Best lawn mower battery

[Scrubcadet10]

For th record I have never seen a small engine charging at 14 volts, not saying they don't, but On the ATV's and other equipment I have worked on with charging systems the average seems be 13.2-13.5 volts at the battery. My cub cadet has charged at 13.2 volts since new. No issues with Batteries prematurely going bad.
Maybe if it has an electric PTO clutch I could imagine it would require a beefier charge.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Hello all, I have bought a bunch of Walmart mower batteries. They outlast the 90 warranty and that's about all. I would like a battery that will last a year or two. Or should I mount a car battery between my feet! All reply's much appreciated..........Jay

Car batteries are not mechanically strong enough to be used in a mower unless it has suspension.
Motorcycle batteries and in particular AGM PVR motorcycle batteries are by far the most robust aside from spiral cell batteries which are even stronger.

As for Walmart, every battery that comes off the production line is tested.
The good ones get the top line brand stickers put on it.
The ones that just barely pass go to Walmart
I made batteries for a long while and that is exactly what happens
On our lines the batteries came off then line , got a serial number fused into the top then wend down the paint line to be painted what ever company the quality of the battery dictated.
Having said that if we had to fill a 10,000 unit supermarket brand batery & did not have enough dud ones in hand then we would add some good ones to the garbage pile.

 

[Rivets]

Charging systems on today’s small engines can easily charge over 14 V, especially if the battery is worn down. As long as the voltage drops as the battery is being charged, doesn’t bother me.

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Even the cheap box store batteries should last more than 90 days. When i buy batteries i take a tester that measures internal resisrance and find the one with the lowest resistance. Much better test of battery condition than a voltaget test. I wonder what the early failure mode of the the batteries is? What is the charging voltage? Where is the mower stored? Is there a parasitic draw?

 

[qmark]

Even the cheap box store batteries should last more than 90 days. When i buy batteries i take a tester that measures internal resisrance and find the one with the lowest resistance. Much better test of battery condition than a voltaget test. I wonder what the early failure mode of the the batteries is? What is the charging voltage? Where is the mower stored? Is there a parasitic draw?

Interesting, how do you measure internal resistance?

 

[Mower King]

Interesting, how do you measure internal resistance?

Even the cheap box store batteries should last more than 90 days. When i buy batteries i take a tester that measures internal resisrance and find the one with the lowest resistance. Much better test of battery condition than a voltaget test. I wonder what the early failure mode of the the batteries is? What is the charging voltage? Where is the mower stored? Is there a parasitic draw?

I'm also interested in this answer!

 

[Hammermechanicman]

They commonly call these CCA testers. They measure the internal resistance and voltage to calculate CCA. They are very good at telling you the co dition of the battery. As batteries age the internal resistance goes up.

ArtiBattery101

ArtiBattery101 Car Battery Tester - 12V Car Auto Battery Load Tester on Cranking System and Charging System Scan Tool, TT Topdon AB101 100-2000 CCA Battery Tester Automotive for Cars/SUVs/Light Trucks

obd.topdon.com

 

[Mower King]

They commonly call these CCA testers. They measure the internal resistance and voltage to calculate CCA. They are very good at telling you the co dition of the battery. As batteries age the internal resistance goes up.

ArtiBattery101

ArtiBattery101 Car Battery Tester - 12V Car Auto Battery Load Tester on Cranking System and Charging System Scan Tool, TT Topdon AB101 100-2000 CCA Battery Tester Automotive for Cars/SUVs/Light Trucks

obd.topdon.com

Thanks....never heard of one of those testers

 

[Hammermechanicman]

Check around sleezbay and amazon. You can get one for around $40.

 

[slomo]

Autoparts stores like Autozone will test for free. They can check internal resistance. Which means absolutely nothing. Only way to really test a battery is under LOAD. Does the little guy crank over or not. And not drop below 10.5 VDC while cranking. I've seen while testing, slight over rating batteries not turn a car starter over. If you have a shorted cell to another, the resistance will go down for the entire battery. See where this is going?

The best batteries you can buy are tractor/farm batteries. Course they are in larger case sizes most of the time so back to square one. Last I heard there are only like 3 main companies that MAKE batteries. What like Johnson Controls and maybe two more????

slomo