Re:Was discharge rate for stored battery- Now Battery Care

[jtrealty@xxxx]

The best way to care for your battery if you don't intend to use the 
car for more than around 30 days is to remove it from the car. It 
gives you the chance to clean everything and keep it in a warm place 
charged up. As a battery discharges naturaly (I am not sure of the 
rate) the temperature at which it can freeze goes up. So if you left 
the battery to go dead and the car is stored outside in the cold the 
battery will not only be dead but will have frozen. Even though it 
will thaw out when warm it is now damaged and will not hold a full 
charge if it holds any at all. Never store on concrete-put it on a 
piece of wood.(I don't know why but it will discharge faster if left 
directly on concrete.) Once a month hook up a trickle charger for 1 
day to keep it fully charged. Before reinstalling load test and 
clean.After 4-5 years suspect that the battery will not hold 80% full 
charge. If you are careful never to let the battery discharge more 
than 50% it can last as long as 10 years.(you can't let it overheat 
either but on a Delorean that's not usually a problem!) A bad 
alternater can overcharge it though and that will cause it to overheat 
and kill it quicker than sh-t.
David Teitelbaum
vin 10757


--- In dmcnews@xxxx, CBL302@xxxx wrote:
> The Golden rule to remember about automotive batteries(lead acid 
> batteries)is that they discharge at the rate of 1%(one percent)(for 
a 
> good,fully charged battery)a day,that means that if you let your car 
> sit for a typical month(31 days)your battery is 31%(thirty one 
> percent) discharged,after 100 days of sitting unstarted your battery 
> is 100 percent discharged.It also depends on your climate,the colder 
> the climate(the lower the temperature) the more CCA's(Cold Cranking 
> Amps) you will need to crank over your engine,(meaning that a 
battery