http://www.abqjournal.com/517587/opinion/disconnect-battery-when-storing-car.html Disconnect battery when storing car By Tom and Ray Magliozzi / December 27, 2014
DEAR CAR TALK: We have a Subaru Outback [ice] and a Toyota Prius [hev]. As soon as there are more charging stations around, we plan to get a Tesla Model S electric car. We have a pop-up trailer from which, when not in use, the battery is removed and hooked up to a battery charger. To my surprise, the charger has kept the battery charged very well. When we get the Tesla S, the Subaru would be used only for winter driving and for vacations where we would have to tow the trailer. My question is: If I take the battery out of the Subaru for roughly eight months of the year, would it negatively affect the electrical system or anything else on the Subaru? – Vinnie Dear Vinnie: No, Vinnie. If you take the battery out of the Subaru, the only real danger is that you’ll trip over it in the garage. So, alternatively, you can just disconnect the battery and leave it right in the car. And I wouldn’t bother keeping it on the charger for eight months – you’d just be wasting electricity. If you have a good charger, you can just hook it up the day before you need the car, and the battery should be fine by the next day. That also reduces the risk that something would go wrong with the charger and it would burn down your house while you’re gone. When you reconnect the battery, there are a couple of inconveniences you’ll have to deal with, besides the obvious stuff like losing your radio presets. Most modern cars have computers that “learn” and adapt the engine and transmission to your driving style. So those settings will all be lost, and the car will have to “relearn” them. That means you may notice the car running a little poorly or shifting a little roughly at first. But it’ll go away quickly. However, you should drive the car for a few days before getting it inspected. My brother and I used to recommend all kinds of other things to people who were storing vehicles for months (squirting oil in each cylinder, covering the tailpipe and intake manifold), but we gave up on that, because nobody ever bothered with it. And in the vast majority of cases these days, the cars start and run just fine after being stored, anyway. So just disconnect the battery, and don’t forget to roll up the windows. Good luck, Vinnie. Got a question about cars for Ray Magliozzi? Email the Car Talk website at cartalk.com. [© 2014 Albuquerque Journal] ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-discharge Self-discharge is a phenomenon in batteries in which internal chemical reactions reduce the stored charge of the battery without any connection between the electrodes. Self-discharge decreases the shelf-life of batteries and causes them to initially have less than a full charge when actually put to use ... ... http://www.trojanbattery.com/tech-support/battery-maintenance/ Storage Periods of inactivity can be extremely harmful to lead acid batteries. When placing a battery into storage, follow the recommendations below to ensure that the battery remains healthy and ready for use. NOTE: Storing, charging or operating batteries on concrete is perfectly OK. The Most Important Things to Avoid Freezing. Avoid locations where freezing temperature are expected. Keeping a battery at a high state of charge will also prevent freezing. Freezing results in irreparable damage to a battery’s plates and container. Heat. Avoid direct exposure to heat sources, such as radiators or space heaters. Temperatures above 80° F (26.6º C) accelerate the battery’s self-discharge characteristics. Step-By-Step Storage Procedure Completely charge the battery before storing. Store the battery in a cool, dry location, protected from the elements. During storage, monitor the specific gravity (flooded) or voltage. Batteries in storage should be given a boost charge when they show a 70% charge or less. See Table 1 [ http://www.trojanbattery.com/BatteryMaintenance/Testing.aspx ] in the Testing Section. Completely charge the battery before re-activating. For optimum performance, equalize the batteries (flooded) before putting them back into service. Refer to the Equalizing section for this procedure. [© Trojan Battery] ... http://www.powerstream.com/Storage.htm Periods of inactivity can be extremely harmful to lead acid batteries ... http://www.leadacidbatteryinfo.org/lead-acid-battery-uses.htm must always be stored in a charged state ... http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_store_batteries BU-702: How to Store Batteries ... http://www.onthelake.net/boating/batteries.htm#Checkup_and_Storage Checkup and Storage For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html#nabble+template%2FNamlServlet.jtp%3Fmacro%3Dsearch_page%26node%3D413529%26query%3DEVLN%2Bbrucedp2%26days%3D0%26sort%3Ddate http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1095982_bmw-i3-rex-road-tripping-with-72-electric-miles-1-9-gallon-gas-tank BMW i3 EV w/ rex-option: Road-Tripping w/ 72 e-mi L2-6kW L3-css +ice http://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/electric-vehicle-charging-stations-planned-along-the-lie-1.9717264 $625k for building a corridor of EVSE across 8 Long Island NY towns https://www.longislandexchange.com/press-releases/long-island-cleaner-greener-communities-projects-announced-as-part-of-redc-2014-awards/ + EVLN: Soul EV> a New Age Electric Vibe Car, NYT Video Review {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Click-n-Clack-don-t-know-how-to-put-a-PbSO4-battery-in-storage-tp4673311.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
