(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

Batteries on concrete floor( fact or fiction)

F

FWB in SK

Member
Is storing a battery on a concrete floor not a good idea. If so why and how does it affect a battery? This is in a heated shop.
 
Absolute BS for modern day batteries, but.........if your battery has a wood case, we can talk more, but I bet it doesn't.
 
(quoted from post at 00:47:19 11/26/13) yes, no and maybe.
If the floor is cold and the air temp is much warmer, then battery drain is possible.
Click to expand...
nd the current path would be?
 
I reckon this is like most everything else - your results may vary just because it can. All it takes to move electrons from the plates to the ground is a bit of moisture on the case to provide a path. Concrete or dirt doesn't work for me but you may have better luck. JMO
 
There is only a ground when the battery is installed and could be either positive or negative. A battery will only discharge from a current from one post to the other or internally.

If you worry that the concrete conducts electricity, what about the steel battery box we put the battery.

Lot of bunk, and old wives tale.
 
I was told 50+ years ago that putting a battery on concrete will drain it due to the film across the top of battery created by the charging/overcharging that had taken place as it was failing.
 
I have heard for years that putting a battery on concrete is hard on it.


Hard on what?!

Hard what?


Never explained to me. Then later, I learned it is hard on the concrete!


It's not hard on the battery, it is hard on the concrete. If you leave it there for many years, the concrete will turn to dust. battery will be fine.



That's just my experience.


If you actually prove me wrong, I would love to know.

I bet im not...
 
It is fiction.

You are right it does not hurt the battery.

Where they ever got that belief I don't know.
 
You best take a volt meter to either post and touch the other lead to the top of the battery case and see what kind of reading you get if you say a battery can't drain from post to post. You'll think differently then. This is why you need to keep batteries clean and dry or discharge between posts happens. It's a slow process but will drain a battery.
 
I don't like to put them on concrete or the ground. I like to put them on a rubber or plastic non conducting surface. Call it habit, call it foolish. All I know is that over the years it's the ones on concrete or the ground that seem to go bad first. Whats the harm?
 
In the winter, I put my batteries on workbench so I can rotate batteryminder and desulfate them 2 at a time.
 
thank you for asking that.

I always wonder about it, but it never sticks with me long enough to remember to research it.

I always store my batteries on concrete. Never been a problem that I can tell.
 
Not really. What drains a battery is moisture on the top. It acts as a conduit between the posts and will drain a battery over time. Keep the top clean and dry and it should not bother it.
 
I think 50+ years ago when batteries had hard rubber cases there might of been something too it. It's a habit I will never break, although it might be better in a way as they will not fluctuate in temperature so much. I always store gas cans directly on the floor or ground for that reason.
 
The Delco rep told us that not securing batteries down securely so they can't move will cut the life of the battery by half.
 
(quoted from post at 00:50:20 11/26/13)
(quoted from post at 00:47:19 11/26/13) yes, no and maybe.
If the floor is cold and the air temp is much warmer, then battery drain is possible.
Click to expand...
nd the current path would be?
Click to expand...

Across the plates themselves. Different voltage potential on the top where it's warmer than on the cold bottom . Current flow results.
 
It will not effect them at all, watch the show called myth busters they did an experiment on that and said concrete floors don't effect the battery at all.
 
Won't hurt them if you spray PB Blaster on the floor, then wipe the top with SEAFOAM .
Be SURE to use 93 octane gas in the truck going to HARBOR FREIGHT to buy the SEAFOAM.
 
concrete doesn't bother them

I do keep my spare batteries on a shelf, or on a board on the floor,
so they warm up a little quicker when I turn on the shop heat.
As other frozen North workers know, it don't matter how long the heat is on in the shop. From Nov-March, that concrete floor stays COLD.
 
(quoted from post at 05:30:42 11/26/13) Not really. What drains a battery is moisture on the top. It acts as a conduit between the posts and will drain a battery over time. Keep the top clean and dry and it should not bother it.
Click to expand...

