Charging Battery

[Alan46]

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

 

[7394]

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

 

[CC50]

Thanks everyone for advice!

 

[TobyU]

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.

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.

 

[callwill]

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.

 

[PGB1]

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

 

[woodstover]

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

Just disconnect your battery then and put the tender on.

 

[TobyU]

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

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 .

 

[bertsmobile1]

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 .

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

 

[TobyU]

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

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.