battery

[kendak]

I left a new charged 12V battery sitting for over a year [forgot about it]...now I can't get it to take a charge...is there a way to [shock] it so that it will start to charge or is it toast ???...I do have a commercial grade charger...thanks ...Kent

 

[Anonymous-0]

Try a plain, not automatic charger.

But its probably toast.

Gerald J.

 

[vitzarus]

I used to deal with batteries. The way it goes is that the water is an electolyte, an acid. In a charged battery there is a fight of sorts between this acid and cell plates which of course allows the output to occur.Normally this acid doesn't freeze but left unattended the ratio changes to more like water and can freeze.Even before freezing there are chemical and physical changes to the plates do to the fact the medium is not what it was.Plates warp short out etc.Then a good freeze and this medium does expand internally and break these plates. Often on small batteries you can see the sides buldged out. That is a dead giveaway it's already dead.

 

[Brokenwrench]

I had heard from an old guy here to put 1/2 aspirin pill in each cell of the battery and put it on a trickle charge. I tried it on a four wheeler battery and did get it to take and hold a charge.
You might want to check the warranty on the battery though, if it was new a year ago you may be able to take it back. BW

 

[Duner Wi]

Once in awhile this works.
Make sure the battery is stone dead.
Hook it to another battery os to pos/neg to neg for a few minutes.
Unhook your battery and hook up the charger.
Once in awhile certain chargers will not charge a stone dead battery.

 

[ken in texas]

A battery setting that long with out a charge usually will go bad. The plates will turn into a hard lead instead of the poreous lead in new batteries, and won't take a charge.(from my experiance. (spelling)

 

[RodinNS]

Depending on how much over the year it was, and whether or not i had the original bill of sale, and whether or not it had a good warranty.... I'd just take it back and get another one.
If it had a good warranty it probably won't cost you anything, or not much...

Rod

 

[Anonymous-0]

I have a new garden tractor battery that I allowed to lay around for almost two years when the intended project evaporated. This spring the 4 year old battery in my garden tractor died. I got the new battery that had lain around for a couple of years and tried to charge it. No luck my no maintenence abuse had the plates sulphated up solid, would only accept a fraction of 1 amp charge and would only spin the garden tractor engine 1 turn before being exhausted. I put my batteryMINDer charger/desulphator sold by Northern tool on it and let it try to trickel a charge into those sulphated plates. I would try to crank the tractor every couple of hours. At first, 1 turn was all it would make. after a day of charging and cranking it was up to about 10 seconds cranking time. after another day of charging/cranking every two hours, it would crank for 20-30 seconds. I then left it alone and after 2 more days the charger had it full charged and kicked into the desulphate mode. I left the desulphator peck away at the sulphation for another 10 days at the end of which the battery seems to be back to full new capacity. If the sulphation is not severe enough to have penetrated a seperator and shorted a cell, you can often bring them back to very near full capacity with one of those little desulphator devices. I use them mostly on my farm equipment that sees seasonal use and sit unused for most of the year. The little charger/desulphators,applied every month or two, keep the battery fully charged and remove any sulphation build up.

 

[msb]

Try adding an ounce of peroxide to each cell and slow (trickle)charge it for a few days.

 

[Owen Aaland]

When I worked for an IH dealership, before replacing a new in warranty we had to trickle charge it for at least 100 hours and retest.

We had several new combine batteries that were be dead from kids getting in them and leaving the lights on. When it came time to move them to mow under them the batteries would be taken out and put on the charger. A few of these failed a load test after a week of charging. There were put on a shelf and held for 30 days to clear warranty before disposing of them. After sitting the 30 days without being charged any futher, they would now pass a load test. I use one of them in my I-2444 for about 10 years before it failed.