Setting the record straight on batteries...
04-12-2012, 12:47 PM
#1
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
Setting the record straight on batteries...
I keep seeing people on here say that if a car battery goes completely dead that the battery is ruined. This is totally and absolutely not true. As I just said in another post, I have a 1978 Corvette that I bought twenty years ago and there have been so many winters (and summers) during that time that the battery has gone completely dead, I can't keep track. In fact once or twice over the years I have let it set all winter- completely dead and did not charge it up until spring. And it never hurt it. I have put less than 5,000 mile on that car over the past twenty years and I just put the THIRD battery in it a few weeks ago in all that time. I worked at an electrical shop back in the early 70s and we always believed that the BEST thing for a battery was to let it go completely dead and recharge it......One thing you have to remember, if your battery goes dead in your car, you can't just charge it up enough to start the car and go on. An alternator will not pick up and charge a dead battery completely like the old generators used to do back in the 50s and 60s. It might keep it up enough to keep it going for a while, but it is not fully charged up. And if it does go completely dead, you need to stick a slow charger on it for a good eight hours to get it back up where it should be, as soon as you can. Or you could continue to have problems and think that you ruined your battery when you really didn't.......I have always had three to four cars I had to keep going. My DDs were a 1993 T-Bird and a 1996 Sunfire. Sometimes I would drive one or the other for 3-4 weeks and the battery would go completely dead on the other one because the clock would run it down. I'd just charge it back up and go on and I never had a problem. I have never ruined a battery by letting it go completely dead. So, if someone tells you that your battery is ruined because you let it run completely dead, don't believe them. It simple isn't true. Just think of all of the new/ used cars that sit on car lots and have the batteries go dead. Do you think that they are all ruined? Not hardly.
04-12-2012, 12:55 PM
#4
Goon Squad King of Battle
Member Since: May 2008
Location: 🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑🐑
Posts: 118,130
Received 920 Likes
on
356 Posts
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13x3- '14-'15-'16-'17-'18-'19-'20-'21-'22-'23
I keep seeing people on here say that if a car battery goes completely dead that the battery is ruined. This is totally and absolutely not true. As I just said in another post, I have a 1978 Corvette that I bought twenty years ago and there have been so many winters (and summers) during that time that the battery has gone completely dead, I can't keep track. In fact once or twice over the years I have let it set all winter- completely dead and did not charge it up until spring. And it never hurt it. I have put less than 5,000 mile on that car over the past twenty years and I just put the THIRD battery in it a few weeks ago in all that time. I worked at an electrical shop back in the early 70s and we always believed that the BEST thing for a battery was to let it go completely dead and recharge it......One thing you have to remember, if your battery goes dead in your car, you can't just charge it up enough to start the car and go on. An alternator will not pick up and charge a dead battery completely like the old generators used to do back in the 50s and 60s. It might keep it up enough to keep it going for a while, but it is not fully charged up. And if it does go completely dead, you need to stick a slow charger on it for a good eight hours to get it back up where it should be, as soon as you can. Or you could continue to have problems and think that you ruined your battery when you really didn't.......I have always had three to four cars I had to keep going. My DDs were a 1993 T-Bird and a 1996 Sunfire. Sometimes I would drive one or the other for 3-4 weeks and the battery would go completely dead on the other one because the clock would run it down. I'd just charge it back up and go on and I never had a problem. I have never ruined a battery by letting it go completely dead. So, if someone tells you that your battery is ruined because you let it run completely dead, don't believe them. It simple isn't true. Just think of all of the new/ used cars that sit on car lots and have the batteries go dead. Do you think that they are all ruined? Not hardly.
