# Car battery drained...what should I do?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-battery-drained-what-should-i-do/627231>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 4, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-battery-drained-what-should-i-do/627231 "2012-07-04T18:51:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/car-battery-drained-what-should-i-do/627231/21 "2012-07-05T13:29:46Z")

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> [@ManiacMan](#):
>
> but after reading about the likely damage I think it’s best to replace it

Yep.

Last Sunday my 13 year old daughter was cutting the grass with our riding mower. After a few hours she came in the house and said, “The mower ran out of gas.”

I didn’t think anything of it at the time. The mower sat there until Friday, upon which I finally got around to filling up the gas can and filling the mower with gas (see [my related pit thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=657534)). It was then that I discovered she had left the mower’s ignition switch in the “ON” position after it ran out of gas. Battery was dead. Which meant the battery was dead for a five days. ☹

Even though I have an external battery charger, I didn’t even bother trying to charge it. A lead acid battery that remains in a discharged state for more than a day or so is likely toast. Went out and bought a new one.

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