Battery question

Monday I went to start my 240U... battery was dead and it's only about a year old. Put the charger on it and about 3 or 4 hours later it started right off, but it had water from what appeared to be one cell on top of the battery. I washed it down with soda water to neutralize the acid, let the tractor run just a couple of minutes because at that point I didn't have time to use it. Today it fired right off, so the battery was still charged.
I guess my question would be, is the cell the acid boiled out of bad, and if it was, why was it okay today? Or could there have been a temporary drain on the battery through the alternator or somewhere (has been converted to single wire 12V alternator).

It is not unusual for a battery to get hot and boil over if you use the "Fast Charge" option on your charger. I try to use the trickle charge option if I have the time. Boiling over does not imply that the battery is bad, going flat implies that there may be a problem with the battery. Take it out and run it over to a parts place or the place where you bought it and get it tested. If if is bad you want to know while the warranty is still good.

Single wire alternators constantly draw a small current from the battery when shut down. The amount of current depends on the design of the regulator inside the alternator. Some will draw enough current that if left unstarted can flatten a fully charged battery in as little as a week or two.

If the battery is draining down thru the alternator, disconnecting the battery when the tractor not being used will keep the battery up.

Or you can replace your 1-wire alternator with a standard 3-wire unit. It's a bit more wiring but it will eliminate the current drain problem.

(quoted from post at 19:48:31 11/18/11) Single wire alternators constantly draw a small current from the battery when shut down. The amount of current depends on the design of the regulator inside the alternator. Some will draw enough current that if left unstarted can flatten a fully charged battery in as little as a week or two.

If the battery is draining down thru the alternator, disconnecting the battery when the tractor not being used will keep the battery up.

Or you can replace your 1-wire alternator with a standard 3-wire unit. It's a bit more wiring but it will eliminate the current drain problem.

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My buddies Stage II SM could do that. His uncle put a switch on it that we would switch off if we wern't going to use it for a while. I would assume it was in the one and only wire for the alternator.

I would get a battery tender. HF has them on sale for a pretty good price right now.

99.9 +% of the one wire conversions of a Delco SI series alternator that use the stock diode trio and sold in the last 25 years will no more drain a battery than any std 3 wire Delco SI series. There is no power connected to the 1 wire regulator 1 or 2 leads and the BAT connection is totally isolated from the regulator by the Diode pack. That old wives tale of them draining the battery is totally false.

They only use the tiny bit of current generated by the residual magnetism of the rotor to excite the alternator. The battery is not involved at all in exciting a Delco 1 wire conversion.

Well, I won't comment on what is draining your battery, however, I will comment on your battery charging question. Yes, if you put a battery on fast charge, it will bubble up and "boil". IMHO (in my humble opinion), fastcharge should only be used when absolutely necessary. It is hard on a battery, and reduces overall battery life. When you charge a battery, there is ALWAYS hydrogen generated, a byproduct and fact on how batteries produce and "store" electricity. Rate of charge is directly proportional to the rate of hydrogen gas production. Charge faster, and hydrogen will "boil" off in the cells. It is also the base cause of battery explosions.

Personally, unless in an "emergency" situation, I NEVER charge small lawn type batteries more than 2-4 amp/hours rate, and larger car/truck/tractor batteries more than 10-15 amp/hour rate. Yes, it takes longer to charge them, but it helps promote the life of the battery.

lead sulfate precipitate falling to the bottom of each cell will build up and eventually short out that cell, rendering the battery junk. Trick is to keep as much lead sufate in solution as possible to prevent this (i have over simplified this example, because it has to do with sulphate ions, sulphuric acid concentration, and the electrochemical process that goes on within a battery). That is why a fully discharged battery ususally is junk. Overcharge and too many "quick charge" cycles also will reduce the life of a battery. Plate distortion, boiling dry, etc. are all by products of battery charging "abuse" so to speak.

A properly maintained battery, kept up to charge will last at least 4-5 years. I have two 6 volters now that are in their 6th year. I know I am pushing the envelope, but when they do ultimately fail, I will replace them.............

Here is a great link if you want to learn more:

http://www.progressivedyn.com/battery_basics.html

EXCELLENT concise information, I (too much time spent engineering and lawyering) tend to get too long winded myself lol

Any sustained super high amp super fast charge rate can really damage the plates and/or end up with an accumulation in the bottom of the battery shorting out the cells and/or boil out the electrolyte.

I recently had a truck with a good working battery that had some age on it but still worked fine HOWEVER I left the lights on and it had sat like 4 of 5 days so I charged it butttttttttttt right after that it started loosing charge if it sat for a day or so, an internal bleed off that happened ONLY AFTER that total complete discharge. Oh well nuttin $75 didnt fix grrrrrrrr

Had another one a while back that I set the charger to medium on (had automatic but I set it on override) and went to the house planning to go down and shut it off in 15 minutes buttttttttttt forgot and like an hour later I actually smelled the gas wayyyyyyyyy up at the house maybe 500 feet away,,,,,,,, rushed down there and she was cookin n outgassing n boliing over something awful so I went inside to turn off the breaker NO WAY WAS I GONNA UNHOOK AT THE BATTERY MAKING SPARKS WITH ALL THAT EXPLOSIVE GAS OR EVEN UNPLUG THE CHARGER RIGHT THERE and let it cool off and cleaned things up n topped off the electtrolyte BUT THAT BATERY WAS FLATTER N DEADER THEN A PANCAKE...... I often tell people overcharging a battery can be worse then undercharging

Fun chat

John T

I like the Schumacher battery maintainers that WalMart sells for about $20. I have a couple different versions of it. I think the newer ones all have automatic sensing of 6 or 12 volts. These are definitely better than any maintainers I have found elsewhere. Unless you need a quick charge, they do about all that can be asked of them. Hook one of these up whenever you park the tractor and you will have a lot less battery trouble.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Schumacher-SpeedCharge-Battery-Maintainer-and-Charger/13005742

One thing I forgot to mention about charging it... I fully expected when I put the charger on it for the meter to go close to the 10 amps that it generally goes to on a totally dead battery. It only went to about 5 amps. I thought maybe I had a bad connection and "wiggled' the clamps around, but that's all it would charge. Cables were new when the battery was changed just over a year ago, and I included those corrosion pads around the posts. If my JD garden tractor battery (full size, not a mower battery) goes dead, it will charge 10 amps on the meter, but this one did not. Also, like I mentioned, it appeared only one cell boiled. When I tried it after a few hours, the charger meter had dropped to about 2 amps.
I'm going to start it more often now that winter is approaching... or feels this afternoon like it's here.
Thanks for the input... if it goes dead again in a short time, I'll pull it and get it checked before the warranty is shot.

Jim, I agree. I have 2 of the Shumachers, and they are a very good unit. Well worth the relatively small investment.

Might monitor the SG (specfic gravity) of the suspect cell. If the SG drops significantly compared to the other cells, it would indicate a problem with the cell.

Can"t understand why a 5-10 amp charge from a charger will be worse on a battery than 30-40 amps routinely produced by an alternator.

(quoted from post at 01:35:14 11/20/11) Can"t understand why a 5-10 amp charge from a charger will be worse on a battery than 30-40 amps routinely produced by an alternator.

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1) Depends on how well the volgate is regulated. Most cheap chargers will run the voltage too high as the battery reaches full charge.
2) Most alternators won't put out 30 amps for very long unless there is some load on the system that diverts a lot of the current somewhere other than the battery.