Lawn mower batttery got worse from charging

[jeepman3071]

Those cheap lawn mower batteries you are lucky to get 2 years out of them.

The most I got was 8 years out of an Interstate, but it was in a garden tractor I used year round, and kept on a battery tender during the cold months between snow storms. For machines not used in winter, your best bet is removing the battery and keeping it in your basement on a tender, otherwise it will probably be dead. Frequent use of the machine they are in and charging helps keep them functioning for longer it seems.

 

[SHOZ]

On my new mower I'm going to connect my 2/6A charger and a timer, run it 15 minutes a week. See how that does. John Deere non serviceable 300CCA battery.

 

[Astro_Guy]

It seems that I've had better luck with these than many of you. My John Deere D140 came with a JD branded 195 CCA battery that went four seasons. I would start it up and run it for a little while two or three times over the winter for the first three seasons. After season four I either forgot to do this or just got lazy. At the beginning of season five it wouldn't turn over. The battery accepted a charge and started. A week later the battery wouldn't accept a charge. The battery was replaced with a 230 CCA unit from Walmart at a cost of $28 and change. That was April of 2019.

Rolling the clock forward, that same battery started the tractor today. Some recent cold starts have been weak and my charger seems to think it needs to be charged a bit. In any case, this battery has served me well for five seasons. I suspect that it will need to be replaced at the start of next season. I think that $28 over the course of five seasons is more than reasonable.

Would an AGM battery last longer? Probably. Will that extra lifespan justify the added cost? Probably not. Personally I cannot help but wonder if a LiFePO4 battery would work in this application.

 

[Cujet]

Personally I cannot help but wonder if a LiFePO4 battery would work in this application.

Of course it will. And properly treated, will last for years. Unfortunately, the LiFePO4 batteries range from complete junk to utterly wonderful. Price seems to be somewhat correlated. I purchased an X2 lithium motorcycle battery from the battery plus store, and it was 100% trouble free. The one I ordered from Amazon is sketchy beyond words. Sometimes dead and other times completely full. So weird.

 

[ripcord]

It seems that I've had better luck with these than many of you. My John Deere D140 came with a JD branded 195 CCA battery that went four seasons. I would start it up and run it for a little while two or three times over the winter for the first three seasons. After season four I either forgot to do this or just got lazy. At the beginning of season five it wouldn't turn over. The battery accepted a charge and started. A week later the battery wouldn't accept a charge. The battery was replaced with a 230 CCA unit from Walmart at a cost of $28 and change. That was April of 2019.

Rolling the clock forward, that same battery started the tractor today. Some recent cold starts have been weak and my charger seems to think it needs to be charged a bit. In any case, this battery has served me well for five seasons. I suspect that it will need to be replaced at the start of next season. I think that $28 over the course of five seasons is more than reasonable.

Would an AGM battery last longer? Probably. Will that extra lifespan justify the added cost? Probably not. Personally I cannot help but wonder if a LiFePO4 battery would work in this application.

LiFePo4 batteries have some limitations that curb their usefulness as a starter battery. The main one being relatively low safe discharge rates compared to lead acid batteries. Generally, a 3C discharge rate is the maximum momentary rating so you would need a relatively large and expensive battery just to give enough CCA's. The other big issue with the LiFePo4 chemistry is the inability to charge them below freezing. A third issue is that when discharged, LiFePo4 batteries charge at an extremely high rate compared to lead acid. In a system designed for lead acid batteries they can overheat the charging system.

 

[Astro_Guy]

Of course it will. And properly treated, will last for years. Unfortunately, the LiFePO4 batteries range from complete junk to utterly wonderful. Price seems to be somewhat correlated. I purchased an X2 lithium motorcycle battery from the battery plus store, and it was 100% trouble free. The one I ordered from Amazon is sketchy beyond words. Sometimes dead and other times completely full. So weird.

I was at Walmart this afternoon and saw that the 230 CCA U1 battery I purchased for $28 in 2019 is now up to $30. If only essential things like gasoline and groceries had experienced similarly small inflation, but I digress. I saw a U1 46 Ah LiFePO4 batter advertised online for $399 or 13X the cost of the Walmart battery. Even if one were to handicap the lead acid U1 to three years lifespan one could never break even.

If you know of something that might work in this application, please share a link.

 

[Astro_Guy]

LiFePo4 batteries have some limitations that curb their usefulness as a starter battery. The main one being relatively low safe discharge rates compared to lead acid batteries. Generally, a 3C discharge rate is the maximum momentary rating so you would need a relatively large and expensive battery just to give enough CCA's. The other big issue with the LiFePo4 chemistry is the inability to charge them below freezing. A third issue is that when discharged, LiFePo4 batteries charge at an extremely high rate compared to lead acid. In a system designed for lead acid batteries they can overheat the charging system.

