My E is still on her first battery

scorsone said:

Still on the original battery here. I have run it down a few times and know that it has tested on the low side before. I just have a jump pack fully charged in the trunk to keep me from being stranded and plan on replacing the battery this end of fall. I have an Advance Auto Parts and a Wal-Mart within a 1.5 mile drive of my house so no real worries. I will replace it before the holiday travels for sure.

Click to expand...

If its on the low side its probably sulfated. I bought a CTEK charger to condition mine. When I first decided to check my battery, (a friend mentioned that my battery sounded weak when I turned it over to start, it wasn't something I noted when I turned it over, now I'm more aware of it everytime I start my Element) one side (3 cells) was in the middle of the red on a hydrometer and the other was just at the edge of the green. I had a regular $39 trickle charger with float mode monitoring and threw it on. After a couple of days charging the battery measured just barely green. Researched batteries and chargers till I was blue in the face. Then decided to get a CTEK 3300, paid $79CDN, happened to be on sale the previous week for $47, Grrr, c'est la vie, and charged the battery for another couple of days. Then the battery read in the middle of the green 1.275 band. So far so good. Then I happened to notice someone had a CTEK US7000 for sale on Kijiji.ca and ended up buying it for $50CDN unused and still in the package, returned the 3300 to Canadian Tire.

The 7000 has a Recondition Mode: 16 Volts/1.5Amps/4 hours--This mode is used to recover deep discharged flooded batteries where you could expect a stratified acid (high weight acid in the bottom, low on top). This mode will also recover some spiral cell AGM batteries that have been deep cycled. Note that the battery has to be fully charged first. Use this mode with care because the high voltage will cause some water loss. Threw it on the battery and after another 6 hours had the battery reading just in to the 1.300 band on the hydrometer. I'm sold on reconditioning and desulfation. I'll be monitoring the condition of my batteries this winter to see if these chargers are worthwhile. While reading some of these posts regarding batteries, I'm quite surprised that the majority of car owners treat their batteries as throw away items without any thought about checking fluid levels, hydrometer and multimeter testing as well as maintenance charging. Mind you I was the same way. It takes a bit of work and you can't do it properly without a digital multimeter (DMM on sale at Canadian Tire Reg $59 on sale for $19.95 and a hydrometer $6.99 or so. But its no different than monitoring your oil, transmission, differential fluid, brakes, filters etc.

CTEK sell these chargers as well as batteryminders.com

http://www.batteryminders.com/batterycharger/batteryminders-faqs.php
http://www.ctek.com/EN-US/FAQ.aspx

Previous post: Helpful tips about batteries:
http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showpost.php?p=810561&postcount=30

Battery life and performance
Average battery life has become shorter as energy requirements have increased. Two phrases I hear most often are "my battery won't take a charge, and my battery won't hold a charge". Only 30% of batteries sold today reach the 48-month mark. In fact 80% of all battery failure is related to sulfation build-up. This build up occurs when the sulfur molecules in the electrolyte (battery acid) become so deeply discharged that they begin to coat the battery's lead plates. Before long the plates become so coated that the battery dies. The causes of sulfation are numerous. Let me list some for you.
• Batteries sit too long between charges. As little as 24 hours in hot weather and several days in cooler weather.