The end of an era......

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I pulled this battery from the very first donor C5 that I bought to build the very first GTM I built. I've been using it ever since....mostly to run the windows up and down in the doors while making all of the adjustments to get everything to work and fit right in the door. I'm on GTM #42 right now....which means this battery has ran 84 window regulators up and down.....probably tens of thousands of times at this point. Finally turned it in as a core today and upgraded to a newer bad battery that still has a bit of life left in it. I'm guessing from the sticker that it was made in 2004....

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[JimStone]

RIP

You will be missed

[PMD24]

Yep, Walmart batteries.... best bang for the buck.

[crash]

Yep, Walmart batteries.... best bang for the buck.

We always pay up and get the, IIRC, 72 month guaranteed batteries from Wally World. They never make it that long and usually only 2-3 years, but we haven't paid for a new battery in decades even though we get a couple new ones from Walmart every 2-3 years. This is at our place on the East Coast, where the cars and boat sit for 10 months out of the year. We put maintainers on them but the brutal cold weather does a number on unused batteries...and electronics in general for some reason. We've had to replace our microwave three times in the last ten years or so.

I only put Optima batteries in my vehicles on the West Coast and I have a couple of those that are about 15 years old and still working. The one in my daily driver is just starting to get weak and I looked at the sticker on it last weekend and it says 2017, so not bad, and the lack of acid issues is worth the extra cost to me for the sealed batteries. As we have discussed before, you just can't let the Optima batteries go dead and they last a long time.

[acmikee]

i would say you probably got your money's worth

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

We always pay up and get the, IIRC, 72 month guaranteed batteries from Wally World. They never make it that long and usually only 2-3 years, but we haven't paid for a new battery in decades even though we get a couple new ones from Walmart every 2-3 years. This is at our place on the East Coast, where the cars and boat sit for 10 months out of the year. We put maintainers on them but the brutal cold weather does a number on unused batteries...and electronics in general for some reason. We've had to replace our microwave three times in the last ten years or so.

I only put Optima batteries in my vehicles on the West Coast and I have a couple of those that are about 15 years old and still working. The one in my daily driver is just starting to get weak and I looked at the sticker on it last weekend and it says 2017, so not bad, and the lack of acid issues is worth the extra cost to me for the sealed batteries. As we have discussed before, you just can't let the Optima batteries go dead and they last a long time.

Just glanced over at my boat battery.....also Walmart.....date of 9/17. Every fall, I remove the battery and store it in the shop where it never gets below freezing.....lowest temp my thermostats will go is 45....which is what they're set to every evening and weekend. I rarely put a charger on it......maybe once or twice per winter and then put it back in the boat and run it all season.

[crash]

Yes we do the same as far as pulling the batteries out and putting them on the bench with a trickle charger. The heater in the garage is set to about 38 degrees. Problem is that I am not in charge of this and instead of buying a few separate trickle chargers, the powers that be refuse to pay for that and instead just parallel all the batteries together and use one trickle charger. I suggested that this wasn't the right way to do this and they each needed their own trickle charger and the reply I got was "they last a couple years with this and then we get new ones before the warranty wears out so they are nice and fresh every couple of years so why would I want to make them last any longer?" I guess he has a point. They also all sit right next to a window on the far side away from the heater so I am sure on those -24 degree days the batteries are below the 38 degrees of the garage set point.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I may be wrong, but I don't think it's good for batteries to be full-time trickle charged. My boat battery just sits on my shop floor from October thru April or May. During that time, I probably only put the trickle charger on it maybe 2 or 3 times....and only for an hour or so until the trickle charger indicates that it's fully charged. I just did that yesterday and it was only on the charger for maybe an hour. I'll probably do that one last time in a month before I put it back in the boat for the summer.

I can't imagine that temps would be a problem with your batteries either.....since the only way temp can damage them is if they freeze.....and the only way they're going to freeze is if they're dead AND extremely cold.....which obviously yours are not going to because they're on a constant charge.

[crash]

I don't know. Could be the cold, could be something else, but 3 microwaves in 10 years is not normal. Could be the fact that the power goes out regularly...could be the back up genny is not giving clean power. Could be a lot of things, but our batteries don't last very long and neither do some of our electronics there at the East Coast compound.

I use Battery Minder trickle chargers(not Battery Tender) here on the West Coast and have not had any issues with leaving batteries on them indefinitely. AFAIK, according to the manufacturer, that is what these chargers are built to do. I think the powers that be use a Schumaker charger that is a regular battery charger and booster on the East Coast and just leave them on the "trickle charge" setting. Not sure that charger is built for constant, full time trickle charging. That also could be an issue.

[beeman]

Here's my 12v motivator for circuits, running windows up/down, etc. Lithium, weighs absolutely nothing, fits anywhere that you need 12v. It came with a motorcycle project years ago...

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[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Well that sure would be handier than lugging a car battery around!