Disconnecting the battery for storage
 

I live in Minnesota and its getting to be that time where I'll need to send the car into storage. I own a 2017 C7 convertible & one of the storage companies I'm considering doesn't let you take the battery & doesn't have available outlets to plug it into a battery tender. So, what they do is just disconnect the battery. My question is - besides having the default settings in the radio & seat preferences reset, does disconnecting the battery for 6 months pose any major problems?

To be clear, it is a temperature controlled environment. They keep it at about 45-50 degrees through the winter. Thanks for the replies!

Nope...

Regards
Chip

Wow already....damn

Do they have any idea what is involved getting to the battery in a C7? I'd be more concerned about them tearing up my car if they don't know than anything else

Anybody that knows anything about proper lead acid battery care will tell you that these batteries always need some sort of maintenance charging system connected or they won't last long. Look it up and research it. There are lots of write ups on lead acid battery care. Pull the battery yourself and put it on a tender.

I would find another option for storage. You definitely want to keep the battery on a maintainer. Several months will lead to a completely dead battery.

ttt
 

Put a tender on it for the c7 is all you need to do here.. Robert

If you can't 'remove' the battery yourself and take it home for storage and charging I wouldn't store your C7 with them.

I am from Wisconsin and have stored my "toy" cars over the winter in an unheated environment with no electricity available for decades. As stated before, you cannot just unhook your battery, leave it over the winter in the Minnesota cold and expect to use it again. It will lose charge and freeze over the winter. At that point it will be junk.

May I suggest speaking with other specialty car enthusiasts in your area and see what they typically do over the winters. I agree, you DON'T want to do as you have stated. Also, if by some slight chance a frozen battery cracked, I don't think you'd like it.

To be clear, it is a temperature controlled environment. They keep it at about 45-50 degrees in the winter.

In that temperature, if you disconnected the battery after fully charging it, and it sat for 6 months, it would probably have a charge and still work in spring. The below confirms this. If you don't want to read it all skip to the summary bullets at the bottom of the article. It says that once it self-discharges below 70% you should really re-charge it (actually 2.07 volts per cell of 12.42 volts for most lead acid batteries).

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...tore_batteries
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I copied and pasted the below paragraph:
"You can store a sealed lead acid battery for up to 2 years. Since all batteries gradually self-discharge over time, it is important to check the voltage and/or specific gravity, and then apply a charge when the battery falls to 70 percent state-of-charge, which reflects 2.07V/cell open circuit or 12.42V for a 12V pack. (The specific gravity at 70 percent charge is roughly 1.218.) Lead acid batteries may have different readings, and it is best to check the manufacturer’s instruction manual. Some battery manufacturer may further let a lead acid to drop to 60 percent before recharge. Low charge induces sulfation, an oxidation layer on the negative plate that inhibits current flow. Topping charge and/or cycling may restore some of the capacity losses in the early stages of sulfation. (See BU-804b: Sulfation and How to Prevent it.) "
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Why won't the storage place let you take the battery out and keep it with you on a maintainer? Requiring it to stay in the car but letting you unhook it makes no sense.

[QUOTE=Steve_R;1598040914]Why won't the storage place let you take the battery out and keep it with you on a maintainer? Requiring it to stay in the car but letting you unhook it makes no sense.[/QUOTE They store about 400 cars and as cars come in they need the ability to move the cars around to make the most out of the space. So, I guess the bottom line is that they need to be able to move it around the facility. I think this has more to do with moving the cars out of the facility in the spring as you have to give them a 5 day advance notice of when you plan to pick up the car. Keep in mind these are not individual stalls. Instead it is several open floors of cars - bumper to bumper & door to door essentially.

So you're okay letting them get into your car, connect the battery, move it around a huge warehouse with cars stored "bumper to bumper" whenever they want, then disconnect the battery - and do that as often as they want without you there? There's no way I'd be okay with that.

I store my C7 from Jan-April in a unheated garage where temps drop well below freezing in Southern Ontario. We head to Florida during that period. I charge the battery up with a tender for a day, then I disconnect the positive lead (leaving the battery in the car). In April I reconnect the the positive lead and put the tender on for a day before I start it. In 4 yrs no issues at all. I have another 12 yr old sports car that I have done the same thing with, no issues. I actually take the C7 off the road in early November but periodically put the tender on it for Nov and Dec. before we leave for the south. It takes a temp of -92F to actually freeze a charged lead acid battery.

Battery Basics

Thanks for providing a link. This is exactly the type of post that makes the community so valuable. Thank you!

" Why won't the storage place let you take the battery out and keep it with you on a maintainer? Requiring it to stay in the car but letting you unhook it makes no sense. "

That is, unless they also sell batteries! :lol: :lol: :lol:

You're welcome. Glad I could help. :thumbs:

...salt on the wound