REVIVE a 3 YEAR stored/maltreated battery?

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Getting my father's 2005 dodge ram 5.7L 4wd 1500. It has a 4 year old Farm & Fleet (Johnson Controls) battery that was poorly kept over the past 3 years after he became parapalegic. It was run for about 30 minutes once a month appx. so it has been maltreated and never taken out in winter time over this period of minimal use. It currently somehow still starts the truck, not robustly but starts it indeed.

I don't want to ruin a $300 alternator for a $80 battery.

It is appx. 700 -800 CCA top post. Any genuine way to top it off with charge to make it whole again or is it likely a sad excuse for what it once chemically was?

Any charging regemine you recommend to top it up? A formula?....A certain amps over certain hours per hundred CCA?
 
take it to an autoparts store if you dont have a charger


they will charge and test it

examples
autozone
AAP
 
Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Getting my father's 2005 dodge ram 5.7L 4wd 1500. It has a 4 year old Farm & Fleet (Johnson Controls) battery that was poorly kept over the past 3 years after he became parapalegic. It was run for about 30 minutes once a month appx. so it has been maltreated and never taken out in winter time over this period of minimal use. It currently somehow still starts the truck, not robustly but starts it indeed.

I don't want to ruin a $300 alternator for a $80 battery.

It is appx. 700 -800 CCA top post. Any genuine way to top it off with charge to make it whole again or is it likely a sad excuse for what it once chemically was?

Any charging regemine you recommend to top it up? A formula?....A certain amps over certain hours per hundred CCA?
Buy a new 80 dollar battery.
 
If you have an automatic charger and a voltmeter, charge the battery until fully charged.

(This is the part that some people will not agree with). With the charger off, turn on the headlights and monitor the battery voltage until it drops to 11 volts. Repeat this cycle 4 to 6 times.

If the time it takes to drop to 11 volts increases with each cycle, that is about as good as it gets. If the time it takes to loose voltages gets shorter......Get a new battery.
 
I have a decade-old shoe-box sized Vector (now Black & Decker) 25A charger with a recondition mode. I can put a battery on it and it alternately charges and discharges the battery until it declares it reconditioned (or errors-out).

It's never fixed anything. The batteries I've tried the recon mode on, were all near end of life, and continued their downward slide.

On another note, the charger has a 75A jump-start mode that does absolutely nothing. Not one Amp.

After B&D took over, they re-introduced the same charger, only they made it 5 times larger. The Vector I have is a good, intelligent charger, with AGM, Gel and Wet modes as well as 2A/10a/25A charge modes. I found a wheeled charger/jump-starter at a yard sale and repaired it, so together they take care of all my 12V charging needs.
 
Does it work? Great. Does it not? Replace it. Why does it have to be more complicated then that?

If the truck starts like butt its probably not your battery.
 
Why would a low battery ruin the alternator? For new I put two Motorcraft MAX batteries in my Ram. Good price and warranty.
 
With all the modules and not to mention the alternator it is unwise to mess around with weak battery's. I replace my battery's every 4-5 years regardless of how they perform.

Originally Posted By: totegoat
Why would a low battery ruin the alternator? For new I put two Motorcraft MAX batteries in my Ram. Good price and warranty.

A weak battery forces the alternator to overwork, it is also hard on computers which need the correct voltage and current.
 
REVIVE a 3 YEAR stored/maltreated battery?

Grumpy_Cat_No_04.jpg
 
Run a Battery Minder in delsulfation mode (as mentioned above), get a cheap solar battery charger from HF or Northern Tool to keep it fully charged, both have saved me mucho dinero on batteries.
 
Back in the old day's we'd drop aspirin in them. Probably did about as much good as pouring a Coke on a corroded terminal.
 
Originally Posted By: SrDriver
Wal-Mart here sells a new battery for $49.00 - nation wide warranty.
And less with an exchange. I've got a 24 size in a Camry and it cranks very well. I wouldn't expect it to be good for 5 years in a hard climate but so far so good. It's worth looking at.
 
Originally Posted By: SrDriver
Wal-Mart here sells a new battery for $49.00 - nation wide warranty.
Yes, buy the $49 battery at Walmart.

I have one in my Camry. No problems yet.
 
Originally Posted By: bradepb

A weak battery forces the alternator to overwork, it is also hard on computers which need the correct voltage and current.


You can't really "force an alternator to over-work." Its output is determined by its design and the amount of control current that the PCM (or analog regulator) applies to the stator terminals.The battery has nothing to do with it, at least not in the usual ways batteries fail. If a battery failed as a dead short, then yes that might be a problem for the alternator (and wiring) in the vehicle. But usually batteries fail by exhibiting a higher and higher internal resistance over time which means they take less and less charging current. An old battery's terminal voltage goes up to normal with just a few amps charging current, but its capacity is way down so the voltage drops as soon as the charging current is removed, and falls WAY down as soon as a load is put on the battery because of the high internal resistance.

In the case of throwing a good, but deeply discharged, battery on an alternator- again, no harm no foul to the charging system unless the alternator or wiring is in bad shape to start with. It will go to its maximum current output and stay there for a while until the battery begins to charge. What is most likely to suffer in that condition is the BATTERY, since a 100+ amp charging current is very hard on the battery itself. It should be brought up to a reasonable partial charge at much lower current before being hit with what a vehicle alternator can do.
 
Sumpchump: Have you checked the electrolyte level in each cell? Don't charge a battery with low electrolyte.

If it starts the truck, I'd keep it.
 
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