Battery sitting

[Beef26]

How long can a car battery sit and still be good?

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[brian84corvette 10+ year member]

i will tell you from my experience - i had 3 large back up batterys ( group 31 size ) that i let sit in my shed for over a year un touched.

when i went to pull them out and put on charge - i noticed all 3 had the casings split wide open - like you could see lead plates.

so

dont do that.

actually propper storage for batterys - is on a shelf capable of supporting them ( a plywood block the size of battery footprint is ideal ) and put on charge once a month to maintain float voltage.

some will also say that a battery needs to be used / discharged some to then be recharded properly - vs a eternal floating battery will not release power to recharge as well as a battery that does at least a little bit of duty cycle before recharging.

dont stack anything on top of your batterys. the casing is not ment to take extra weight - and keep them charged and they might last a while - but also kno that they have a usefull life span and time so figure out when they were produced - and take that in to account - if wanting to store for over 10 months before use you might want to condider selling them - as they just dont do well sitting i kno cause i ruined my 3 i was hoarding for when i could "need" them

 

[shizzzon 10+ year member]

My bank i got here sat for about 14months before use. Nothing wrong with them.

Just remember that they will lose memory once sitting which isnt bad so if they lose their rest potential after charge, dont worry about it. Once put back to use, they will regain it.

Also, i only charged mine once during that period because they dropped to 12.3v.

 

[bumpasauras 10+ year member]

Always leave stored batts on a battery tender (trickle charger) and make damm sure that where ever you store them does not freeze other than that you can store them for their whole expected life.\

The key is a good battery tender. The good ones will discharge and charge the batt at random intervals to simulate normal use . It is also important that you do not store batts on the concrete. Concrete leaches power from the batt and can even kill a batt. so store your batts in a warm place off the ground with a battery tender and you will be fine

 

[disturbed471985 5,000+ posts]

Depends but in most cases NO. I got an old 9a31 that has been in closet for many a moons "years" and she still rest above 12.5. I did toss trickle on it once, or twice a year. So in my case an old batt is just old but is ready to go direct in if ever needed..