# Old car battery good for jump?

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/old-car-battery-good-for-jump/75887>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Created:** [December 3, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/old-car-battery-good-for-jump/75887 "2012-12-03T00:52:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![garfield26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed8c4c/32.png) [@garfield26](https://community.cartalk.com/u/garfield26)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/old-car-battery-good-for-jump/75887/1 "2012-12-03T00:52:09Z")

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I have a car battery that wasn’t that old, but was just barely under the ideal operating specs so I replaced it with something a bit better. Is it possible to hold on to the battery to use for a jump if needed in the future? It was working just fine and I had no problems with it. Honestly I’m not entirely sure it needed replacing but going into winter I wanted to be safe rather than sorry.

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**Author:** ![Triedaq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Triedaq](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Triedaq)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/old-car-battery-good-for-jump/75887/2 "2012-12-03T01:39:18Z")

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A battery will discharge internally over time unless you keep it on a charger. If you have a fresh battery in your car, you probably won’t need a jump start. I would suggest that you give the battery to someone who needs it.

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**Author:** ![SteveF](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/stevef/32/2_2.png) [@SteveF](https://community.cartalk.com/u/SteveF)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/old-car-battery-good-for-jump/75887/3 "2012-12-03T01:49:59Z")

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If you keep the battery charged it ought to work for your purpose of jump starts. But if you own a battery charger, you will use it to charge the dead battery in your car, right?

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**Author:** ![circuitsmith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/circuitsmith/32/40376_2.png) [@circuitsmith](https://community.cartalk.com/u/circuitsmith)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/old-car-battery-good-for-jump/75887/4 "2012-12-03T04:55:08Z")

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Wasn’t there a “core charge” for the new battery?