How much damage does a battery suffer...

[Dirtman]

When you kill a car battery... I meannto like 1 volt.... how much damage does it suffer? Just did it to my brand new battery. Got it charging but now im concerned it's damaged for life. Yea it'll probably work fine when charged but did I take years off its life?

 

[Curious Hound]

Yes. You took life out of it. I believe in the other thread you mentioned that it's a new battery. That may work in your favor. How much life did you steal from it? It's anybody's guess. And it's just that. A guess. I've done it a couple times to some batteries and still got years of use out of them. Not sure I got them down to 1 or 2 volts though. If it will take a charge and start working again, use it til it dies. If it dies early enough, the store might prorate your replacement.

I would charge it good. Use it for a few days. Then put the charger on it again overnight. Use it a few more days. Then, one day after it has sat unused all night, put your meter on and see what it's cold resting voltage is. That will give you an indication of what condition it's in. RonD or somebody posts a little blurb here from time to time with a general rule of thumb. " New battery voltage is xxxx. Voltage between x and y is a battery x yrs old. Voltage between...."

 

[adsm08]

It will be fine. The battery in my B2 is less than a year old and I've done that to it a few times. It still takes and holds a charge.

 

[sgtsandman]

Once, it should be ok. Especially if it didn't sit like that for a long time. More than that, it's definitely starting to take damage. I forget what the actual damage is, but it's something to do with the plates. I think but I'm not sure, they develop some sort of oxidation.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

And when it does shit the bed. Desulfate it and keep running it

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

What really kills them is being flat in cold temps. I doubt you did much damage to it.

 

[RonD]

It did do damage but can't really say how much

Car batteries have thinner plates inside so they can discharge high AMPs in a short time, even when cold
CCA, cold cranking amps of 450 means the battery can provide 450 amps for 30 seconds at 32degF(0degC)

The thinner plates don't last as long as thicker plates used in Deep Cycle batteries, when there is a constant drain, the thin positive plates starts to disintegrate, and debris falls to the bottom of battery, and if enough builds up it will short out remaining plates which causes a self draining battery, this is usually how a car battery ends its life, becomes self draining, can't hold a charge more than a few hours

Deep cycle batteries have lower CCA, like 200, but can provide steady amps for many hours, and the thicker plates don't disintegrate as much on total discharge

But to tell how much damage occured you would need a crystal ball, lol

 

[joey74]

And when it does shit the bed. Desulfate it and keep running it

how do you desulfate it ?

 

[Dirtman]

I know there are special chargers to do it but they aren't cheap.

 

[adsm08]

how do you desulfate it ?

Some chargers, including most new bigger ones, have a disulfate mode, if you can open the caps dropping aspirin tabs in will do it as well.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

You desulfate a battery by draining the acid out of it. And filling it with a mixture of epsom salt and distilled water. Trickle charging the battery for about a week until it registers a charge. Then refilling the battery with acid.

 

[rusty ol ranger]

This is why shit needs crank start as a back up.

 

[sgtsandman]

This is why shit needs crank start as a back up.

That is what a manual transmission and a hill is for.

 

[RonD]

This is why shit needs crank start as a back up.

Ford's Model T 4cyl engine had compression ratio of 4:1, so hand crank would be hard but doable, at 9:1 ratio............well a 4cyl gives you 180deg rotation between full compression, V6 120deg, V8 90deg
Hard to get any build up of rotation speed in a V engine

Could install compression releases, to build up speed

But frankly it would be cheaper to just engineer and install two starter motors on an engine so you could have a back up if thats the goal

 

[Dirtman]

I got one of these, installing it today.