Car Battery life span when not in use

swsup97

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Joined
Nov 11, 2005
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I see a battery website says to safely store it and keep it in its condition fully charge the battery at least every 2 months.If one forgets to do that then the question is how long can you keep a sealed car battery without charging it in storage before it dies ?
 
It's a case of what's the length of a piece of string?

We have cars arrive off the ship with dead batteries, and others that give no problem at all.

Entirely dependent on each specific battery, as far as I can see - a good one should sit quite happily fopr several months, whereas a bum one will last a few weeks at best.
 
I know you shouldn't park them on a cement floor while not in use, but I'm not sure why? Temperature maybe?

I've had a battery disconnected in the garage for two years and then just charged it and used it again, worked for another 3 years without a drama.
 
It depends on how quickly the battery sulphates. And how badly it affects the plates.

I had an exide battery than regularly went down to 10.8 volts and then charged it with a ctek. 3.5 years going. Car is a spare car.

Dixon battery forget about it.
 
thx for the info, so it seems u either lucky or not depending on the battery
 
Modern vehicles often have surprisingly high current draw when the car is just standing locked due to immobilizer's and other electronics.

For example my Kia Cerato draws just over 200 mA when parked and the courtesy light has switched off.
That means an 80 Amp hour battery would be drained in about 16 days.
 
Modern vehicles often have surprisingly high current draw when the car is just standing locked due to immobilizer's and other electronics.

For example my Kia Cerato draws just over 200 mA when parked and the courtesy light has switched off.
That means an 80 Amp hour battery would be drained in about 16 days.

Either have to disconnect the terminals or put it on a charger and use the trickle charge option
 
It's a case of what's the length of a piece of string?

We have cars arrive off the ship with dead batteries, and others that give no problem at all.

Entirely dependent on each specific battery, as far as I can see - a good one should sit quite happily fopr several months, whereas a bum one will last a few weeks at best.

I thought each and every battery (disconnected) comes with a "swap" cycle?
 
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