Battery Longevity

[OrangeAgain]

I bought my Kioti RX7320PC in 2015 and have 216 hours on it. It's been stored in my barn and in the winters I often have a trickle charger on it. Occasionally, regardless of the season, the battery isn't strong enough to start the tractor, like yesterday. I just have to put my 30A - 60A charger on for several minutes and "she" starts right up.

Could the battery be old enough to replace?

Could something in the electrical system be draining the battery charge?

 

[crazyal]

The battery in my Kubota is the original one from 2010. It's never failed to start. I would remove the ground terminal from the battery the next time you think it'll be awhile before you use it. If the battery still is loosing charge then it's most likely a bad battery. If not then you may need to dig further.

 

[oosik]

Many possible causes of the battery situation. My motorcycle, tractor, ATP & both lawn mowers are out in the cold, under the carport or storage shed. I put a trickle charger on them about every three months during the winter. Otherwise, the charge may be short of starting. More serious - the charge level can get so low the battery could freeze and split open.

Take the battery to NAPA or the like. They have the equipment to check the batteries status.

 

[Thunder chicken]

I think battery quality is hit and miss nowadays like a lot of things. Easier to skip the QA check on the way out the door and let the retailer figure out how to deal with the customer.
I’ve had some last a few months, and others last years. I’ve bought expensive ones and cheap ones. Tried trickle chargers or not. Absolutely no pattern. Some cheap ones are good and last years and years of pure abuse. The next one doesn’t last 4 months in the ideal conditions. One thing for sure though, over charging and heat destroy batteries. One fella told me the way some are constructed, there is not enough room below the plates for sediment to collect and when it does, the plates short out. Seems to have truth but who knows. Batteries are almost as good a topic as oil and grease
Get ones with the best warranty locally so you can trade them in as need be, easily. That’s my solution.

 

[fried1765]

I bought my Kioti RX7320PC in 2015 and have 216 hours on it. It's been stored in my barn and in the winters I often have a trickle charger on it. Occasionally, regardless of the season, the battery isn't strong enough to start the tractor, like yesterday. I just have to put my 30A - 60A charger on for several minutes and "she" starts right up.

Could the battery be old enough to replace?

Could something in the electrical system be draining the battery charge?

"often have a trickle charger on it"
Why..."often"?
Why not just LEAVE the trickle charger on it?
I leave a trickle charger on each of my (16) Winter stored batteries.

 

[OrangeAgain]

I have a nearby Kioti dealer, John Deere dealer, Kubota dealer and O'Reilly Auto Parts. Do any of those have better batteries (reliability & warranty) than the others?

 

[John0829]

I have found with expensive or cheap batteries to keep a trickle charger on them especially if there is down time between uses BUT do not leave it on all the time. Place the trickle charger on a timer so that it is only on for 30 min. or so once or twice a day. Life on batteries in equipment that is dormant for weeks or months at a time has doubled in some cases. Since retirement even the car and trucks do not see regular use so they also have trickle chargers to compensate for the vampire draw of the security and computer systems that are on all of them now days.

 

[Texasmark]

If I am going to have a battery failure it's when it turns cold. I just had 2ea 3 year old, sealed, quality batteries on Lawn care equipment fail within the week. Other side of the coin is that on most of my tractors, I forget just when I installed the current battery.....don't use any kind of maintainer on any of them....but the ones that are seldom used, I charge them up every so often...when I think about it. Cold climates surely aggravate this problem.....not all that cold here in N. Tx.

 

[jaydee325]

Electrical trouble shooting 101: Start with a fully charged known good battery.

Remove the battery, fully charge it (>12.6 volts) and then have it load tested. This will tell you if the battery is known good. After you know this, then meaningful electrical trouble shooting can begin.

 

[jaxs]

The place to begin is having battery professionally tested. When you are sure you have a good battery,lose the 30-60 amp charger and use a maintainer type charger instead. There's a difference between trickle and maintainer chargers. I highly reccomend Deltran battery tender charger-maintainers. You can leave them connected 24-7/365. While extreme cold and heat effect battery life,over charging or long periods in low stat of charge has far more effect than temperature. There are hundreds of threads on the subject if you search.