This is true.When I lay up a piece of equipment I clean off the whole case including the top then put the charger on.The battery might go on concrete,wood or a rubber mat.
 
Yepper, I too was fed the fiction. However, if one applies some common sense, things that happen have to have a mechanism to allow whatever to happen.

With a battery in a rubber or plastic case, there is no mechanism and as stated, how can they poop on concrete and survive for years on a steel battery shelf in your tractor.

Pure baloney. Whomever fathered that fiction had something else at work and was not smart enough to figure it out.

Totally agree that dirt and moisture on the top can bleed the charge off over time. That is a mechanism and is a fact and probably the problem for whomever fathered the fiction.

Mark
 
An after thought. Course lead-acid batteries discharge themselves over time and possibly the battery that caused the fiction in the first place was just discharging in the normal manner when left un attended for long periods of time and just happened to be sitting on a concrete floor. That's why they make trickle chargers!

Mark
 
(quoted from post at 06:18:27 11/26/13)
(quoted from post at 00:50:20 11/26/13)
(quoted from post at 00:47:19 11/26/13) yes, no and maybe.
If the floor is cold and the air temp is much warmer, then battery drain is possible.
Click to expand...
nd the current path would be?
Click to expand...

Across the plates themselves. Different voltage potential on the top where it's warmer than on the cold bottom . Current flow results.
Click to expand...

Correct!But it dosen't make a difference to the batt. weather it's on concrete or a slab of plywood.
 
Thinking some more on the subject, when I was a young lad, the local Texaco "Service" Station had a (steel shelf) battery rack just inside the front glass window. The rack would hold a couple dozen or so batteries and attached to the rack was a battery charger with a lot of leads on it and each battery sitting on the rack was clipped onto the charger to keep it charged and ready for customer installation.

My my, been a long time.

Mark
 
I gave you fellows a good hint as to how/why the story got started in the 4th post of thread; ".if your battery has a wood case, we can talk more, but I bet it doesn't." Early batteries had a wood case.
 
Son did this as a science fair project a few years ago. Couldn't find any difference between the rate of voltage loss on 2 different batteries when fully charged then stored on wood vs. concrete. Checked the voltage loss every day for a week. Did the experiment twice.
 
I was at a ham radio convention a few years back, and during a talk about batteries this came up. The engineer that was giving the lecture stated it is possible for a lead acid battery to discharge from sitting on a cold floor in a warm room. The logic was the temperature difference between the top and bottom of each cell. Basically the warmer top would try to charge the colder bottom. This is because the chemical action in the battery, it's voltage is dependent on temperature. The action is totally confined to each cell, and the only thing the case of the battery has to do with it is its thermal insulating value.
In a vehicle, the battery is the same temperature all over, and in fixed backup service, use and the charger keep it at an even temperature. Setting a battery on a piece of wood, like we are all told to do, simply provides thermal insulation.

Josh
 
Placing batteries on a concrete floor creates micro black holes which deplete the electrons from lead plates inside the battery.

btw never place a lead acid battery in your clothes dryer.
 
Best advice I can give you is get a BatteryMINDer from NorthernTool no matter where you set them. Any tractors I store in the winter with Batteries get one. I have had great success with these. Paul

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_batteries-chargers-jump-starters+battery-maintainers
 
Placing batteries on concrete is pure fiction.
Heat is the worst thing for a battery.
If concrete was a conductor of electricity it would be used for power lines. I have never seen one!
Brian
 
(quoted from post at 01:23:23 11/27/13) Placing batteries on concrete is pure fiction.
Heat is the worst thing for a battery.
If concrete was a conductor of electricity it would be used for power lines. I have never seen one!
Brian
Click to expand...

They tried that, but the lines kept falling apart when the wind moved them.

concrete does btw conduct electricity.

Try standing on a concrete floor and grabbing 460 3 phase.

And they are now making highly conductive concrete.
 
