Battery turned into an ice cube

[joeyd]

Yesterday, in preparation for a predicted 9-17 inches of snow starting tonight thru Thursday I thought I would fire up the tractor and get the snowblower attached to the 3pt. The tractor would not turn over, even with a jump box. Since the battery was original equipment, 13 years old, i thought it was time to replace it.
In the week or so since I last ran it we have had temps down to -12 and highs for a few days of negative temps even. So I guess those temps helped turn it into an ice cube, when I removed it the sides were slightly bowed.

All in all, I will take 13 years on an original battery, I'm glad my local dealer was open and had one in stock. Thank you, Jordan Sales.

 

[oldnslo]

I would say 13 years you got your moneys worth.

 

[grsthegreat]

A properly charged battery has a freeze point of about -80°F. A discharged battery can freeze at 32°F.

 

[grsthegreat]

I too love Jordan Sales. They have helped me get parts many times.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Best way to find a weak battery is to get it good and cold. The Optima battery in Mrs. Slim's Toyota 4Runner finally gave up the ghost after 12 years of reliable service. Just replaced it Saturday, with another Optima red top. The Optima in my tractor is 7 years old and still going. Started it up yesterday for the first time in months. The original OEM tractor battery, an Interstate wet cell battery died the first time it saw -30 F. The tractor sits in an unheated steel building, so the battery needs to tolerate the cold. So far this has been a warm winter for us, we only recently hit a low of -22 F. Normally we would be much colder than that by now.

 

[grsthegreat]

I have chepo interstate battery in my tractor. I replaced the original interstate battery this summer. It was 9 years old and starting to fail.

 

[joeyd]

A properly charged battery has a freeze point of about -80°F. A discharged battery can freeze at 32°F.

Normally my tractor is in the pole barn in the winter, heated to 40. This winter we didn't get my wife's vehicle moved into town since we were using it with the light winter until last week, so it is in the garage and my truck is in the pole barn. The tractor has spent the winter under the lean to out of the snow but in the cold. Before I built the pole barn it was under a tarp for 3-4 years during the winter.
I wish I would have built a bigger shop!!!

 

[Thomas]

Often heard there no different between big box store battery and dealer battery.

 

[grsthegreat]

There isn’t. Most batteries come out of the same few factories. Only big box store battery I have issues with is Walmart. Some people swear by them, I swear at them. nearly every winter service call I get on dead gen battery has a Walmart unit in it.

just saying

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

If you youtube, there is a poster “Project Farm” who tests all kinds of things. He did a review of batteries a while back. they are not all the same.

I install either a block heater or oil pan heater, and heaters on the hydraulic tank, transmission, and on my trucks I add a heater pad to the transfer case. All the batteries on every thing get a heating pad, and a hard mounted battery charger. The heaters get run through a relay in an aluminum box, with a 0-C thermal switch, to control when they come on. The battery charger is on anytime I plug the vehicle in. When running 120V AC on vehicles, I put tubular woven ground strap around all of the 120V wiring and ground it at both ends. If the insulation wears through, and I get a short it will instantly trip the GFCI.

This has saved me many hours of screwing around trying to start vehicles when they are really cold. And between arthritis, broken fingers, and a couple cases of chill blain, and frost bite, my fingers are terribly cold sensitive. So, I don’t like mucking around in the cold for very long.