Stop Sulfation and Extend Battery Life With Smart Maintenance

Cars are meant to be driven, right? So while it is common to assume that parking a car is the best thing you can do for it, extended downtime is actually one of the leading causes of premature battery failure. It’s a use-it-or-lose-it sort of thing.

If you’re driving your car every day, your battery doesn’t face any serious threats to its long-term viability. But if you have a classic vehicle, motorcycle, RV, or seasonal lawn equipment that spends a lot of time sitting idle, you need to understand how battery chemistry behaves. Routine driving and long-term storage have distinct impacts on batteries.

Regular Driving Maintains Battery Health

During normal operation, a car battery is subjected to a continuous cycle of discharge and recharge. The battery delivers a massive burst of electricity to start the car, but once the engine fires, the alternator takes over. It powers onboard electronics and replenishes the battery.

This continuous cycle plays a vital role in preventing sulfation. And just in case you didn’t know, sulfation kills batteries.

When a lead-acid or AGM battery discharges, the chemical process inside leads to the creation of sulfate crystals. The crystals naturally form on internal lead plates. As they build up, they reduce battery capacity.

Regular driving fights sulfation by ensuring that the battery is fully charged on a daily basis. Recharging breaks up the sulfate crystals so that they are absorbed back into the liquid electrolyte. Lead plates are kept clean and conductive.

When a Battery Sits Idle for Long Periods of Time

A car battery sitting idle for long periods of time doesn’t have to produce that quick burst of energy needed to start a car. Still, two destructive processes take place inside:

• Parasitic Draw – Modern vehicles constantly draw energy from the battery even when they are not running. This is called parasitic draw. It gradually discharges the battery, contributing to sulfation.

• Permanent Crystal Hardening – A battery remaining in a partially discharged state encourages sulfate crystals to begin combining and hardening. They can ultimately become irreversible crystalline structures.

Hardened crystals act as electrical insulators. They drastically reduce the battery’s surface area, thereby reducing cold-cranking amps and making it impossible for the cell to hold a full charge. The result is battery death.

Smart Battery Maintenance Is the Key

Again, you don’t have to worry about battery maintenance if you drive your car every day. But any batteries subject to long-term storage need to be properly maintained. Clore Automotive, the company behind the PRO-LOGIX line of smart battery maintainers, says it’s best to avoid trickle chargers. Smart battery maintenance requires a smart charger.

Trickle chargers push a constant electrical current into a battery. They don’t monitor the state of charge or voltage saturation. So if a battery is left connected to a trickle charger indefinitely, it could actually damage the battery. Risks include boiling off electrolyte fluid, off-gassing, swelling, and bursting.

A smart battery maintainer utilizes multi-stage charging routines. For instance, once a battery is fully charged, a smart maintainer enters maintenance mode. The battery is constantly monitored, with the unit only kicking in when self-discharge reduces the total charge to a certain threshold. Some smart maintainers even have a desulfation mode capable of breaking up crystals to extend battery life.

Drive or Maintain the Battery

The summary of all of this is that batteries need consistent charge and discharge cycles to stay healthy. So either drive your vehicle on a regular basis or invest in a smart battery maintainer. Taking care of your battery will extend its life as long as possible.