I had three batteries I took to Autozone to have charged:

a. dead battery but bought at Azone maybe a year ago b. dead battery not Azone brand c. weak battery not Azone brand

Autozone was to charge all three, if they would take a charge, and mark any as "bad" that would'nt take a charge. Their results were:

a. good battery b. bad battery c. bad battery I took these home and hooked each up to my Sears 10amp 12 volt charger with the following results:

a. charge meter went to 12 amps and stayed there never falling back. The terminals got a little hot and I unplugged the charger and disconnected. The "good" battery either still needed a whale of a charge or something else was wrong.

b. charge meter went to 10 amps, slowly fell to about 6 amps, and then climed back up to 8 amps. I unplugged and disconnected. I have not seen a battery climb back up while still being charged before.

c. charge meter went to 8 amp and slowly fell to 2 amps and the machine cut off and the little light showed fully charged.

So, is Autozone snowing me or is my charger? Which should I count on using at the farm tomorrow morning?

-- charles (clb@dixienet.com), August 14, 2001

Answers

Response to a charging question

Charles: C....no, wait, B... ahh, darn, what was the question again? Seriously, my money is on the one that YOUR charger gave the "charged" light on. A sounds like an internal short. Don't give up on B. Are these "maintenance free" type, unserviceable or can you check the water level in the individual cells? I try to stay with batteries that I can refill with distilled water. Also, are these batteries the deep cycle type or the engine cranking type. Is the job at the farm engine starting or something else. Need more info.

-- Frank (fhill@absolute-net.com), August 14, 2001.

Response to a charging question

Your situation is the reason I NEVER buy parts from Autozone or any other national chain.

They are notorious for selling cheap junk for cheap prices.

Find yourself a GOOD mom and pop auto parts store and build a relationship with them. It may cost you a couple of dollars more now, but will save you hundreds down the road.

Just my two cents.

-- clove (clovis97@Yahoo.com), August 14, 2001.

Response to a charging question

My guess:

'a' is a good battery, it just is not quite charged, maybe they charged it then discharged it doing heavy load tests on it. The terminals got hot because of high resistance, i.e. dirty terminals or charger clips etc.

'b' is a marginal battery, I don't know what might be wrong with it.

'c' is no good, it has no capacity to speak of, probably sulphated.

Just my guess, batteries get a good life from me but at the first sign of sickness they get taken to the recyclers.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), August 15, 2001.