Lately my car batteries last about two years. The first battery on my 2014 Mazda 6 went after two years. The dealer replaced it (giving me something off because of the warranty) and now my battery is going again. I don’t drive a lot. Most of my trips are short ones. My wife and I also love the heated seats in the winter, which I assume eat a lot of power. There is a lot of information on the web that says that this kind of use can lead to premature battery death. My question is this;
If I were to buy a good charger and use it periodically, would that significantly extend the life of the battery? By significant, I mean another two years, I don’t expect it to be immortal.
Your car’s alternator should be able to handle the extra load of the seats along with the headlights and everything else that is in the car. Were the heated seats added later or are they factory original? If they were added later you might need an alternator upgrade.
If your trips are too short, then it’s possible that the alternator never gets a chance to fully charge the battery. In that case, the previously mentioned battery tender will help a lot.
Another thing that can help is to install a larger battery. This is difficult to do on some cars these days since they squeeze 14 pounds of crap into a 5 pound box under the hood and there’s barely enough room to insert a sheet of paper sideways let alone a larger battery. But if you have room for it, a larger battery will last a lot longer. I always install the largest battery that will fit in my vehicles and the batteries basically last forever. A larger battery will also start the car more reliably in the dead of winter.
Even with a larger battery, you might still need a battery tender.
Very short trips are bad for cars. If the car doesn’t get a chance to fully warm up, then water will condense in your exhaust system and it will rust out a lot earlier than normal. Moisture will also condense in your oil due to temperature changes overnight. If the car warms up all the way, all of that moisture gets flashed into steam and expelled. Your car will last a lot longer if you drive it at least 15 or 20 minutes at least once every week or two.
Note that many chargers work as battery tenders these days. In the old days a charger was just a charger and you wouldn’t want to use one as a battery tender since it would overcharge the battery and cause problems. Newer chargers monitor the battery and go into maintenance mode like a tender once the battery is fully charged.
How often do you start it up and drive it? How long are the trips?
Just an FYI, but a car should be started at least every two weeks. After you start it, the battery is a little bit depleted, so you also want to make sure the engine runs at least 10 minutes in order to charge the battery back up.
In addition I would buy a voltmeter that plugs into your cigarette lighter (assuming your car has one). When the engine is running, it will let you know if the alternator is putting out enough voltage to adequately charge the battery.
I had that that problem, the issues was a faulty alternator, which seemed to be a voltage regular issue which is integral in it. It would at times over-change my battery, I could see the headlights brighten at times. Batteries lasted less then 2 years and since it was replaced free under the warrantee and the car was old and in need of replacement anyway I just replaced the battery free of charge 2x.
Thanks for all your replies. I think I will go for a bigger battery (maybe one of those expensive Optima batteries) and some kind of battery maintainer. And maybe try to drive a half hour every two weeks.
FWIW I’ve been reading a lot of grumbling that Optimas aren’t all that great anymore. You can get the same benefits with any AGM battery w/o shelling out for an Optima.