Yes, one has to wonder what sort of BMS would be included with a small battery such as this. I recently saw an advertisement from a US based producer hawking cold temperature charging protection as if it were a new thing. It seems unlikely that we will see internal heaters with a BMS that heats the battery to a safe temperature for charging at the realistic price point of a U1 battery.

As far as staring capacity goes, I suspect that 150 CCA would be more than enough for most lawn tractors. Keep in mind that LiFePO4 batteries don't suffer the same low temperature degradations at the lead-acid counterparts. The latter tend to be oversized to compensate for this.

 

[Cujet]

LiFePo4 batteries have some limitations that curb their usefulness as a starter battery. The main one being relatively low safe discharge rates compared to lead acid batteries. Generally, a 3C discharge rate is the maximum momentary rating

The LiFe Ballistic brand battery (no longer available) could easily crank a 540 cubic inch Lycoming. It was designed for this. As are the LiFePO4 Motorcycle batteries. Quality ones are more expensive and work quite well, with good brands easily cranking a V-Twin Harley.

A lawn tractor will peak at 150A or so, and drop to as low as 30 amps when cranking. Any 14 series LiFePO4 motorcycle LiFePO4 battery will start a Briggs or Kohler/Kawasaki lawn tractor.

The 14 size, (small) X2 lithium battery will provide a "claimed" 400A cranking power. And yet is just a 50 watt hour battery! One easily started my Suzuki 1000cc V-Twin.

 

[ripcord]

The LiFe Ballistic brand battery (no longer available) could easily crank a 540 cubic inch Lycoming. It was designed for this. As are the LiFePO4 Motorcycle batteries. Quality ones are more expensive and work quite well, with good brands easily cranking a V-Twin Harley.

A lawn tractor will peak at 150A or so, and drop to as low as 30 amps when cranking. Any 14 series LiFePO4 motorcycle LiFePO4 battery will start a Briggs or Kohler/Kawasaki lawn tractor.

The 14 size, (small) X2 lithium battery will provide a "claimed" 400A cranking power. And yet is just a 50 watt hour battery! One easily started my Suzuki 1000cc V-Twin.

Those look sweet! They have very different characteristics from standard LiFePo4 cells than you would find in stationary or EV applications, though.

 

[andyd]

I think the present U-1 is 4 yrs old on my Craftsman 42" mower. It was the cheapest I could find, Lowes on sale? I've been using it to move cartfuls of firewood. It was just clicking when I 1st tried to start after a 3month hiatus, but that was just a stuck open solenoid. It plays well with the HF 1/2 watt maintainer.

 

[SHOZ]

I went to put my 2/6A charge and a 10 minute a week timer on my new John Deere the other day. It's been sitting about three weeks since starting. I was surprised to see the voltage at 12.58v before connoting the charger.

I was surprised to find out the OE U1 battery is a Sealed Lead Acid battery.

 

[Astro_Guy]

Last weekend I put a 4 Ampdigital battery charger / teder on the JD140 for ten minutes. The battery dates from early 2019. After this brief charge it turned over slowly but started. The 15w-40 in the sump was probably below 32 F at the time. After about a minute I shut it down and attempted to restart. It wouldn't turn over.

Next I put it back on the digital battery charger / tender for 20 minutes. After that it started enthusiastically. I took it out of the shed and chopped some leaves for 3-4 minutes and shut it down again. After a ten minute rest it started enthusiastically once more. It appears that I may see six years of service on a battery purhased for $28.

 

[jake wells]

I use Deka or Interstate batteries in my mowers and getting 5 or 6 years from them is not unusual.

 

[The_Eric]

I use Deka or Interstate batteries in my mowers and getting 5 or 6 years from them is not unusual.

I use Deka too and get similar results. I feel like I have been pretty lucky after listening to all sorts of people (both on here and around where I live). I stepped up my battery game starting at the end of last season by purchasing a maintainer.. Hoping that will get me another year or two out of the 2 L&G batteries for my OPE

 

[Lawnman23]

I know the battery is junk i was more curious as to the cause of lower voltage after charging

To paraphrase from this post, a few of the cells inside the battery have shorted causing half-voltage.

Battery drops to 10.5 volts after charging

A few days ago, my 97 Corolla had trouble starting. It cranks but doesn't start, maybe due to a problem with the carburetor. Figured I might discharge the battery, so I stopped my attempts at start...

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She's dead Jim.