Maintaining a New, non fitted Battery.

[Emmit]

Evening All,

In August I bought new batteries for the van. I bought three batteries, but,
in the end, I only fitted two.

In October, I put that battery on a charger and not very long later the charger
showed that the battery was 'Fully Charged.' (And so it should, I hear you cry.)

My question is this; How often should I put it on charge and, whilst appreciating
that such a regime wont last forever, how long can I reasonably expect to treat this
battery as 'New' and therefore match it with a similar battery to be used as a Hab. Battery.

 

[Spriddler]

A brand new battery should remain fully charged for a month.
Most modern chargers' output will/should drop to zero when the battery is fully charged.
I've a couple of batteries permanently on a Halfords intelligent charger in my shed. The 'Fully charged' LED extinguishes and 'Charged and Maintaining' LED illuminates.
If I didn't have the intelligent charger I'd just check its voltage every month or so and when it dropped to say around 12.3v I'd put the charger on for a couple of hours.
Failing that I'd put the charger on a timer to come on for an hour or so once a week or two and check its voltage with a meter every now and then (charger swtiched off a couple of hours before checking).

 

[Just smiffy]

Gel or lead…?

I’ve heard it said that if the two batteries haven’t had a hard life then two years you add the third, but under normal circumstances up to a year you can add the third ….

 

[Lenny HB]

If its a smart charger you can leave it on other wise top it it up once a month, never leave for more than 3 months without a charge.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Get an optimate 1 and leave it on permanently, it maintains at 0.6 amps and then rests the battery every 30 minutes. Mine is on it all winter

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[Emmit]

Gel or lead…?

I’ve heard it said that if the two batteries haven’t had a hard life then two years you add the third, but under normal circumstances up to a year you can add the third ….

That's why I not adding to the extant lot.

 

[Emmit]

Gel or lead…?

I’ve heard it said that if the two batteries haven’t had a hard life then two years you add the third, but under normal circumstances up to a year you can add the third ….

Lead.

 

[Emmit]

Update;
Last night I braved the wind and rain and went the garage to do the deed.
Before I connected the charger, using a multimeter, the battery showed 12.89v.

An hour and a half later I went back outside and got wet again?

The charger was showing the battery as f'lup so I disconnected and went to bed.

This morning I checked the battery and it showed 12.99v.