‘Dead’ Car Batteries

The main purpose for any automotive battery is to start the engine.  These Batteries uses less than three percent of its capacity to start the engine.  As soon as the engine starts, the power for the car is supplied by the alternator.  These batteries are designed to discharge high voltage of current and then recharge quickly. Most of the SLI or lead -acid battery provides 12 Volts of direct current.

The car battery usually has a life about 5 years.  But, did you know that the Battery which we assume dead are actually good batteries.  They just don’t produce enough power to start a car engine but it does discharge little power which can be used for smaller things.  The power discharged from a dead battery is enough for the lights and fans in our house.  Instead of putting it in the carriage or simply returning it to the service person we can put these batteries to a good use.

It can be used to charge a solar panel of 20 watts using the charge controller. In another instance the lead from the dead battery can be recycled into solar cells.

If unsure about how to use the dead car battery, please ensure that it is disposed /recycled properly. The best way is to always return it to your mechanic or service provider who will in turn see to that, it is recycled properly.

The heavy metals in the battery may pollute the environment to a greater extent. It can pollute the air and water around us. Nearly 90% of the heavy metals and toxic chemicals in lead-acid batteries can be recycled.  Thus, if unsure about how to use the dead car battery, please ensure that it is disposed /recycled properly.

How often should my car be used to avoid battery death?

Most of us owning a car constantly are in worry of losing the battery if the car is not often used. But the question pondering over everyone’s head is “How often is enough?” In this blog, we’ll see in detail and provide you all the answers that you are searching for.

The cars that are being launched recently have the ability to stay for a month on an average without the battery dying away. However, this estimate also depends on the car batteries age, climate changes and your driving habits.

As you know, an electro-chemical reaction takes place inside a battery that produces electricity. This reaction takes place at a slower rate in an unused battery. This is the reason batteries lose charge when kept idle.

Additionally, if the battery is connected to a car, it drains much faster since the car drains the battery’s juice even when parked. This is mainly due to the onboard computers, alarm systems, radio and various other systems that are constantly working.

According to experts, the best thing to do is drive your car on a regular basis every three or four days. You can drive around 1015 km at a time and this should be a little longer in the winter, since you would be using the rear defroster and heater. These draw a huge amount of power from your battery. If you are not going to drive, but instead plan on idling your car every day for just some time, this will harm your battery more. To get a clear idea of this, we’ll explain it to you clearly. To start your engine, you need to draw 100130 amps from your battery and putting your car on idle for around 15 minutes just charges the battery a little and puts back 3-5 amps. So, the battery does not get recharged properly and this results in the charge getting lower and lower than before. This is also the case when you drive for short distances. The battery does not get enough time to get fully recharged.

So, what is the solution if you are going out of town for a month on a vacation? The possible thing you can do is to disconnect the negative cable of the batteries for car. This prevents the electrical system of the battery to drain power from the battery.