Export thread

Have a battery tender and want advice on if I should
A-Take Inside house and use tender
B-Leave inside garage and use tender
C-Leave inside house and attach tender to fully charge in spring

I have read Cub Cadet does not recommend leaving battery in mower to charge when mower is EFI.

If the unit is in an attached garage this is what I would recommend. Disconnect the battery, attach the tender and fully charge for two days. Disconnect tender and recharge every two months. Don’t reconnect battery until spring. Unattached garage remove the battery. In an attached garage or house, attach the tender and fully charge for two days. Disconnect tender and recharge every two months.

Rivets said:

If the unit is in an attached garage this is what I would recommend. Disconnect the battery, attach the tender and fully charge for two days. Disconnect tender and recharge every two months. Don’t reconnect battery until spring. Unattached garage remove the battery. In an attached garage or house, attach the tender and fully charge for two days. Disconnect tender and recharge every two months.

Click to expand...

under either scenario can /should I leave battery in garage to charge or charge inside house?

I would never charge a battery in the house!!!! I only recommend storing a battery in a house if the only other option is an unattached building, but many say you can store in an unattached building if you keep it fully charged.

Rivets said:

I would never charge a battery in the house!!!! I only recommend storing a battery in a house if the only other option is an unattached building, but many say you can store in an unattached building if you keep it fully charged.

Click to expand...

My mower is stored in unheated garage. My plan was to attach a battery tender and leave on all winter in Michigan. Am I correct in doing that?

In the barn I use battery tenders on 9 batteries and leave them on all winter. I don't disconnect any of them from the equipment. Never have a problem in the spring.
Boat 4 deep cycle
Motor home 2 deep cycle
Tractor
Zero turn
Minivan

I’m in Wisconsin and everyone has their own way of doing things. Personally I’m not one who likes to leave tenders on for an extended period of time. To each their own.

Hammermechanicman said:

In the barn I use battery tenders on 9 batteries and leave them on all winter. I don't disconnect any of them from the equipment. Never have a problem in the spring.
Boat 4 deep cycle
Motor home 2 deep cycle
Tractor
Zero turn
Minivan

Click to expand...

Problem is my Cub has a fuel infected engine and Cub says not to attach tender while battery is still connected to motor

Rivets said:

Personally I’m not one who likes to leave tenders on for an extended period of time.

Click to expand...

Ditto. I use mine till they float, then next day remove them. Then repeat following week.

CC50 said:

Problem is my Cub has a fuel infected engine and Cub says not to attach tender while battery is still connected to motor

Click to expand...

Then simply disconnect the negative side battery cable and you will be able to safely charge battery without removing it.

I have a quick disconnect wired directly to the positive terminal and chassis ground.

shurguywutt said:

I have a quick disconnect wired directly to the positive terminal and chassis ground.

Click to expand...

My idea is leave battery outside of mower on wood platform and connect tender to both posts in garage. Don’t plan on grounding it

Ya'll do realize there are tens of thousands of of alarm systems that use SLA and flooded batteries like the kind in mowers that are connected to float chargers 24/7 for years. I maintained a lot of alarm systems and battery backups. Everyone should do what they are comfortable with but sometimes I feel we over think things.

shurguywutt said:

I have a quick disconnect wired directly to the positive terminal and chassis ground.

Click to expand...

I have those on the Mower & bikes..

7394 said:

I have those on the Mower & bikes..

Click to expand...

OOops, I meant I have quick-connects on my stuff.

Indoors, or outdoors, just don't want to let the battery freeze. Indoors on charge could cause out-gassing. Make sure area is ventilated.

CC50 said:

My mower is stored in unheated garage. My plan was to attach a battery tender and leave on all winter in Michigan. Am I correct in doing that?

Click to expand...

Good plan. Check the tender often as they sometimes fail which will lead to a burst frozen battery. Disconnect the Ground (-) cable if you wish. Make sure Tender is working . You could unplug it for a couple weeks then plug it in for a couple weeks.

I would take the battery out and take it inside for the winter and put it on the battery tender. Keep it warm and happy.

this question is an interesting one. I also have several batteries and machines that get stored for winter season. What I have learned is that it is cold weather that causes more premature charge state problems for batteries in storage than any other factor. So what I do is move all my batteries to my garage where the area temp is regulated...not heated the same as living temperatures, but at least to 70 degrees F.

I have a battery bench. This bench has one battery tender (electronic balanced to pulse charge). I have the battery tender on a simple timer. There is a portable smoke alarm attached about 2 feet away. The wall is concrete block and nothing flammable anywhere close. The table has a stainless sheet cover.

I have done the same thing for my hunting camp equipment. I take the batteries out and they go with me back home when I am not there. This also helps prevent theft or the occasions where "friends" are tempted to borrow my gear without asking.

CC50 said:

Have a battery tender and want advice on if I should
A-Take Inside house and use tender
B-Leave inside garage and use tender
C-Leave inside house and attach tender to fully charge in spring

I have read Cub Cadet does not recommend leaving battery in mower to charge when mower is EFI.

Click to expand...

