Battery maintainer for cold weather

iamtheari

iamtheari

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We have a couple of vehicles that live in the cold weather and don’t get driven every day. Cold weather means North Dakota, about 3 months of temperatures ranging from -20 up to 20. What’s the best thing to do for their batteries, other than removing them and keeping them someplace warm for the winter?
 
For one don't let them discharge to the point they freeze.

A car battery will freeze if its state of charge and the temperature are low enough. A fully charged battery at 12.7 volts will freeze at -70°F. A half-charged battery (12.0 volts) can start freezing at 5°F and a fully discharged car battery (11.5-volts) will freeze at 32°F.
 
AKBill said:
For one don't let them discharge to the point they freeze.

A car battery will freeze if its state of charge and the temperature are low enough. A fully charged battery at 12.7 volts will freeze at -70°F. A half-charged battery (12.0 volts) can start freezing at 5°F and a fully discharged car battery (11.5-volts) will freeze at 32°F.
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I’ve lived most of my life here and didn’t realize it was that drastic. That definitely explains some of my bad motorcycle battery experiences.

My fear is that a battery maintainer will get confused and/or damage the battery when everything is cold. Do the stores in Alaska carry any particular brands that work well? I figure it’s like snow shovels down here, they don’t bother stocking the kinds that don’t do the job.
 
iamtheari said:
We have a couple of vehicles that live in the cold weather and don’t get driven every day. Cold weather means North Dakota, about 3 months of temperatures ranging from -20 up to 20. What’s the best thing to do for their batteries, other than removing them and keeping them someplace warm for the winter?
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Those vehicles would be sold if they were mine.
 
iamtheari said:
My fear is that a battery maintainer will get confused and/or damage the battery when everything is cold. Do the stores in Alaska carry any particular brands that work well? I figure it’s like snow shovels down here, they don’t bother stocking the kinds that don’t do the job.
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I'm not Bill, but I lived a fair amount of my life in North Dakota and northern Minnesota and have made my living off automotive electronics/electrical systems. I haven't seen a battery maintainer that will get confused in cold weather so I wouldn't worry about that, but you may have trouble if the battery is too dead to charge or the charger goes offline due to a power interruption. You're going to want to check on the chargers periodically to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. It is important to pick the right maintainer/charger to do the job, because not all batteries are the same. Assuming you have the typical wet lead acid type batteries, I have always used Battery Minder brand chargers/maintainers with good results.

With that said, a little preparation and awareness of the condition of the batteries goes a long way. I have a lot of vehicles/equipment with batteries in them that sit for longer periods of time in between uses. I rarely leave them plugged in all the time, if it has been over a month since I used the equipment I'll put a Battery Minder on it for a while then move it to the next machine. The only batteries I've had trouble with were the ones that were on death's door anyway.
 
Do any of them have engine block heaters? If you're driving them at least a couple of times a month, just plugging them in might be sufficient. Growing up, my dad had a car he didn't drive much (it maybe drove once a week), and in the winter he'd just plug the engine block heater in. That car never had any troubles starting, whether it was -20 or +20.
 
This BatteryMinder goes on sale at Northerntool.com several times a year. I have a bunch of them on cars boats trains and planes.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200332201_200332201

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You DON'T want a "Trickle" charger. That will over charge your battery and ruin it if not monitored. You want a maintainer/tender. There is a difference. They will keep a battery charged properly and not over charge the battery. I keep one on the battery on my dirt bike that doesn't get ridden enough anymore. When we had a motorhome, I kept one on that also. Worked well. There are also small heaters that can be attached to keep it warm, but probably not needed in your case. I have one that is magnetic. You can stick it anywhere and it will provide some warmth. I think its about 700 watts or something like that. Workes good on engine blocks, or oil pans to keep the oil warm. I would bet you can find a tender that is solar powered.
 
At times I’ll put a charger on a vehicle for a few hours, wife’s Honda, whatever. Many uses are 20 minutes, 10 miles, not sure if it always catches up.

For the motorcycle, ATV & such, I rote a maintainer around periodically.
 
Most modern chargers reduce the charge to a maintenance charge one the battery is charged. If the battery is healthy and charged and you don’t have any parasitic loads to drain them? The cold weather won’t bother them. I have starting batteries that stay outside all winter and work fine when I need them.
 
Keeping the battery inside when the temperature drops is great, except when you have the situation one of my dad's students had back in the winter of 68/69 (the winter that was). He took the battery for his VW Bug in for the night when the temperature dropped to significantly below 0 F. Great idea, except the next morning he couldn't open the car door (the battery was installed under one of the seats) because it was frozen shut. Oops.
 
SkyChaser said:
Do any of them have engine block heaters? If you're driving them at least a couple of times a month, just plugging them in might be sufficient. Growing up, my dad had a car he didn't drive much (it maybe drove once a week), and in the winter he'd just plug the engine block heater in. That car never had any troubles starting, whether it was -20 or +20.
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All of those that live outside have block heaters. Fun but unsurprising fact: A North Dakotan invented the electric block heater.

I'm liking the Battery Minder recommendations. I have always used Battery Tenders in climate controlled spaces like my hangar or garage, but it looks like the same money put toward a Battery Minder will get temperature compensation. (Plus I had to throw an inop Battery Tender Jr out recently so I'm already in the mood to try a different brand.)

Now I just have to research whether the Battery Minder is smart enough to shut off when it gets below the designed operating temperature range. Their model 1500 says it works from -4F to 122F. It doesn't say what happens below -4F. The manual says that it shuts down "if operating temperature is exceeded" but that could mean only on the high end.
 
+1 to Battery Minder.
Email them and ask, IIRC they're pretty responsive.
 
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