A lot of folks would consider that pretty bitter … 
I had a friend from Buffalo who liked to ski there, and when he came to Colorado to ski with me, he couldn’t believe it. No ice on the ski runs. One place I’ve always wanted to go but haven’t made it yet is Niagra Falls. I just can’t image how they (Westinghouse, Tesla, etc) could have built a water generator power plant there. It looks too rugged.
1 Like
Well, I am a creature of the North, if it gets up to 80 degrees, I am like an old dog, I just want to crawl under the porch. I use to traver regularly to Watertown NY where they regularly get temps of 30 below or colder. Now that is frigid. If you do get to Niagara Falls, Take one of the Maid of the Mist boats, it is quite an experience. And remember, you need a passport or enhanced drivers license to go to the Canadian side.
I have difficulty believing a healthy battery charged that quickly unless it’s hooked up to a Tesla supercharger.
I suspect your battery is toast.
1 Like
Yes, I left out the 30 minutes of driving the OP mentioned. That is what I was referring to.
I left out of my explanation the short period of time the OP proposed to drive around to charge the battery. That is actually what I was addressing. Of course the alternator will charge the battery, just not as fast as a lot of people believe.
The battery should be tested at that age. Take the car to an auto parts store that will test it for free.
It is now morning. Last night battery’s at rest was about 12.57. This morning it is 12.47. With the headlight on bright, it is -12.12, and immediately after turning off the headlight, it read about 12.41, and after about 1 minute passed, it went up to 12.46. How do I interpret this? If at rest is at least 12.40, that is not bad at all though. I can certainly recharge the battery, but since I only have 8 amp charger, I would rather wait until Monday until I get a trickle charger that should charge at 1.5 amp. Owner’s manual say to rechage at 5 amp or lower for safety and avoid explosion. Yes, I could take the battery to a parts store, but I would rather charge the battery myself.
So you have a perfectly reasonable (free) solution to your problem that you’re ignoring why? OCD?
If you mean getting charged it at parts store, I’m trying to avoid the hassle of removing the battery from the car and then dropping it off the parts store, and then going back to pick it up and then installing the battery. If I wait until Monday, I can trickle charge it myself. I’m asking for the interpretation of the headlight voltage drop test at the battery leads.
@jbrown70:
If this were my car, I would not worry about it and just keep driving.
As @nevada_545 noted, normal surface charge effects seem to be causing you undue angst.
If you’re worried about the battery being near its end of life, then take it on a long drive or use your 8 amp charger on it, and then drive the car to a parts store for a free test.
Since you already have a perfectly good 8 amp charger, why not just put a resistance in series with the charging leads to limit the amps.
Another trick I have used to keep nicad batteries charged without cooking them to death is to put a cheap 24 hour timer on the charger, one hour per day equals a trickle charger.
That makes a lot more sense.
Check your 8 amp charger to see if it is a “float charger”. If it is, it is safe to use on your battery. If it is not a float charger, it is still safe to use as long as there is plenty of ventilation.
The issue with higher capacity chargers is that charging a battery releases hydrogen gas, which can be explosive in certain concentrations. The higher the charging rate, the more hydrogen gas is generated per unit of time. As long as the ventilation exceeds the generation rate of the hydrogen, it is safe to use.
If your 8 amp charger has an amp meter on it, it could be more useful than a trickle charger. As the battery reaches full charge, the amp meter should show less than 1.5 amps of charge. If the battery voltage at rest is 12.6 volts or higher and you turn on the charger and the amp meter shows more than 1.5 amps, then your battery is not long for this world. A couple months at best.
BTW, if you do buy a smaller charger, make sure it is a float charger and not a trickle charger. Trickle chargers can damage your battery if left on too long. A float charger will shut off when the battery is fully charged and not damage it.
You drive to a parts store.
They’ll take a battery conductance tester like the one I have.
They’ll point the tester at the battery to measure its temperature.
Then they’ll run the battery test.
You’ll then get a print-out like this.
Tester
2 Likes
Your current battery has been used at the rate of $25/year. Why all the drama, get a new one and you are good for another four years and you won’t have to wait for your roadside assistance driver to rescue you.
As far as the 5 amp charge rate, Iwould like to hear from people more knowledgeable than me. I charge my lawnmower battery with a quality, automatic 10amp charger, use same charger for my deep cycle trolling motor battery. Back in the day when batteries were shipped dry, I think we charged those at 50 amps after adding the electrolyte, but can’t trust my memory that was 50 years ago!
What is that?
I never heard of such a thing before you mentioned it
Me neither!
Hydrogen is generated when a battery is overcharged. A discharged battery has both sets of plates covered with lead sulfate. While charging, the electric current reduces the lead sulfate on the negative plates to pure lead and sulfuric acid and at the same time oxidizes the lead sulfate on the positive plates to lead dioxide and sulfuric acid. The acid concentration of the electrolyte increases as the battery charges and that’s why measuring the specific gravity of the electrolyte is a good way of checking the battery’s state of charge.
Once the lead sulfate has all been converted into lead dioxide and pure lead, there is nothing for the current to do but convert the water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. The negative plates release hydrogen gas and the positive plates release oxygen gas in a perfectly stoichiometric ratio which fills the air space in the battery.
If your battery is constantly losing electrolyte, check the car’s voltage regulator, it may be chronically overcharging your battery.
A battery with a dead cell will also cause the charging system to overcharge the cells that are not dead leading to an explosive concentration of hydrogen and pure oxygen.
To understand just how explosive a stoichiometric mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is, take an oxy-acetylene torch and adjust it to a perfect flame, then blow that flame out without changing the mixture adjustments, then poke a hole in the bottom of a large styrofoam cup placed upside down on concrete and fill that cup with oxygen and acetylene, then light the torch and swipe the flame over the hole in the bottom of the cup. Be sure to wear earplugs! Also warn other people that you are going to do that because the people in the office and the business next door are going to come out to see what the heck happened.
You don’t have to remove the battery. That’s why I said you should drive the car there. They can test it under the hood without disconnecting it.
They do it while you wait.
I am aware of the chemistry involved just question the 5 amp charge rate. As far as that goes on an open top battery you can see the hydrogen bubbles as it charges.
What I did NOT see is the OP saying he was losing electrolyte.