Opinions please - Does the dealer owe me a new battery?

[CalG]

WIN -WIN!

 

[crazyal]

I use to buy wrecked cars and trucks and repair them as a side business. Most were only a couple years old with low mileage. I can't tell you how many had a dead battery. Some were even frozen. If it was a vehicle that I was going to sell as soon as it was repaired I would swap the battery out but quite often I would either keep the vehicle or sell it to a friend/ family member to save them money. In that case I would leave the battery in it and just say replace it when it starts to have issues. Often they would recover and last for years. What I can tell you is the alternator in the car is not the way to charge a battery. It's not designed to protect the battery. Any good charger will do a much better job. I would just set the charger to around 10 amps and leave it for a week and the battery would recover. I do believe that you only have so many times a battery can be drained flat. As long as it takes a charge I think you'll get years of life out of it.

 

[Cat_Driver]

My recent experience with bayyeries and chargers is you need multiple chargers. I decided to charge a lot of batteries I had laying around and some charged with one charger and not the next so on and so forth.
I think I collected a dozen chargers now and depending on the vehicle battery some will and some won't work.

I've had my best luck with the Optima battery charger.
OPTIMA(R) Battery Chargers |OPTIMA(R) Digital 4 and Digital 12 12V Performance Battery Chargers

My next best one is the NOCO - Our Products

Then all the others seem to come in third. Battery minder, CAT charger, SEARS charger,
Replacement Parts Landing Page | Schumacher Electric

Connecting your DEAD battery in Parallel

POS to POS NEG to NEG to a good fully charger 12 volt battery and then place that on a charger to "balance" the two batteries. This trick saved me many times when these newer chargers would not start because the battery was too dead.

This seems to "trick" the charger into thinking the "one" battey needs charging.

 

[Buxus]

Update:
I charged the battery overnight with a 10 amp charger. The tractor started and ran fine.
It started right up this am also.
Thanks everyone for all your help.

 

[Recoveryhill]

I would follow CalG's advice. And if you own a couple cars, plus the tractor and maybe some lawn equipment that also has lead/acid, sealed or gel cell batteries, consider buying one of the better battery chargers on the market that can condition an older battery. A decent battery charger can make life much easier.

+1. Threre are a number of chargers that test the battery and automatically give it what it needs. These are especially useful for periods when the machine hibernates.

 

[oosik]

I have the new "Hi Tech" type chargers. About every 30 minuets they will "check" the battery they are connected too. Then they will do whatever is needed. Hi amp charge - trickle charge - nothing. Otherwise - they just sit there blinking at me. One on the tractor - one on the motorcycle and one on the Taco Wagon in the winter. Ain't "Hi Tech" wonderful.

 

[mikescruggs]

Maybe there was some additional wear caused by the faulty ignition switch which isn't easily related, but reasonable to assume. I am sure leaving it on was the final draw (no pun). Maybe they can cut a break with the understanding it is two years old. Then again it's a Kubota dealer...the cost is not a huge cut in profit, but maybe making the offer will give them a chance to meet half way or help you out 100%.

Mike