I have an Enduro XT3 Cub with eletric power steering, electric 5 foot mower deck lift, and electric clutch for the mower. We also use it to run an orchard sprayer tank hooked on behind so I put a plug on the rear plate that is like a power plug socket on a car dash. We plug the sprayer into it. We also keep a 2 amp electronic battery charger plugged into it all winter in the unheated garage. Original battery lasted 3-1/2 years and hundreds of hours of use. No problems with any electrical components so far but you have to be the real judge of whether to follow the manufacturers instructions to the letter or not.

Hammermechanicman said:

In the barn I use battery tenders on 9 batteries and leave them on all winter. I don't disconnect any of them from the equipment. Never have a problem in the spring.
Boat 4 deep cycle
Motor home 2 deep cycle
Tractor
Zero turn
Minivan

Click to expand...

I also leave the batteries in the machine and hooked up all winter, never had a problem!

I have my truck on a battery Minder 1.5 amp now. But with storms expected tonite it will get disconnected..

Thanks everyone for advice!

CC50 said:

Have a battery tender and want advice on if I should
A-Take Inside house and use tender
B-Leave inside garage and use tender
C-Leave inside house and attach tender to fully charge in spring

I have read Cub Cadet does not recommend leaving battery in mower to charge when mower is EFI.

Click to expand...

Personally, I don't think it makes much difference.
I doubt they're warning is really anything of significance but more just a covering all basis situation because it might not be good for the computer controlled ECM or whatever it has wired in for the EFI for hooking any charger to it not just to maintainer.
It probably is far worse for it if you were to have a dead battery and try to jump it off or put a 10 or even 15 or higher amp charger on the battery.
They probably have some specific warnings about jump starting or charging a weak battery too.
Regardless, most electronics today are quite robust, amazingly enough, for these situations and I highly doubt a 2 amp or less tender it's going to cause a problem on hookup or leaving it hooked up with the battery still connected.
I could certainly be wrong though but I personally wouldn't worry about it and it's no big deal just to pop the negative battery cable off.
As far as whether you remove the battery and keep it inside or outside or what you place it on etc really makes little difference.
A good battery is going to stay good and stay charged on a tinder and a bad battery is going to have problems.
I don't think bring a battery inside to above 60° temperatures in the winter time it's going to extend its life anymore than if the same battery is kept fully charged but stored outside.

Put your tender on a timer. Charge for an hour or so a day. Or use solar panels and charge them off grid!
A fully charged battery stores better than a discharged one.

As Rivets said, please don't charge in the house.

Hydrogen & oxygen vent from the cells when lead acid (and I think AGM) batteries are charged. Both can cause an explosion if the gas builds up indoors. I wouldn't do it in an attached garage, either. Even if you can't see vents on the battery, they are there and open when necessary to release the gasses.

If you ever encounter a car with the battery in the trunk or cabin (like Chevy HHR), you will see a vent tube leading from a port on the battery to the outdoors. The gases released while charging are why that tube is there.

Connecting a battery to a tender in a garage is scary if it is remotely possible that any gasoline fumes are present. Sparks can happen. Turn the device off first, connect cables, then turn the device on. I still would not charge the battery unless it and charger are at least 18" above the source of the gasoline vapors and the building will be open to air exchange. (18" is vapor pooling height of gasoline, which is why electrical codes mandate no receptacles or switches are below 18" in a garage.)

Your family's safety outweighs the inconvenience of a dead battery.

Paul

CC50 said:

Problem is my Cub has a fuel infected engine and Cub says not to attach tender while battery is still connected to motor

Click to expand...

Just disconnect your battery then and put the tender on.

PGB1 said:

As Rivets said, please don't charge in the house.

Hydrogen & oxygen vent from the cells when lead acid (and I think AGM) batteries are charged. Both can cause an explosion if the gas builds up indoors. I wouldn't do it in an attached garage, either. Even if you can't see vents on the battery, they are there and open when necessary to release the gasses.

If you ever encounter a car with the battery in the trunk or cabin (like Chevy HHR), you will see a vent tube leading from a port on the battery to the outdoors. The gases released while charging are why that tube is there.

Connecting a battery to a tender in a garage is scary if it is remotely possible that any gasoline fumes are present. Sparks can happen. Turn the device off first, connect cables, then turn the device on. I still would not charge the battery unless it and charger are at least 18" above the source of the gasoline vapors and the building will be open to air exchange. (18" is vapor pooling height of gasoline, which is why electrical codes mandate no receptacles or switches are below 18" in a garage.)

Your family's safety outweighs the inconvenience of a dead battery.

Paul

Click to expand...

I find that to be way safety cautious and a stretch to possibly have an issue.
You have to really overcharge a battery, or have a really weak one and a higher charging rate to gas any amount relevant.
Tenders don't do this by design.
I would have no concerns with half a dozen mower batteries on tenders in my garage or shed.
They also don't spark like an old transformer charger well esp on 15+amp setting.
It's possible but actually hard to get a battery tender to even spark on connection. It's a little more likely to spark very slightly on disconnection of it's so plugged into outlet but still not a concern to me.
I have exploded batteries before.
I've also gassed a lot off of one I was using for a mobile linear inside a room with charger hooked to it probably at 10-12 amps and the battery likely has a bad cell that caused more gassing under load which the 6 pill linear drew a lot of amps.
The one that blew the top off was a 6 volt that was being jump started with a 12 volt for an extended time.
It was certainly from the hydrogen gas coming out the vents and the large sparks when the jumper cable sparked.
No fire or flames or spreading etc. Just one blast from the hyd build up and plastic chunks flying up.
Very unlikely from a tender .

