Heck, at 76, I doubt I’ll last another 4 years.
Yes, the battery I bought was nothing special, with just a 1-year warranty. But my car is garaged, ie, out of the Texas sun, and I’m pretty sure it’ll last two or three years, especially now that I’ll be hooking up the charger every month.
Because it’s true.
How Hot Weather Affects Your Car Battery - Consumer Reports
Does Heat Drain Car Batteries? | Firestone Complete Auto Care
Extreme heat is a battery killer in any kind of vehicle – The Observer News
VERIFY: Does the summer heat drain your car battery? | khou.com
Like I said I don’t understand probably just lucky plus 90% of my driving is country roads. I am not arguiring with anyone as y’all know a more than I do.
I live in Los Angeles, where it gets fairly hot, and a 4 year battery lifespan is nothing to complain about
Nashville area = 3-5 years…
I live in Central Texas, from my experience 3 years in about the lifespan of a battery here. I wouldn’t bother with any kind of additional charging as long as the car gets driven semi regularly, even for short distances.
Someone may have already said this but…
Lead acid batteries do best when kept at 13.6V ALL THE TIME. 24/7.
Below that voltage sulfation begins and increases in rate as the voltage dips lower.
Every night when you park your vehicle a little sulfation occurs. But it is mostly reversed when the alternator puts the battery under a 14.2v charge when you start the engine.
Charging it occasionally is not sufficient for maximum battery life.
To get maximum battery life from a Lead acid battery you must keep it on a charger that FLOATS it 13.6v continuously and then also periodically raises the voltage to 14.2 volts for desulfation. There are many chargers that do that. I personally like Leicester brand found on Amazon…
In addition, if the battery is not moved (as in, in a vehicle being driven around), you must gently rock the battery to mix the electrolyte periodically as Sulfur ions are heaver than H20 and will settle to the bottom resulting in an acid concentration and causing plate damage.
Of course, is it “convenient” to put your vehicle on a float charger every night? Probably not and few do it AFAIK. (But I do)
Sitting batteries get sulphated and gradually lose capacity. I would suggest buying a float charger with a cigarette lighter adapter and plugging it in whenever you are not using the car. A float charger supplies a small current yet will not overcharge the battery. The cigarette lighter adapter avoids the nuisance of having to open the hood to connect the charger. On newer cars the cigarette lighter receptacle may be turned off with the ignition so I connect my float chargers through the OBD connector.
That will ruin the battery in about 4 years at room temperature. But you’re right, it won’t sulfate. At room temperature, 13.8 will keep it from sufating. 13.2 will keep it from being damaged from over charging. Chargers that don’t have a timer or such fancy features pick 13.5 which is right in the middle.
No car that is driven once a week has any issues with sulfation that I know of. Batteries go bad because they are used in cars that are driven a lot, or that frequently sit for more than a month at a time, or that are left to sit through the winter with a dead battery that freezes.
I get 3 to 4 years on batteries unless they are in the trunk. Then I got at least 12. I say at least because I sold the two cars with trunk mounted batteries after 12 years and I don’t know how many more years they might have gone.
There are no battery maintainers for lead acid batteries I know of that float the voltage below 13.5v.for a reason. It’s right here.
Currently you may be right, there are not. It may be a conspiracy involving the lead acid battery industry. In the past chargers which would float at 13.2 after topping off at 14V to 14.4V were more common. Some even had temperature compensation.
I have two chargers that do proper charging and float at 13.2, but they are old. One was a very expensive commercial machine from Europe.
No battery life expert, but in my experience rapid charging takes a pretty serious toll on battery life. If rapid charging can be avoided, that’s best for the battery; i.e. when possible, charge 16 hours at the 2 amp rate rather than 4 hours at the 8 amp rate.
Once again, I’m going against the grain here.
My first suggestion is to plan on taking the long way home about once a week for a number of reasons. You need at least a 20 minute drive to heat the engine oil up enough to drive out accumulated moisture and acids that will harm your engine. Just about everything in the vehicle will benefit from a good 20 minute drive once week.
Second, that cheap one year battery may very well outlast the expensive 3 year battery. Cheaper batteries often use fewer but thicker plates. This reduces the available amperage for starting, but as long as you have enough, that’s all you need. The thicker plates do lead to longer life.
Third, don’t buy batteries at Walmart, in my experience, they don’t last. I buy Duralast batteries (not the top line though) from Autozone and they have been lasting me about 10 years on average here in West Tennessee.
Edit: the one in my Subaru is 6.5 years old, I just did the battery terminals yesterday. I had been neglecting that and the negative terminal cracked so I had to replace it.
100% agree… About the hardest life you can give a vehicle is to not drive it… We had a store manager that worked about 60+ hours a week and only lived 1.5 miles from home, He bought the car new off the showroom floor just for work, he never drove it anywhere but to work and back and runs for food while working, he just jumped in it and took off… He ruined it…
The engine must have been all sludged up 
No doubt, but I have lost count over the years of the number of neighbors and coworkers who thought that they are being good to their cars by driving them only a couple of miles before shutting them off. I have tried explaining how this habit negatively affects the oil, the exhaust system, and the battery, but it seemed that none of them believed me.
Did he ever change the oil, and how long did it take to ruin it?
He changed the oil and did all the maintenance, the gaskets and seals basically all leaked, and other things… He had it about 10 years… Been years ago, don’t remember all the details… But you would not want the under 10K miles 10ish yo car that was falling apart… It did sit out in an open parking lot all day while working also…
What else would you do with a car but let it sit in am open parking lot all day or all week in my case?
I used to live in Buffalo and drove under 1.5 miles to work in the days of carbs and chokes. I changed the oil when it hpy 1 qt over with unburnt gas.
That car went to the junkyard after 8 years because it was a rusted out hulk with a perfectly fine engine after 8 years. A car you commuted with all winter would not lice more that that in the days of untreated steel.
I worked with a guy whose garage kept Chevy Impala went to the junkyard at 10 years old and 16,000 miles/ He never went anyplace but work and back. Mine was ond the road every weekend in goof weather taking the kids camping and to parks.