04-12-2012, 01:00 PM
#6
Le Mans Master
Member Since: Aug 2009
Location: Sacramento California
Posts: 5,504
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
I keep seeing people on here say that if a car battery goes completely dead that the battery is ruined. This is totally and absolutely not true. As I just said in another post, I have a 1978 Corvette that I bought twenty years ago and there have been so many winters (and summers) during that time that the battery has gone completely dead, I can't keep track. In fact once or twice over the years I have let it set all winter- completely dead and did not charge it up until spring. And it never hurt it. I have put less than 5,000 mile on that car over the past twenty years and I just put the THIRD battery in it a few weeks ago in all that time. I worked at an electrical shop back in the early 70s and we always believed that the BEST thing for a battery was to let it go completely dead and recharge it......One thing you have to remember, if your battery goes dead in your car, you can't just charge it up enough to start the car and go on. An alternator will not pick up and charge a dead battery completely like the old generators used to do back in the 50s and 60s. It might keep it up enough to keep it going for a while, but it is not fully charged up. And if it does go completely dead, you need to stick a slow charger on it for a good eight hours to get it back up where it should be, as soon as you can. Or you could continue to have problems and think that you ruined your battery when you really didn't.......I have always had three to four cars I had to keep going. My DDs were a 1993 T-Bird and a 1996 Sunfire. Sometimes I would drive one or the other for 3-4 weeks and the battery would go completely dead on the other one because the clock would run it down. I'd just charge it back up and go on and I never had a problem. I have never ruined a battery by letting it go completely dead. So, if someone tells you that your battery is ruined because you let it run completely dead, don't believe them. It simple isn't true. Just think of all of the new/ used cars that sit on car lots and have the batteries go dead. Do you think that they are all ruined? Not hardly.
04-12-2012, 01:04 PM
#7
The problem with running batteries down too much is it allows sulfates to form on the plates which coats the plates and reduces their ability to both charge and discharge. The problem isn't as much letting the battery run flat, as it is how long it is left in a discharged state. It's one thing to drain a battery down and immediately start to recharge it. In that case, the battery will probably be only minimally impacted. The problem arises when the battery is drained, and then left in a discharge state. This is when the sulfates will form and coat the plates and ruin the battery.
There are some chargers out that attempt to "desulfate" batteries by applying pulses to the battery to dislodge any sulfate build up on the plates, and in some cases they can recover a sulfated battery, IF the suflation is not too severe. But it is true that draining a battery flat and leaving it that way can ruin indeed it. Even left in a slightly discharged state for a long enough period can diminish it's capacity. The way to prevent sulfation is to keep the battery fully charged, and this is the single best thing you can do to extend it's life.
There are some chargers out that attempt to "desulfate" batteries by applying pulses to the battery to dislodge any sulfate build up on the plates, and in some cases they can recover a sulfated battery, IF the suflation is not too severe. But it is true that draining a battery flat and leaving it that way can ruin indeed it. Even left in a slightly discharged state for a long enough period can diminish it's capacity. The way to prevent sulfation is to keep the battery fully charged, and this is the single best thing you can do to extend it's life.
Last edited by RainMan12; 04-12-2012 at 01:34 PM.
04-12-2012, 01:17 PM
#8
Safety Car
[QUOTE=petermj;1580536707]You are not setting anything straight, letting your car batter die is the worst possible thing anyone can do. I am still shaking my head over your statement. There is no memory effect in lead batteries (or any other modern batteries these days), there is however diminished storage capacity related to constant undercharging of a battery.[/ In general, the more you let a battery go dead the shorter its life will be.
04-12-2012, 08:43 PM
#10
Melting Slicks
Thread Starter
Sorry. But you can't prove all of that by me and the experience I have had with car batteries. I'll just keep doing what I have always done. But good luck.
Last edited by Jimmy W1; 04-12-2012 at 09:04 PM.
04-12-2012, 08:54 PM
#11
Safety Car
To the Op.............please....get your grammer(ie sentence structure, paragraphs, etc) sorted out and try again !
RainMan tried to help you out BTW.....and for the record there is a reason why Marine batteries are different from what we have in our vehicles !!
RainMan tried to help you out BTW.....and for the record there is a reason why Marine batteries are different from what we have in our vehicles !!
04-12-2012, 09:03 PM
#12
Safety Car
04-12-2012, 09:05 PM
#13
Race Director
Deep Cycle Batteries (like the Optima Yellow or Blue tops) can handle a full discharge much better than the OEM Delco battery can.
Empirical evidence posted repeatedly on this Forum has confirmed that after you have killed an OEM battery it never comes all the way back and diminishes with each subsequent full discharge until it reaches the point that the C6's admittedly sensitive electronics, begin to glitch/fail.
You personal experience in other cars and with other batteries doesn't really apply to the C6 and OEM Delco Battery. Sorry, the record wasn't broken in the first place.