TobyU said:

I find that to be way safety cautious and a stretch to possibly have an issue.
You have to really overcharge a battery, or have a really weak one and a higher charging rate to gas any amount relevant.
Tenders don't do this by design.
I would have no concerns with half a dozen mower batteries on tenders in my garage or shed.
They also don't spark like an old transformer charger well esp on 15+amp setting.
It's possible but actually hard to get a battery tender to even spark on connection. It's a little more likely to spark very slightly on disconnection of it's so plugged into outlet but still not a concern to me.
I have exploded batteries before.
I've also gassed a lot off of one I was using for a mobile linear inside a room with charger hooked to it probably at 10-12 amps and the battery likely has a bad cell that caused more gassing under load which the 6 pill linear drew a lot of amps.
The one that blew the top off was a 6 volt that was being jump started with a 12 volt for an extended time.
It was certainly from the hydrogen gas coming out the vents and the large sparks when the jumper cable sparked.
No fire or flames or spreading etc. Just one blast from the hyd build up and plastic chunks flying up.
Very unlikely from a tender .

Click to expand...

Battery technology & chemistry have come a long was in the past 50 years
only flooded cell batteries gas unless it is being drastically over charged
This is why we now have sealed batteries
and the gassing comes from hydrolsis of the water, not from the charging of the battery

bertsmobile1 said:

Battery technology & chemistry have come a long was in the past 50 years
only flooded cell batteries gas unless it is being drastically over charged
This is why we now have sealed batteries
and the gassing comes from hydrolsis of the water, not from the charging of the battery

Click to expand...

Yes, but not as much as your statement may lead people to believe and also not much for your typical lawn and garden battery that fits a riding lawn mower that most people are talking about in this thread.
Those have changed very little since well 1970 or whenever.

Sure, it's possible to buy an AGM or gel battery or probably one or two other types for a riding lawn mower but the vast majority of people don't and that's not what they have.
They have the plain old flooded cell battery and most of them even have removable vent caps and the ones that don't, still are vented on each end with little oval slots.

These were the only batteries I was speaking of as far as gassing from charging and it takes a higher rate of charge like you also mentioned and overcharging.
It doesn't matter that chemically speaking it's the hydrolysis of water that causes the gassing because the hydrolysis of water is unlikely to occur until you put the charge into the battery. Lol
So the whys are quite unimportant and especially an important to most people as all their concerned with is the what that actually happens.

My main point was though charging these lawn and garden batteries on a tinder in a shed or garage is not nearly as dangerous as some would lead you to believe. There is little to no gasing going on and it's almost impossible to overcharge one of them and they rarely even leak any electrolyte unless you had just filled up one quite full before charging it.

In the land of the free & the home of the brave perhap things are done too cheap
I used to make batteries ( well the company used to make them, I worked in the lab )
There is a plethoria of different paste technologies, plate sizes shapes & thicknesss
Any one who installs a flooded cell battery on a mower deserves t he massive repair bill that they will most likely generate
A sealed battery has a one way pressure valve fitted to that overflow .

bertsmobile1 said:

In the land of the free & the home of the brave perhap things are done too cheap
I used to make batteries ( well the company used to make them, I worked in the lab )
There is a plethoria of different paste technologies, plate sizes shapes & thicknesss
Any one who installs a flooded cell battery on a mower deserves t he massive repair bill that they will most likely generate
A sealed battery has a one way pressure valve fitted to that overflow .

Click to expand...

In the US, you would be hard-pressed to find a standard riding mower or lawn tractor and someone's household possessions that has anything other than a cheap flooded cell battery.
They run them on sale every season for between 16.99 and 19.99 and these of course are the cheapest little 1:45 to 155 CCA which is below the crank yams and capacity of many of the batteries people are replacing.
Of course you can get the 195 225 275 even 325 to 3:45 but those will get up to be at least 28 to $38 at the better priced places in town. They are still just cheap lawn and garden batteries though.
You might find some newer machines or much larger machines or equipment that may have some sort of AGM battery in it but it's still pretty unlikely.
If I were to go look at 20 - 50 to 60 in cut zero turn mowers at people's houses today, I'm guessing at least 18 if not all 20 of them would be a standard flooded cell battery.
I'm also not sure what type of massive repair bill they could possibly generate from using one of these batteries as again, pretty much everyone around here does.
They don't have any repair bills due to the battery other than when it stops working which is usually in anytime after about 3 years and they just slap a new one in there.

True, although my Liberty has an AGM.

7394 said:

True, although my Liberty has an AGM.

Click to expand...

Going to start seeing more and more esp factory original ones.
They have had AGM for motorcycles for a long time now but people often buy the cheaper replacements that are flooded old style when they need one.