charged tho.

[Jon S]

Interestingly, the electrolite levels were fine after charging, BUT the specific gravity varied from cell to cell.  I cranked the engine to discharge the battery a bit and re-hooked the battery tender up to see if this will help.  Car cranked very strong, but 2 cells were much lower specific gravity than the other 4.  Will report back soon.

[TJ Hopland]

I didn't think fairly modern batteries were that easy to get into.   I have ever tried but if you cut or peel off the top sticker is there then some sort of covers you can remove?    Or are you guys not buying the typical modern batteries?    I know if you go to the industrial stuff or forklift / golf cart batteries they all still have caps. 

[Jon S]

All of my batteries - Motorcraft, Interstate and Exide have those 3 ganged plastic pop off caps so you can check water level/specific gravity.  I buy the 85 month heavy duty ones and in the case of the Cadillac added yellow "DELCO" lettering to the front and a topper to make it look era-correct.

[Scot Minesinger]

I buy those Optima re-skinned batteries for my Caddies that resemble the original that came with the car mainly to avoid point deductions at GN.  Inside there is no water.  They are supposed to be a real good battery too.  The main disadvantage of them is that they require a special charger, and you cannot jump or receive a jump.  If this battery is jumped, used to jump another car or charged with another charger, it will die in a month. 

[TJ Hopland]

The main disadvantage of them is that they require a special charger, and you cannot jump or receive a jump.  If this battery is jumped, used to jump another car or charged with another charger, it will die in a month.

Just curious, where did you read or what was your experience on using them to jump another car that made one die a month later?   This makes no sense on any level I can think of.    I have owned or closely dealt with maybe 10 of the red tops over the last 10 or so years and have jumped other stuff off cars with them and even used them just sitting on the ground to jump stuff.   Never had an issue.   One of them was just my 'portable' battery I used for everything from starting stuff to running an inverter.   I still have 4 of those 10.  One did die (details below), the others went with the vehicles when I sold them.   

All of mine have been the 34/78 red tops, these are the dual post ones with the side post terminals closer to the middle.  One was a group 34R which is just top post reversed polarity.   Maybe the other colors or sizes are different?  Most of mine have been in stuff with alternators ranging all the way from a 25 amp Lucas (international tractor) to a 160 ish amp in one of my diesels.   One is in a 50's Case tractor that has a 15 ish amp Autolite or Delco generator that was originally 6v but 'tweaking' the original mechanical regulator apparently got it up to 12v (didn't do it that is just what I was told).

As long as you don't significantly discharge them they seem to act and respond the same as any other battery.   95% of the time I don't treat them any differently and I don't own any special charger.   The charger I have is maybe 25 years old and is fairly small, its a 2/15 55 start so its not very big.    I'm not saying that there may not be some benefits to having a charger with the special modes but it does not seem to be a requirement.   Remember your car's charging system isn't any different.    If you are using one for 'deep cycle' service I could see having the proper charger almost being a requirement.   

The times I have had to do something different is when they have been about 99% discharged.    One time that happened when the alternator quit and no one noticed till it would not go no more.   Other time the headlights got left on so both times they were good and dead.    The first time I was puzzled because if I set my charger to the 'fast' setting which was only 15 amps in my case the internal overload would keep tripping.   I found it would hold on the 2 amp setting so I left on 2 amps for about 8 hours then I was able to switch it to 15 for several more hours till it was fully charged.   That had to be at least 5 years ago.  I think the battery was maybe a year old at the time.   I still have that battery and it seems to be fine.      The second time I had read on Optima's site about how to 'recover' a dead battery which was to hook it to another similar sized fully charged battery with jumper cables and then to put the charger of your choice on top of that.   Followed that procedure and it seemed to work fine.   That battery was maybe 3-4 years old at the time and I think that was 2-3 years ago.  I have not seen that tractor recently but this summer it was still working fine. 

Only optima that 'died' was maybe 5 years old an in a truck that had a bunch of aftermarket alarms and crap on it that always seemed to have a draw so if you didn't run it weekly especially in the winter it would drain the battery far enough you could not quite start it on its own.   Jumping it always seems to work fine.   The truck ended up sitting for 2 months in the coldest part of winter so I think it drained and then froze solid when it was dead.   It looked like it was gong to take a charge, meter would indicate it was fully charged but it would loose most of the voltage as soon as you loaded it.   

[Scot Minesinger]

The Antique battery company publishes the directions about the battery use and that is where I read it.  I did jump it and later it died, so I believe them.  Although given that this battery was in a 1970 Cadillac with potential issues (my lights flicker when running, varying between like 13.5 and 14 volts) it is no acid test that the battery will die if you jump another car, receive a jump or charge it improperly.

[Jon S]

Interestingly, the electrolite levels were fine after charging, BUT the specific gravity varied from cell to cell.  I cranked the engine to discharge the battery a bit and re-hooked the battery tender up to see if this will help.  Car cranked very strong, but 2 cells were much lower specific gravity than the other 4.  Will report back soon.

Well I guess it's off to J C Penny to see if they will honor my Lifetime Guarantee once again.  I may wait until after the Holidays as the Malls are crazy.  So far, I've received 5 free replacements since purchasing my Lifetime Guaranty battery for $45.00 in the 1970's.  Not bad!

[cadillacmike68]

All of my batteries - Motorcraft, Interstate and Exide have those 3 ganged plastic pop off caps so you can check water level/specific gravity.  I buy the 85 month heavy duty ones and in the case of the Cadillac added yellow "DELCO" lettering to the front and a topper to make it look era-correct.

Blasphemy 

[TJ Hopland]

Well I guess it's off to J C Penny to see if they will honor my Lifetime Guarantee once again.  I may wait until after the Holidays as the Malls are crazy.  So far, I've received 5 free replacements since purchasing my Lifetime Guaranty battery for $45.00 in the 1970's.  Not bad!

Penny's still does batteries?   A friend of mine has the same deal with a Muffler he got there in high school in the 70's.   He says since Penny's (at least in his area) quit doing car stuff every few years he gets a letter saying the warranty has been 'sold' and telling him where to go for service.  Seems like he said the last time was a Firestone service center. 

[Jon S]

Yes, Firestone in my area honors the J C Penny Lifetime Battery Warranty.  I get an 85 Month Interstate when I need it for free.  I just bring my old battery, receipt and walk away with a new one - no charge.  A great deal!!!

[Dan LeBlanc]

Wow.  I bet they wouldn't do that today.

The norm is now that if something fails under warranty and is replaced, the warranty is still effective from the original purchase date, not the replacement date.

Guess this is why it's different today. 

I'm assuming when they wrote the warranty policy they never assumed that someone would hold onto their car as long as you have and that most people would chuck the warranty booklet into the glove box and forget about it.

Pretty fortunate to have a fresh supply of batteries that long, I'd say.

[Jon S]

Wow.  I bet they wouldn't do that today.

The norm is now that if something fails under warranty and is replaced, the warranty is still effective from the original purchase date, not the replacement date.

Guess this is why it's different today. 

I'm assuming when they wrote the warranty policy they never assumed that someone would hold onto their car as long as you have and that most people would chuck the warranty booklet into the glove box and forget about it.

Pretty fortunate to have a fresh supply of batteries that long, I'd say.

. . . and Dan, I bought 2 J C Penny batteries in 1975 - one for the Cadillac and one for the 1973 Lincoln.  They definitely do not like seeing me!  LOL