Before my time and how did you seal the wood case to contain the
sulphuric acid and water solution, and what difference did the wood
make.....wood isn't all that bad of an insulator under certain
circumstances?
 
Yes, storing a flooded cell lead acid battery on concrete MAY make it discharge faster.

The cool concrete floor acts as a heat sink to keep the battery cooler than air temp. This causes sweating on the battery case which if there is any acid film and dirt on the battery case top, the moisture makes this dirt and acid more conductive, which leads to faster self discharge when this damp film is on the case top connecting the posts..

Anything that insulates the battery from the concrete will allow the battery to be warmer and have less sweating.
 
Hard rubber or plastic makes no difference, as electricity never leaked through the battery case.

A battery with either case material will cause faster self discharge if it is stored on cold ground or cold concrete. This keeps the battery cooler than the surronding air and causes mose sweating of the battery case and top. If the battery case is dirty and that dirt has a little battery acid mixed in, the sweating makes the acidic dirt more conductive and causes a faster discharge between the battery posts.

With a clean acid free battery top, there will be little difference.
 
Temperature radiant from the top to the bottom of the plates results in a voltage gradient across the plates.Thus electron flow.
Chemical activity is temperature sensitive, batteries are chemical potential energy storage devices.
Why do the persons who know nothing about electricity line up to tell electrical experts about electricity?
 
dont make one iota of a difference what a batt. is stored on, as long as it is in a cool dry place. just have them washed with no acid on top and dry and charged checked periodically.
 
"Is storing a battery on a concrete floor not a good idea. If so why and how does it affect a battery?"
Click to expand...
<sarcasm alert!>
Bad idea. It is too far to bend down and pick them up. Then I
drop them which splits the plastic case and all the acid runs out.

I store mine on a wooden shelf. It's about waist high and I don't
drop them. A few times I had too many and they sat on the floor.
It didn't bother them at all, but then I have in floor heat.

Motorcycle batteries I just leave outside because they're junk in
a year anyway. :evil:
 
(quoted from post at 01:08:11 11/27/13) Temperature radiant from the top to the bottom of the plates results in a voltage gradient across the plates.Thus electron flow.
Chemical activity is temperature sensitive, batteries are chemical potential energy storage devices.
Why do the persons who know nothing about electricity line up to tell electrical experts about electricity?
Click to expand...
ee, I wonder where the expert would be? Surely couldn't be some has been, washed up, A.H, drip under pressure, (ex-spurt) who "thinks" he knows more than almighty god, could it be?
 
(quoted from post at 01:44:27 11/27/13)
(quoted from post at 01:08:11 11/27/13) Temperature radiant from the top to the bottom of the plates results in a voltage gradient across the plates.Thus electron flow.
Chemical activity is temperature sensitive, batteries are chemical potential energy storage devices.
Why do the persons who know nothing about electricity line up to tell electrical experts about electricity?
Click to expand...
ee, I wonder where the expert would be? Surely couldn't be some has been, washed up, A.H, drip under pressure, (ex-spurt) who "thinks" he knows more than almighty god, could it be?
Click to expand...

Simple to tell you have no knowledge or facts to share. When you have to resort to name calling and slander to converse about batteries.
 
The heated shop will cause your battery to deteriorate faster than the concrete floor. At 80F lead acid batteries discharge 4-8% per month. Keep the battery as cool as possible (not freezing), clean it real good, remove any connections, and completely charge it every 2 months. Charging will prevent it from completely discharging. Each time a battery is allowed to completely discharge it loses about 25% of its capacity. Forever.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Steel Wheels & Concrete Floors
Replies
17
Views
1K
Fixingfarmer
Fixingfarmer
D
Shop Wiring
2
Replies
35
Views
1K
kevinstuff
K
A
Portable hog floor
Replies
6
Views
622
rustred
rustred
A
Vapor barrier under concrete with air floor in grain bin
Replies
10
Views
323
Traditional Farmer
T
RedMF40
Concrete curing question
Replies
3
Views
596
RedMF40
RedMF40
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top