Cold weather killing battery?

[stefcio007]

The other month my partner's car was not driven for two days.
It was very cold outside and the battery died.
Used a proper battery charger overnight and it was enough to get the car to start and have the battery replaced.
Battery was about 4 years old with nearly 60,000 km travelled.

This time it happened to another car that only had half of that but the battery was about 5 years old.
Was not driven for nearly two days too.

Is the weather really that bad for batteries or are they just old at this point?

[theresanothersteve]

Right on both counts, cold weather is hard on batteries and batteries have a limited life.

In the Country Fire Service we replace batteries every two years, we cannot afford batteries to fail on the fireground.

I had a Commodore where the battery would fail every 3 years, almost to the day. The RAA guy said it wasn't unusual, modern vehicles place a heavy load on their batteries and they only have so many cycles. As a contrast my tractor and ride- on mower get at least 7 years life...

Cold weather makes it worse, the capacity is affected by temperature and there is extra load when starting etc due to tighter tolerances and heavier oil (due to the cold).


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[Idle]

Batteries wear out like anything else that works, the difference being that to work, there must be a chemical reaction, which begins the moment the electrolyte is put in and never really stops until the battery is finally scrapped.

They'll fail whether they're used or not, and they'll go flat sitting on the floor. I had such a case only a couple of weeks ago — a friend couldn't start her car one cold morning, got a new battery from a local parts store, it wouldn't start the car either.

After being recharged it's fine — had obviously been in the supply chain for months without a top-up charge.

I recall that years ago battery stockists (even many service stations) had a charging rack and always checked a new battery before sale — perhaps this doesn't happen any more?

In the distant past I've even had batteries that came with the electrolyte in a bottle (dangerous stuff, too — probably no longer PC).

[stefcio007]

I might add that we drove an Everest to the car and tried to jump start it. Did not budge. So we pushed it until it was close enough to the house to connect a battery charger and left that overnight.
Car started fine the following morning after probably 8 hours on the charger.

Reminds me of when I saw every morning all the cars at the dealership running in the early morning. I assume that was so keep the batteries at the right level since those cars would not move much. In addition to getting the oil circulating.

[jets]

The other consideration is after starting, how long is your normal trip & are you driving with the headlights on. Maybe you are not replacing the charge every trip. Maybe an extra charge with a battery charger is needed. I need to do this on our camper van every few weeks because of low use & when driven it doesn't fully recharge the battery.

[theresanothersteve]

I might add that we drove an Everest to the car and tried to jump start it. Did not budge. So we pushed it until it was close enough to the house to connect a battery charger and left that overnight.
Car started fine the following morning after probably 8 hours on the charger.

Reminds me of when I saw every morning all the cars at the dealership running in the early morning. I assume that was so keep the batteries at the right level since those cars would not move much. In addition to getting the oil circulating.

That was to make sure the cars started, and trying to get a bit of warmth in the motor.

A cold motor is more likely to smoke, rattle, and do other things to put the punter off.