Empirical evidence posted repeatedly on this Forum has confirmed that after you have killed an OEM battery it never comes all the way back and diminishes with each subsequent full discharge until it reaches the point that the C6's admittedly sensitive electronics, begin to glitch/fail.
You personal experience in other cars and with other batteries doesn't really apply to the C6 and OEM Delco Battery. Sorry, the record wasn't broken in the first place.
04-12-2012, 09:05 PM
#14
Racer
The problem with running batteries down too much is it allows sulfates to form on the plates which coats the plates and reduces their ability to both charge and discharge. The problem isn't as much letting the battery run flat, as it is how long it is left in a discharged state. It's one thing to drain a battery down and immediately start to recharge it. In that case, the battery will probably be only minimally impacted. The problem arises when the battery is drained, and then left in a discharge state. This is when the sulfates will form and coat the plates and ruin the battery.
There are some chargers out that attempt to "desulfate" batteries by applying pulses to the battery to dislodge any sulfate build up on the plates, and in some cases they can recover a sulfated battery, IF the suflation is not too severe. But it is true that draining a battery flat and leaving it that way can ruin indeed it. Even left in a slightly discharged
state for a long enough period can diminish it's capacity. The way to prevent sulfation is to keep the battery fully charged, and this is the single best thing you can do to extend it's life.
There are some chargers out that attempt to "desulfate" batteries by applying pulses to the battery to dislodge any sulfate build up on the plates, and in some cases they can recover a sulfated battery, IF the suflation is not too severe. But it is true that draining a battery flat and leaving it that way can ruin indeed it. Even left in a slightly discharged
state for a long enough period can diminish it's capacity. The way to prevent sulfation is to keep the battery fully charged, and this is the single best thing you can do to extend it's life.
it's seems and I have heard this is very true with "newer" batteries.
04-12-2012, 09:09 PM
#15
Le Mans Master
Talking about rechargeable batteries, running them completely down to get a full recharge was true of old nicad batteries but is just a waste of time with newer rechargeable batteries.
04-12-2012, 09:12 PM
#16
Le Mans Master
Deep Cycle Batteries (like the Optima Yellow or Blue tops) can handle a full discharge much better than the OEM Delco battery can.
Empirical evidence posted repeatedly on this Forum has confirmed that after you have killed an OEM battery it never comes all the way back and diminishes with each subsequent full discharge until it reaches the point that the C6's admittedly sensitive electronics, begin to glitch/fail.
You personal experience in other cars and with other batteries doesn't really apply to the C6 and OEM Delco Battery. Sorry, the record wasn't broken in the first place.
Empirical evidence posted repeatedly on this Forum has confirmed that after you have killed an OEM battery it never comes all the way back and diminishes with each subsequent full discharge until it reaches the point that the C6's admittedly sensitive electronics, begin to glitch/fail.
You personal experience in other cars and with other batteries doesn't really apply to the C6 and OEM Delco Battery. Sorry, the record wasn't broken in the first place.
04-12-2012, 09:16 PM
#18
Le Mans Master
04-12-2012, 09:22 PM
#19
Race Director
I still have the OEM battery in my '06 but I keep it on a tender and never fully discharge it.
My point is if you fully (or very near) discharge it, it won't recover the way a deep cycle battery can. C6 Drag racers (common application) use these batteries because they can run their fans for extended periods between rounds with the motor off.
Yeah they all produce 12 Volts +/- etc, blah, blah, blah, but the topic was the denying of routine failures of the Delco in the C6.
My point is if you fully (or very near) discharge it, it won't recover the way a deep cycle battery can. C6 Drag racers (common application) use these batteries because they can run their fans for extended periods between rounds with the motor off.
Yeah they all produce 12 Volts +/- etc, blah, blah, blah, but the topic was the denying of routine failures of the Delco in the C6.
Last edited by Knob Jockey; 04-12-2012 at 09:24 PM.
04-12-2012, 09:22 PM
#20
Le Mans Master
Now if you are talking about a deep cycle battery then what you say is true but the optima batteries for corvettes are "starter" batteries just like the OEM battery is. Deep cycle are mainly used for marine applications as they don't have the higher cranking amps as starter batteries, and automotive applications require the high cranking amps.